Pressure on Shirley
The pressure will be on Shirley but Edgeware will not have an armchair ride in the final matches of the first round of the B.N.Z. senior men’s tennis competition which will be played at Wilding Park on Saturday. The winner of the first round claims the B.N.Z. shield.
Edgeware has won the senior competition for three consecutive years and does not want to let the title slip from its grip at this stage. “I think our opposition will find us in a very uncompromising mood on Saturday,” said Michael Mooney, the team’s spokesman. Edgeware has won all of its six matches this season accounting for its closest rival, Shirley, 4-2 last week-end. But it only has a slim 43-41 point lead.
“It is possible that a team can go through undefeated and still lose because of the system which awards a point for every rubber and three pointe for the win," said Mooney. Edgeware will play Elmwood, and Shirley will face a slightly easier opponent in Avonhead. In the reverse clashes earlier this season both Edgeware and Shirley beat Avonhead and Elmwood 4-2 respectively but 'Shirley will have to secure a good win to pull back the two point deficit.
“It will be an uphill battle for us because we will have to beat Avonhead 6-0 to have a chance. But that is what we aim to do,” said Peter Hampton, the captain of the Shirley team. Edgeware fielded a dramatically changed line-up last Saturday to
overtake Shirley playing Joachan Krauss, from West Germany at No. 3 and moving Terry Mooney Into No. 4. But it maintains that the selection was based on “meritorious play” rather than a conscious "stacking of the team.”
“Joachan played at the correct position in the team. He had beaten me at the Canterbury championships and I had later beaten him on the club courts. I play at two so he would obviously play at two or three,” said Mooney.
Krauss, who has been holidaying round the South Island this week, will be available for play on Saturday, although his selection is unconfirmed.
On current form Edgeware will be favoured to win the first round and carry away the B.N.Z. shield.
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Press, 3 December 1987, Page 60
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369Pressure on Shirley Press, 3 December 1987, Page 60
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