Basketball Club’s First Success

Press, Volume C, Issue 29620, 16 September 1961, Page 9

Basketball Club’s First Success

'THE Kaka tai basketball A eluib, which won the senior ehampionship in Christchurch for the first time this season, has been in existence for 11 years. Mainly for players in the New Brighton district, the club has grown from a small beginning to one of the biggest organisations in Canterbury. This year Kakatai fielded nine teams.

The club has its own lighted court in Rawhiti and this has helped it considerably to develop the combination which the other senior teams found so difficult to match.

Kakatai was the only team to field the same side throughout the competition. Judy Dunlop, Lorraine Price and Helen Caldwell, foundation members, were the experienced core of the side. The accurate goal shooting of Price and Dunlop, the close support of the centres Caldwell, Leonie Walker and Janice King, and the sound defence of Margaret Neiman and Elenor Kirkwood contributed a great deal to their team's success.

Kakatai has fielded a team in the senior grade for the last five years and it has

been runner-up twice. The club has also won the senior annual tournament and the Beau Ideal Cup for the team scoring the highest average of goals. This was something of an achievement, for it was the first time that a senior team had won this trophy which is for teams from the third grade up. Every member of the senior team coaches a lower grade aide and this year Janice King passed the Canterbury senior referees' examination. Kakatai has many promising players in its lower grades, so the club is assured of retaining strength in its senior teams for many years to oome.