College sport: Twins produce feat of clay in Australia

By JENNI RUTHERFORD

Auckland twins Rubin and Oliver Statham left their mark against their better-prepared, better-financed transtasman cousins at the Australian national claycourt tennis championships in Melbourne.

Rubin, No 2 seed for the tournament and the New Zealand 14-and-under champion, fought his way through a tough draw to beat Australian Joshua Katz in the final 6-3, 6-2.

Oliver teamed with Jeffrey Birse from Westlake Boys High School to finish runners-up in the doubles.

They forced the top seeds, Ryan Agar and Luke Brelsford, to a marathon three sets before losing gallantly 5-7, 6-4, 8-10.

Rubin, from St Kentigern College, came up against the winner of the national lead-in tournament, Andrew Coelho, in the semifinals, winning 1-6, 7-6, 6-1.

In the second set, Rubin botched the set point at 5-1 up, only to save the match in the tie-break.

Of the other Kiwis, Rade Radinovich was beaten in the quarter-finals by Coelho, and Birse and Oliver won a singles match each before they were knocked out.

The only New Zealand girl competing in the 14-and-under tournament, Marina Erakovic, won the consolation tournament after she was ousted early from the main draw.

The Stathams stayed in Australia on the cheap, cramming into budget accommodation, a far cry from some of the Australian youngsters, who are looked after with personal trainers, private lessons and frequent tournaments in Europe. They are old hands on clay, while the New Zealanders took a while to warm to it.

However, Rubin's result at Melbourne will mean nothing if he cannot make it to Florida for the Orange Bowl at the end of the year.

He has been raising money for two years towards his dream of playing in the prestigious competition, but the estimated $8000 collected through scholarships falls well short of the mark.

At 14, Rubin is too young to travel alone, says his mother Robin. She will assess the situation at the end of the week, but fears she will have to break bad news to her son.

CRICKET

Auckland one-day champions Kelston Boys High School continued where they left off in the first term - winning. They moved within striking distance of the two-day title when they beat St Kentigern College by an innings.

Kings College lead the first-grade A competition with 13 points after an outright win over Avondale College.

Takapuna Grammar crushed fellow cellar-dweller Rangitoto College, winning by an innings after they declared at 182-9.

In the B competition, Macleans College's Nathan Strong produced outstanding figures with bat and ball. He finished his bowling stint with an impressive eight for 17 and then top-scored with 65 to steer his side to an outright win over Dilworth.

MacLeans and Sacred Heart, who are equal on 11 points, will meet in the final round to decide who will gain promotion to the A grade next year.

This week:

* Wednesday:

Auckland: boys softball.

North Harbour: volleyball.

* Thursday:

Auckland: volleyball.

* Friday:

Auckland: cricket.

* Saturday:

Auckland: cricket, tennis.

North Harbour: cricket.

* Tuesday:

Auckland: junior touch rugby.