United plays up to form

Press, 31 January 1983, Page 20

United plays up to form

Only United, seeking its second B.N.Z. senior men's tennis championship. prevented form being turned upside down on' Saturday, when it romped to a 6-0 win against a hapless North Linwood team, at Wilding Park. The competition has been split into two sections for the remainder of the championship and Saturday was the first round. In the other three games form from the B.N.Z. Shield competition completed last week was turned around, in one case quite dramatically. In section two, Edgeware, which was last in the B.N.Z. Shield competition, lessened any aspirations Fendalton might have had of reaching the final of the championship. Fendalton was second in the B.N.Z. Shield, but was soundly beaten by Edgeware on Saturday. Edgeware would probably consider it an affront to say its win was a surprise. It could justifiably point to its last result to indicate it is a team to be reckoned with for the remainder

of the season. In its previous round it ran the strong United combination close, losing by one game. Shirley could have been expected to beat Bishopdale, especially with the return of Peter Hampton to the Shirley fold, but the clean sweep it performed on Bishopdale was not expected. Elmwood and Woolston were always close in the B.N.Z. Shield competition and they continued

in the same vein on Saturday with Elniwood winning by nine sets to seven. Points for the first round of the championship are: Section I: United 6. Woolston and Elmwood 3. North Linwood 0. Section 11: Shirley 6. Edgeware 4. Fendalton 2. Bishopdale 0. ■ The Woolston cause was lost when Colin Hunt took the court at 5.45 p.m. against Richard Dalman. Even a straight sets win would have left Woolston a set short of Elmwood. But Hunt did not throw the match away. On the contrary, it was Dalman who seemed eager to finish the match. Many of his shots, particularly his serves, were struck with the minimum of control. At the other end a composed Hunt, after losing the firsi set 1-6. won the next two. Before the No. 1 players in the United-North Linwood match. (Ralph Webster and Brett Skjellerup) took the court. North Linwood had already been trounced. It had won only 14 games in 10 sets.

Skjellerup. perhaps spurred by his sides demise, entered a two hour duel with Webster that he should have won, but squandered when leading 4-1 in the third set. Skjellerup 'had the match in his grasp and Webster was obviously under the same impression when he commented at the end of the fifth game, and having lost his serve to love: “He's playing out of his tree." The crucial break came in the next game. Skjellerup. had

Webster on his knees with a full array of shots. But he was a little' too eager, chasing across court to the net to miscue a volley which would have gone out. That would have taken Skjellerup to 40-15 on his serve. Instead it was 30-all and Webster clung on to break serve and eventually win five straight games and the set 6-4. The match between the Woolston and Elmwood No. Is, Barry Taylor and Rhett Mason, was a long, tenacious battle. The guile and perserverance of Taylor overcame the power and exuberance of Mason, but it took Taylor three sets and 160 minutes. Taylor’s deft placements kept Mason on the run and he scored heavily with stop volleys that left Mason stranded. . The Shirley team dropped only two sets against Bishopdale with both leading singles players. Brett Hibbert and Peter Hampton winning in straight sets. There was a remarkable reversal in the leading singles game between Michael Mooney (Edgeware) and Alan Adiar (Fen-

dalton). Adair cruised through the first set 6-1. but then Mooney won the next two equally as easy. Adair's cause was not helped by increasing agitation at making unforced errors. The final singles between the youthful John Robinson (Edgeware) and Marty Searle (Fendalton) was the decider, Searle won the first set in a tie-breaker, but the gritty Robinson, not allowing himself to be rattled by frequent questioning of line calls by

Searle, took the second set. It was a crucial set for Robinson. By taking one set off Searle he assured his side of success on sets won. Results were: United 6. North Linwood 0 R. D. Webster beat B. Skjel-

lerup, 6-4. 6-7, 6-4: H. Robinson beat S. Vanderburg. 6-1, 6-2; G. Lawson beat M. Wilson. 6-0, 6-1; A. Wearne beat A. Ward. 6-0, 6-0. Webster and Lawson beat Skjellerup and Vandenburg. 6-3. 7-5: Wearne and Robinson beat Wilson and Ward. 6-1. 6-1. Woolston 7 sets, Elmwood 9 B. Taylor beat R. Mason. 4-6, 6-3. 7-6: C. Hunt beat R. Dalman. 1-6. 6-3, 6-3; D. Hunt lost to P. McCormack. 4-6, 3-6; J. Adair lost to P. Murray. 4-6. 5-7. C. Hunt and Taylor beat Dalman and Mason. 7-5, 6-7, 7-6: D. Hunt and Adair lost to McCormack and Murray. 3-6. 7-5; 2-6. Shirley 6, Bi’shopdale 0 B. Hibbert beat V. Aubrey. 7-5. 6-2; P. Hampton beat S. Baird. 60. 6-4; B. Clark beat B. Williams. 1-6. 6-0, 6-4; S. Burns beat P. Beumelberg. 6-2, 7-6.

Hibbert and Clark beat Aubrey and Williams. 4-6. 6-1, 6-4: Hampton and Burns beat Baird and Beumelberg, 7-6. 6-1. Edgeware 4, Fendalton 2 M. Mooney beat A. Adair. 1-6, 6-2. 6-1: S. Jamieson lost to A. Chapman. 1-6, 0-6; J. Robinson beat M. Searle. 5-7. 6-3, 6-4; T. Mooney beat M. Sibley, 6-4. 6-1. Robinson and M. Mooney beat Adair and Chapman. 7-5. 7-6: T. Mooney and Jamieson lost to Searle and Sibley. 5-7. 7-6. 6-7.