Jane Eddington scales new heights

Press, 16 August 1980, Page 20

Jane Eddington scales new heights

Ever the trial ist, never the representative, seemed to have been Jane Eddington’s lot in netball. A Southland swimming representative, and also having worn Canterbury’s colours in track and field — with her height, she just had to be a high jumper — Eddington’s major disappointment was her failure to win a place in the Canterbury senior netball team last season. But that setback is •behind her now, and the lofty primary school teacher is the only new “cap” in the team to defend its national title on its home courts later this month.

Not that all representative honours have eluded Eddington. Captain, for the last two years, of the Canterbury under-20 team which won the national Ruflette tournament, she earned a place in the New Zealand under-20 team which enjoyed a highly successful tour of Australia last year. Unbeaten in all its official games, the •team had a solid nucleus in its four .Canterbury members, Wai Taumaunu, Ann Davidson and Adrienne Prattley (the captain) the others, and all of them < in this year’s Canterbury senior team too.

When Jane Eddington started her netball career in Standard 3 .at the Gore Main School, ? she played mainly as a centre or goal attack but was, happy to take the court 'anywhere, simply in order to get a game. For her secondary school days, however, she was in Christchurch, at St Margaret’s College, “tall, gangly and unco-ordi-nated,” in her own words, but with a promise not overlooked by Fay

Mangos, the physical education teacher and netball coach. • She concluded that Ed-, dington’s height could be best utilised on defence, and the Jane EddingtonJanice Henderson pairing — Henderson in the circle, Eddington on the wing — posed many problems for opposing attacks,' all, in fact, except Sacred Heart, which had the measure of St Margaret’s in the Christchurch inter-school zone final.

Though missing the Canterbury senior team

last year was a disappointment, Eddington freely concedes, too, that she did not deserve a place on her trial form. Not that she was deterred, and her under-20 coach, Kay O’Reilly, perhaps'best sums up her attitude: “You just have to admire Jane’s determination and dedication in spite of knockbacks. This is reflected in her play: she just never gives up.” Jane Eddington pays due tribute to her family support, and the eight coaches who have played

their parts in her development. The latest of them, Cath Brown,, said, “she is playing outstanding netball. Although not starting the season well, she has improved as her confidence in herself came right. She is now playing with greater selfcontrol and reads the game better.” Miss Brown faces a comfortable problem in deciding her defensive line-up at the nationals; as well as Eddington, she has Taumaunu, Sandra Heffer-

nan and Leigh Mills from whom to choose.

While sport often comes before all in a young person’s life, Jane Eddington has now adjusted her thinking; a . first-year teacher at Bumside School, she now insists her class comes first. She has also thrown her full weight into coaching at the school, and the ready response she has encountered from her young charges may encourage her to greater efforts in this direction in the future.