Three teams have easy victories

Press, 28 April 1980, Page 18

Three teams have easy victories

Sacred Heart A. Burnside A r.:id St Nicholas appear to be the teams to beat :n the tnird round ; of the senior netball competition. All three had easy wins by big 1 margins ever Technical, Burnside B, and Hagley. Technical and Hagley, both teams with reputations of strong club sides, could do little to stem I the goals against them. Teachers 1 College and Riccarton had close calls against Cashmere and Sacred Heart B. Teachers College 28, Cashmere 23 This game was the most exciting netball of the day. In the first-half College had the shots but no goals. It had ample opportunitv and should have been ahead but netted on average of one in three shots. Cashmere’s Lynley Neutze on the other hand was very accurate and she positioned, herself well to allow the space for a well directed pass. The taller defence. Di-ane Martin and the keeper who aiso had a height advantage hassled College’s Cathy Moriaty and Julie Mortimer. Most of the rebounds went Cashmere’s way and it had a -handy four-goal advantage at half-time. The coach. Cath Brown, switched Mortimer io the wing and brought Liz Brown into the vital goal attack position. Mortimer, who had been a liability on attack, proved a real asset as a wing. From 16 shots Brown netted 15. With this shooting the team’s play lifted. Nick: Hudson, the wing defence, got some good interceptions and Jane Eddington was responsible for handy deflections. Cashmere fought back and the game developed into a ferocious struggle as each player strove to out think her opposite.. Riccarfon 27, Sacred Heart B 22 Shots missed at the outset by Sacred Heart B allowed Riccarton to take a three point lead. It was 10 minutes into the first-half; before Sacred Heart B scored. Nicki Robinson at goal defence marked closely and got valuable rebounds. A double defence — one in front and one behind — successfully restricted the tall Riccarton shooter, Bridget- Hishon. The goal attack, Diane Nellis, cut effectively to take over the shooting. Riccarton had a five goal ’ead at half-time. Sacred Heart showed flashes of speed through the court that left Riccarton standing but it seemed unable to sustain the pressure. Constructive moves nevertheless bought, the score to within two of Riccarton’s at 17-15 and then at 13-16 Sacred Heart looked!

l! dangerous. A goal from Sacred, Heart’s throw-off gave Ricearton; I: the break to go three ahead and .I danger was averted. Lifting itsi PPlay in the final quarter Riccar-! ijton won by five goals. St Nicholas 33, Hagley 21 11 Close guarding by the defences Elin the circles made penetration tj difficult. At the Hagley end the forwards once lured out. of the ■ circle had extreme difficulty get. . ting back. The captain, Genoe ; Kotae. directed play skilfully, but Hagley could score only one goalj in the opening stages. I ■ i The St Nicholas forwards.j' :i Angela Pickering and Ann DavidJ son. though closely marked, • I seemed to have a greater underi! standing and anticipated each I other’s movements. i Angela Pickering, allowed to . rove, made the most of her free- • dom. The keeper for Hagley, ' Diane Petrie, worked hard, to contain Davidson but the New : Zealand player, Jan Henderson, ■ was not displaying the form that won her national honours. : Hagley missed the services of its regular wing attack, Vicki : Glendenning. Too often the Hag- - ley circle was empty as Selby arid Kotae came out to help bring the ball down. St Nicholas looked poised for a 1 big win with a lead of 19-7 at 1 half-time. 1 Kotae and Selby changed post- 1 tion for the second-half and this i seemed to strengthen the Hagley attack. Kotae’s mid-court work i was valuable. Staling defence ’ from Barbara Kreft and the keeper, Sandy Sonsom. was a 1 feature of the game. Forced into i i error, the Hagley forwards fum- i ‘bled the ball and were expected i jto take impossibly high passes. I ! The Hagley defence, particu-li , Jarly Henderson, lifted their plavll and' took some spectacular inter-; ; ceptions. Sacred Heart 35, Technical 17 It Sacred Heart, strong in every; < (position, has already combined i (into a team that will take a lot|’ of beating. It has thinking play- I er.s who move the ball fluidly : with speed, and direction. Strong ' bias and back-spin imparted on the ball makes it hard to intercept. ' . . Technical struggled for posses-

,s:rn In this match, Its passes ; lacking height and the opposition getting many deflections. Missed shots gave the Sacred Heart defence more ball and by half-time it had an eight-point lead. When Technical tried to attack Sacred Heart was quick to counter-attack. The only facet Technical was able to dominate was rebounding. Lyn Caughley showed remarkable elevation and timing to take most of Wendy (lleta’s missed goals. ; An injury to Caughley early in Jthe second Half was critical for Technical. Sacred Heart now had little difficulty penetrating the circle and scored at double Tech. nieal’’s rate. Quick, effortless passes between Beta and Diana O’Sullivan were impossible to deflect. For Technical. Jody Roberts Irad a good game, but she did so much court work that her shooting suffered. In other respects, though, she was a tower of strength. Sacred Heart, playing “power” netball, had an overwhelming victory. Burnside A 58, Burnside 823 Burnside A had its club B team on the retreat from the outset. Its strong defensive play rattled the B team. The loose balls all went to the As and the B team had difficulty getting the ball into its circle. Adrianne Prattley gave welljudged passes into Jan Pickering who was shooting beautifully. The A team forged ahead by so much that the play became monotonous. Hazel Brown, one of the stronger defence players in the B team, was taken from the court with an ankle injury and this further demoralised the B team. Cecelia Burke, on attack, and Margaret Hewinson, or. defence, still showed up, but their A team counterparts were stronger. For the A team Prattley played well as did Jan Burrows on attack. Nick! Lay, at wing defence, and Wai Taumaunu (keeper; were consistent on defence. Going from strength to strength, the team consolidated its position as one of the strongest in the senior competition.