Opaki, Gladstone set for battle royal

A nail-biting finish looks in store when Opaki and Gladstone meet in a Wairarapa regional one tennis match at Gladstone tomorrow.
With both teams pressing hard for a place in the competition final later in the season any advantage gained here could be vital so the gloves will be off right from the word go.
Opaki will be weakened, to a degree, by the absence of their top male player Russell Broughton, who is participating in the Masterton club's annual veterans tournament instead.
Beating Sweeney at club level doesn't happen very often and indicates that Stevenson is in the type of form which should make her singles battle with Katie Wyeth the individual highlight of tomorrow's action.
His defection means that Brett Dymond will be at No.1 in the men's singles with Stu Wyeth at two, Matt Stewart at three and versatile young sportsman Ben Campbell, a national junior golf representative, at four.
In the women's section will be the daughter-and-mother combination of Katie and Jan Wyeth.
It's still a formidable line-up but whether it is good enough to stave off a determined Gladstone side coming off the back of a narrow 5-4 loss to defending champions Pirinoa remains to be seen.
The scorecard of that match was not available for publication last Monday but makes interesting reading, none more so than the surprise 6-3, 6-4 win secured in the top women's singles by Gladstone's Emma Stevenson over former Central Districts representative Leanne Sweeney.
Beating Sweeney at club level doesn't happen very often and indicates that Stevenson is in the type of form which should make her singles battle with Katie Wyeth the individual highlight of tomorrow's action.
Wyeth too has been in impressive touch lately and this should be a cracker of a game.
Emma's brother Baden Stevenson was also firing on all cylinders against Pirinoa, winning his top singles against the durable Luke Atkinson 6-1, 7-6 and combining with Chris Schofield for a doubles win as well.
Another Gladstone player Alistair McWilliam also has every reason to feel pleased about his singles form after dismissing Hilton Delegat 6-0, 6-2.
In the end though it was Pirinoa who took the overall honours, a result which will have them in good heart for their match with Masterton at Pirinoa tomorrow.
A couple of former Wairarapa reps in Geoff Janse and Mike Jackson did the business in the men's singles for Pirinoa last weekend as did Natasha Robinson in the women's singles and by taking two of the three doubles they got their noses in front when it counted most.
Masterton won't have Steve Hurley heading their men's section tomorrow as he is another playing in his club's vets tournament and with German Franzi Mergel about to return to her homeland she could be in doubt too.
They did, however, have a good win over Carterton last Saturday with the return of wily campaigner Barbara Hollings clearly making a difference and if she can be enticed to play on a regular basis their results could continue to improve.
Competition leaders Martinborough take on Carterton at Martinborough in the third of the regional one matches tomorrow and it's difficult to visualise anything other than a comfortable Martinborough win there.
With Steve Chapman, Marco de Groot and Libby Paterson leading the way they should dominate the singles action and the doubles should provide a similar story.