Battle may go right to wire

The two teams agree. Tomorrow's Gawith Shield senior inter-club tennis semifinal clash between defending champions Martinborough and Masterton at Martinborough is likely to go right to the wire.
Experienced campaigners Marco de Groot (Martinborough) and Steve Hurley (Masterton) have picked a 5-4 result but neither are prepared to predict a winner.
In a season where defaults have all too often affected match results, it is pleasing to know that Martinborough and Masterton will be at full strength for this important encounter.
Making up the Martinborough line-up will be Steve Chapman, De Groot, Dan Nicholson, Matt Nicholson, Rhona Lovell and Libby Paterson while the Masterton team will consist of Jono Hurley, Luke Atkinson, Matt Bunny, Steve Hurley, Sade Atkinson and Brooke Candy.
In the men's section, Jono Hurley, as clearly the province's number one ranked player, will be expected to win his singles and doubles matches for Masterton but there can be no certainty about the outcome of the other three men's singles encounters or the second men's doubles. Suffice to say then those four results will have a huge say in the end result.
In the women's section, it is a case of experience against youth. Martinborough's Lovell and Paterson have been there, done that often before and they will also have the advantage of knowing the subtleties of playing on grass better than the Masterton duo Atkinson and Candy.
However, no one can debate the promise of the latter two and a win or two to them is certainly not out of the question.
The other semifinal sees Pirinoa taking on Gladstone and this too should be a cracker of a game with precious little separating the two sides in either singles or doubles play, providing, of course, they are both at full strength.
The rumour mill have been saying that Gladstone may be missing their number one player, Baden Stevenson, because of rugby commitments but word from within the team yesterday was that he would be definitely available for this particular match.
Stevenson can be expected to give Gladstone a flying start by winning his singles and doubles matches and strong support should be provided by Chris Schofield, Alistair McWilliam, Peter Morriss, Zoe Schofield and Anlo van Deventer.
Pirinoa were beaten 6-3 by Gladstone a couple of weeks back but with players of the calibre of Bruce Holybone, Andy Darling, Tim Pickering and Natasha Robinson to call on they are quite capable of reversing that result.