Game to the fittest in senior netball

Press, 17 April 1978, Page 18

Game to the fittest in senior netball

Fltaeu was a major deciding factor in the second naif of most* contests when grading games were played at the Hagley ■ courts on Saturday for the Canterbury Netball Association’s senior competition. The opening match between Technical and Burnside A was the most exciting and the close' encounter gave spectators many; thrills. Burnside was unlucky to I lose, having led until the final minutes when Technical took a one-goal lead and then increased the margin to three in injury time Technical 35, Burnside A 32 With its goal shooter, Adri- . enne Prattley, having already I joined the New Zealand team, Burnside had the unenviable task of finding a replacement for the first few games. The resulting lineup appears. If ant thing, to have strengthened the side and much credit for the fine performance must go to Deidre Snow who took over as goal shooter. She played' very coolly under pressure for. such a young pla er and direc-' ted play in the goal circle with aplomb Hazel Kench, moving from defence to goal attack, had a Jot of responsibility but showed versatility and proved ’

equal to the task, ably supportling Snow ' Techmeal, too, had lost a : player — Maxine Blomquist — to * the New Zealand side and it took some time for the new combination of Leonie Wilkinson and Lyn Cauthley to reach an under- , standing in their circle play. It appeared tighter last week with j the retired Sue Morton as ; keeper but it is encouraging to see a younger p.ayer given her chance to play senior netball. The first half was dominated by Burnside with the centre, Kay Scott, outplaying Sandy Fawcett , in the forward court and feeding well-directed ball into the Burnside goalies. In the defence third, Wai Taumuna (from the B team), aged only 15, showed she had the temperament for senior netball, causing her experienced opponent Robin Foster, to miss many of the early goals. Because of the tight defence of Taumuna and Natalie Hsll, Technical was forced to pass several times in and around the ■circle before the gap opened. At half-time the score was 18-15 to Burnside Technical kept up its reputation for fighting back doggedly when it is down at half-time and some attacking netball together

with accurate shooting by Frances Graiger allowed the scores to be tied at 22-22. From then until the closing stages, Burnside was one goal ahead, but in injury time its players threw passes and appeared bustled. Hagley A 33, Burnside B 17 Hagley proved too strong for the young Burnside team which, of course, had lost its best players to the A team. It is hard for any club to maintain two teams in the senior competition and it says much for Burnside's depth of talent that it can do so After a scrappy start, Hagley played controlled netball and qulcklv went into a 9-2 lead. With height advantage in the circle and good elevation the goal attacks. Vivienne Henderson and Lyndsay Pugh, were able to out-jump any missed shots for valuable rebounds which were sunk to further increase the team's lead which was 17-6 at half-ume.

For Hagley. Janice Henderson was back in her old position as goal defence and she had many a deflection quickly snapped up bv the centre. Chris Pietzner, who swung play into Hagley’s forward court.

However, Burnside’s centre was not outplayed. She combined well with Debbie Bergh at wing attack to bring the ball to Burnside’s goal circle but the circle was too powerful and Hagley cruised to a comfortable win. Sacred Heart B 34, Cashmere A 18

One of the strongest defence combinations around is that of the two former Canterbury representatives, Brenda Rowberry and Margaret Taylor. They were largely responsible for Sacred Heart's fine win ever Cashmere.

Overheads into Cashmeres shooter, Dianne Martin, were quickly snapped up by Rowberry and deflections from the goal circle were anticipated by the wing defence, Yvonne Royce, who was quicker to the ball than her Cashmere opponent, Hilary Mauger Cashmere’s attacking play was continuallv disrupted by the Sacred Heart defence line and the latter enjoyed a 13 goal lead at half-time. In the second half Cashmere lifted its game and goals came more frequently to both Martin and Linda Shepherd. Sacred Heart came back strongly in the closing stages with the centre, Mary-Ann Kibblewhite spearheading the attack, ably supported by Daphne White (wing). The final score of 34-18 was a true indication of play. Riccarton A 31, Sacred Heart A 31

Riccarton opened the score with three quick goals from the tall shooter. Bridget Hishon, with Cathv Siave (centre) and Sara Fitzgerald (wing attack) giving well-judged passes and Riccarton looked in for a big win However, Sally Mene with good body positioning soon made the pass into Hishon more difficult and. with Margaret Smith picking up her share of interceptions, play was swung into Sacred Heart’s forward court where fine shooting by Jocelyn Dillon levelled the score. It was goal for goal during the second half with accurate shooting at both ends. Three quick goals gave Riccarton the lead in the closing stages but spirited play bv Vicki Patterson and Dillon (Sacred Heart) against a tiring Riccarton defence brought the scores together at 31-31 with l the final whistle. St Nicholas 29, Teachers' College 18

’ College began well but its lead ' was short-lived as St Nicholas soon settled. Ann Davidson was in devastating form, scarcely ' missing a shot, and soon took her team into a four-goal lead which had been increased to six bv the half-time stage. 'The College goal defence. Jane Eddington, had many contact calls against her, giving St Nicholas a chance to make good use of extra possession. Contact also cost College possession in the forward court when the shooter, Carol Honeybone, came from behind her tall keeper. Barbara Kreft, to get the ball. Kreft’s positioning was superb and Honeybone was continually forced to shoot from the perimeter. Sue Hamilton, replacing Lyn (McClelland at centre, had a : sound game for St Nicholas. She is normally a defence but got many interceptions to swing play ,ln her team’s favour. I College continued to press ! hard but at no stage looked like ; overhauling its opponents. The i best game for College was played jbv the captain, Sue Hume.