Fine finish seals first win

Rhona Lovell at full stride for Martinborough. FILE PHOTO

MARTINBOROUGH claimed their first victory of the season while Carterton reaffirmed their billing as the team to beat in the latest round of Wairarapa Tennis regional one interclub played on Saturday.

The match of the weekend was played at Martinborough where the home side finished strongly to edge Opaki 4-2.

There was little to separate the teams initially, with the men's singles matches being particularly competitive.

At the top of the order Chris Davidson finally got into the winner's circle for Opaki with a solid straight-sets defeat of Steve Chapman, while Stu Wyeth was also triumphant for the visitors with a noteworthy win over Andy Darling in a third set tie-breaker.

However, the husband and wife pairing of Bruce and Rhona Lovell rescued the situation for Martinborough with contrasting victories. Rhona was taking no prisoners in her women's singles defeat of Finola O'Boyle whereas Bruce was fully extended before snatching an excellent win over the wily Mike King in a tight two sets.

With the fixture hanging in the balance heading into the doubles, it was the home side that came out firing.

In the men's doubles Chapman and Darling bounced back from their singles losses to trump Jon McNab and Wyeth in a surprisingly one-sided men's doubles to ease Martinborough ahead.

It was then up to the Lovells to put the icing on the cake in the mixed doubles and despite getting off to a slow start, they were ultimately too strong for King and O'Boyle, completing a morale-boosting win for their team.

Carterton extended their lead at the head of the table with a 6-0 trouncing of Masterton, in shifting conditions at Carterton.

Taking full toll of a Masterton team without the services of Luke and Georgia Atkinson, Carterton were too strong for the visitors across the board and rarely looked in any trouble.

The one exception was the second men's singles match between Carterton's Cory Spooner and Ben Wilkinson, which went the distance. For a set and a half it appeared as though this would be a straightforward win to Spooner. However, a barrage of stinging forehands from Wilkinson helped him take the second set.

Wilkinson couldn't keep up the onslaught though and Spooner controlled the tempo in the third set to claim the win.

Other performances of note from Masterton came in the form of Chad Parson who extended Matt Spooner in the second set, while Marie Millar did well to stay in touch with Carterton's Karen Herrick for most of their singles match.

Carterton are now comfortably clear of second-placed Gladstone, while Martinborough moved into third position at the expense of Masterton.

The championship will take a break this coming weekend with the Shirley Corlett Trophy being contested as a one-off match between Carterton and Gladstone. Martinborough and Masterton will meet in the third/fourth playoff.