Hard-fought contest likely

IN THE SWING:Georgia Atkinson (pictured) and Jono Hurley are two of the key members of the Masterton/Trinity squad.

An in-form Gladstone/Carterton will be looking to lift to another level when they host Masterton/Trinity in round six of Wairarapa Tennis regional one interclub tonight at Carterton.

With back-to-back victories in recent weeks, Gladstone/Carterton have shown they are well capable of matching any team on their day, but they may still be carrying the scars of a 2/7 thrashing at the hands of Masterton/Trinity just three weeks ago.

A reversal of that result is not out of the question, but the home side will be well aware that to achieve victory they will need to be at their absolute best, and all "50/50" games will need to go their way. Players like Kelby Courtney, Alistair McWilliam and Zoe Schofield will need to do the damage for Carterton/Gladstone, while Jono Hurley and Georgia Atkinson will be the go-to individuals among the visiting team's numbers.

A close fixture seems assured and going on the result of their previous encounter, Masterton/Trinity should start as warm favourites.

Competition leaders Opaki will be looking to get back on the horse against Martinborough tomorrow after consecutive losses in their last two matches.

Admittedly, those defeats could easily have been victories had a couple of tight results gone their way, and you wouldn't imagine Opaki will be hitting the panic button just yet. However, another defeat to a Martinborough team struggling to front up with their best line-up could become terminal. A loss for Opaki would also see them surrender the lead in the overall standings to the winner of the other fixture.

Martinborough, for their part, won't be particularly fazed by the Opaki challenge, despite being without a couple of key players for this match. At home on the grass they have a natural advantage and are relatively consistent from top to bottom, in both the men and women.

If Martinborough have any designs on winning the pre-Christmas competition they will need to take this one, but on paper at least, it will be Opaki that should collect the victory.

In the regional two competition, the highlight of the round sees Masterton 1 play host to Opaki 1, with both teams looking to keep their unbeaten record intact.

Martinborough are proving to be one of the heavyweight teams also and they should have little trouble accounting for Trinity 2 at Rathkeale.

The fixture between Masterton 2 and Gladstone has the potential to be a cliffhanger, while Trinity 1 should bounce back from their loss last week when they play Opaki 3.

Regional 2, Round 4: Opaki (3) beat Masterton (2) 4/2; Opaki (1) beat Opaki (2) 4/2; Masterton (1) beat Gladstone 5/1; Martinborough beat Trinity (1) 6/0 ; Trinity (2) the bye.