Big Guns out in Force
Players turned out in force to bolster the strength of their teams on the weekend. With semi-final spots up for grabs, the top teams showed their hands by fielding almost full-strength sides. The Men’s Competition is really heating up and after the second round of matches 3 of the 4 semi-final berths have been secured. In the Women’s Competition three teams have started to pull away from the pack after the double header round was played on Friday and Sunday.
Men Pool A
Experience prevailed in a battle between defending champs, Next Gen, and new kids on the block, East Tamaki, on Friday night in the second round of pool play. Finn Reynolds made his first appearance in the 2022 Scarbro Caro Bowl and won an entertaining match against Matavao Fanguna in the top singles. His brother Rob followed suit with an emphatic win at #4 while ex tour players Finn Tearney and Rhett Purcell cleaned up in the middle order. A clean sweep by Next Gen took them to the top of the table and barring a major upset should give them a home semi-final in a couple of weeks. Blockhouse Bay looks like they have wrapped up a semi-final spot following their second win of the season. The Bay side downed Bucklands Beach and can thank their doubles combinations for leading them to victory.
Men Pool B
Parnell is the only team to remain unbeaten after two rounds in Pool B. Dayne Kelly from Australia joined the party on Friday and with a line-up of ATP ranked players Rubin Statham, Akira Santillan, Dwayne Kelly and Parnell “veteran” Andrew Turner they are serious contenders for this year’s title. Parnell, celebrating 150 years in 2022, comfortably disposed of Cockle Bay and with a round to go have secured a semi-final place. The second semi-final spot is still up for grabs and will be decided on Friday when Karaka play Cockle Bay. Ajeet Rai turned out for Karaka on Friday and after a sluggish start in the top singles went on to win in three sets. Karaka beat Royal Oak 4-2 in a closely fought contest and will be hoping for a similar result next Friday.
Women Pool Play
Round Two was played on Friday night and saw Pompallier and Campbell Park prevail in good contests against Bucklands Beach and Parnell respectively. Top junior Vivian Yang boosted the Pompallier team and she made fairly short work of Abby Mason in the top match. Bucklands Beach fought bravely for a 3-3 draw but lost on a sets countback. Campbell Park made it two wins from two contests after beating Parnell. Emily Fanning and Sarah Wardenburg won an epic doubles match in a super-tiebreak to share the doubles honours. Campbell Park went on to claim 3 singles matches for a 4-2 win. The only other unbeaten team after three rounds is Next Gen who beat Parnell on Sunday. The top doubles encounter produced a Borg-McEnroe like deciding tie-break that went all the way to 15-13 before Parnell won it. Singles wins were also shared but Next Gen had the better of the sets count. Next Gen lie third in the table with a game in hand over leaders Campbell Park and Pompallier. Royal Oak is sitting in the middle of the table while Parnell, Bucklands Beach and Kohimarama are in the chasing bunch at the foot of the table.
More great Scarbro Caro Bowl action is scheduled on Friday night this week. Matches start at 6pm.
Go to the SCARBRO Caro Bowl section at https://www.tennisauckland.co.nz/scarbro-caro-bowl for full draws and results.
