Sacred Heart strengthens netball lead

Press, 18 June 1979, Page 21

Sacred Heart strengthens netball lead

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Sacred Heart A consolidated hs position as leader of th» senior netball competition aftc its good win over Burnside A o. Saturday. After its creditable win ovei Technical, Sacred Heart ha. nudged Burnside A from secont place. Hagiev and Burnside A are now in third position ai'te. Hagle\ romped home agains Riccarton in its match. Teachers* College, Technical and st Nicholas are level on seven points in fourth place and ’he select ion is still wide open lor the five teams in section A m the second round of the com petition. The points table is:— Sacred Heart A 14, Sacred) Heart B 11, Hagiey IU, Burnside A 10, St Nicholas 7, Teachers' College 7. Technical 7, Riccarton 4, Cashmere 0, Burnside B 0. Results:— Teachers' College 32, Burnside B 29 Burnside established an early two-eoal lead before College settled down The return of Ann; Leggat to main shoot added morefire to Colleges forward line. borne nice feeding from .Menzies and Kay Davis gave College possession from whiun thei shots were netted. College was! soon four goals ahead and began | to look good. A slackening in concentration i h\ College’s centre, .Menzies, and; centre. Debbie Bergin, in centre; court turned play Burnside’s way J and with Linda Shepherd shout ! Ing accurately Burnside drew j level and then inched ahead. At half-time Burnside was moving well while College was throwing too many loose balls and the! goal attack. Jody Roberts, was outwitted by Burnside’s goal defence. Alice Bendall. College made a determined start in the second half with Menzies lifting her play and, aggressively driving to the head of the circle to feed Roberts and Leggat. Roberts, who had missed her shots and rebounded poorly in the first half, lifted her average, popping goals in from ail over the circle. College had the break and again got three goals ahead. The keeper, Cie Stanstrom, got the necessary rebounds for College and this gave College further possession. However. College seemed unable to sustain the pressure and fine defence play from Margaret Hewinson and Bendal kept the College forwards on their toes. Burnside looked dangerous and at no stage was out of contention. Although yet to score in the competition. Burnside B gives every team a good hard game, and on Saturdav College only scraped home with three goals to spare. Sacred Heart B 26, Technical 20

Sacred Heart B was evenly i matched with Technical and goalsj came one for one. Vicki Paterson was nippy on attack and allowed plenty of freedom as Viv Ritchie, the Sacred J lean goal defence preferred io drop back on Technical’s goal shooter. Technical was again without Jane McMeeken, and the continual change in its forward line does not allow the circle combination time to firm. Sacred Heart's defence and keeper. Ritchie and Margaret! Taylor, have developed a good! understanding in circle defence I play. Both have a long reach and can go straight up in the air for the interception. It was mainly due to their efforts that Technical's scoring was* contained. Missed shots from Paterson were rebounded wolf by Sacred Heart to give it even more possession. Despite having to contend wiln the New Zealand player, Maxine Blomquist, Sue Costello, the goal attack for Sacred Heart, showed good match temperament. She worked well down the court to link up with her wing, Daphne! White. At half-time Sacred Heart led 12-8. For most of the second half Sacred Heart maintained its fourgoal advantage. Technical pegged it back to two in the closing stages and the game looked as if it would be close. Phillipa Koretai. the Sacred Heart centre, made use of a strong shoulder pass straight from the centre to the shooter. Diana Sullivan. Technical's keeper was called for more ob st ruction than usual and this gave Sullivan further shooting opportunities from which she scored.

Sacred Heart was quicker to he louse ball and applied presure through the court forcing echnical into errors which alowed Sacred Heart to go four xhead. Technicals goal keeper, Lyn .owley, has strong elevation but jullivan still managed some pectacular takes to put Sacred leart ahead by six goals at the uiai whistle. St Nicholas 40, Cashmere 20 St Nicholas had a new look to its forward line with the inclu-j don of Judy Pom, last years] goal attack, in place of Ann] Davidson, still in Australia with the touring New Zealand Under--21 team. With Boni shooting accurately St Nicholas went to an early lead. Cashmere was slow to settle. This was due mainly to the restructuring of its team because of the absence of the ; centre, Jane Drew, and the goal ’ attack. Arihia Ruwhiu. i By half-time St Nicholas was I well in the lead and was scoring i many quick goals with Cashmere ] seemingly unable to do anything Ito contain them. This was repeated in the second-half with the centre for S't Nicholas. Lyn : .McClelland, feeding the circle ! well and the accurate Poni and I the goal attack, Angela Pickering , scoring. Cashmere's goal defence, Hili lary Waller, and the goal keeper. Carol Burns, were unable to I keep tabs on their opposites, i and the ball always found its I way safely into the St Nicholas’ i circle. Burns did spoil several . of St Nicholas's rebound opporI tunities. ! Cashmere’s shooter, Linley Neutze. was accurate when given possession but that was only on tare occasions. Hagiey 41, Riccarton 7 The scoring rate was slow at the start of the game and any goals that came belonged to Hagiey. Genae Katae played an excellent game and eluded her opposite, Katrina Morton constantly, taking good interceptions in the circle and turning them into goals. She had good support from the goal attack Mary-Ann Selby who also shot well. The centre, Chris Pietzner and wing attack, Vicki Glendinning, linked well and fed the circle with skill. Riccarton’s shooter and the goal attack, Andrea Fleming and Gabrielle Brockelhurst had an unlucky day and the rare occasions that they were provided with the ball, they missed their shots and the rebound opportunities that followed. At the start of the secondhalf with Hagiey in the lead 22-3. Riccarton’s chances looked hopeless and Hagiey showed no mercy in spite of its huge lead. Sara Mulder, the Riccarton wing-attack, was the only player in the Riccarton team not overshadowed or outclassed by her opposite. She linked well in mid court but in the circle the attack came unstuck. Nicky Robinson, Riccarton’s goal defence, took several interceptions but only outside the circle. Sacred Heart A 35, Burnside A 21

Wai Taumaunu, a replacement goal keeper for the New Zealand under 21 team in Australia was unable to get a Hight to Sydney until yesterday and was able to play for Burnside. From the start it was obvious that the score would be close. Both teams put everything into the game and any loose ball was snapped up. Sacred Heart’s defenders, Legh Mills and Jenny Redman were prominent in the circle stealing the ball from Burnside’s shooters, Ccceila Burke and Deidre Snow. They also spoilt rebounds for Burnside. Burnside at times had trouble feeding the circle and the ball could be seen see-sawing over the circle without penetrating it. : Kay Scott, the Burnside centre, • directed play skilfully and eluded Sacred Heart’s centre. Mary Ann Burns often. Taumaunu contained Sacred Heart’s Wendy Hega. She was given little room to move. However she still squeezed the ball through gaps and managed to score some timely goals. The goal attack, Jenny Wills, was given able support. In the second-half, Sacred Heart drew away .slowly and it seemed better settled, more coordinated and less edgy than in the first-half. Burnside, on the other hand, started to fall apart and its play was incohesive and lacked rapport.