Hard fight for Sacred Heart

Press, 4 May 1981, Page 24

Hard fight for Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart A was forced to come from behind at half-time to maintain its unbeaten record in the Canterbury Sports Depot senior netball championship on Saturday.. Riccarton had an easy win against Technical, and St Nicholas had an edge over the previously Unbeaten Burnside. Hagley and Sacred Heart got their first points. After three rounds the leaders Sacred Heart, St Nicholas and Riccarton have six points followed by Burnside on four, Cashmere, Hagley, Sacred Heart B ano Teachers College two points with Technical and South Brighton none.

Hagley 35 South Brighton 27

Careless mistakes by South Brighton in the opening minutes gave Hagley a four goal lead. South Brighton s defence was weakened by the absence of its goal keeper Raylene Maxwell, allowing Hagley complete freedom to feed the goal attack Dianne Martin and shooter

Mary-Ann Selby who scored with ease. Deane Stringer at centre for South Brighton was always in position and steadied play, but the strong Hagley defence forced South Brighton to shoot from the edge of the circle and their height advantage quickly converted rebounds from missed shots into goals for Hagley. South Brighton, as it had done in previous weeks came back strongly in the second-half to head off Hagley by one goal. Thev made far better use of the incredible elevation of champion high jumper, Angela Pule at goal attack, feeding accurate lobs for certain goals. South Brighton got within five goals of the Hagley score, but it was the Hagley centre, Jan Henderson taking a high pass meant for South Brighton that again put Hagley in command and with Selby shooting accurately Hagley recorded its first win.

Umpires: Mrs R. Moffitt and Miss C. Allison.

Sacred Heart A 34, Teachers College 22

From Sacred Heart's throw-off the ball went astray and it took several minutes of • decidely scrappy play before it scored. With the Sacred Heart attack hustled by the fine interceptions of Jane Eddington, the goal defence for College, and the equally determined play of Niki Hudson at wing defence and Robin Davenport at keeper, the accuracy of the Sacred Heart shooters suffered and College went to a three goal lead. Sacred Heart levelled at 8-all, but again it was the College defence led by Eddington that badgered Sacred Heart Into costly mistakes and inspired the College shooters to greater accuracy. College outplayed Sacred Heart in every phase to lead 14-10 at halftime and looked set for an upset win over the reigning champions. College had the advantage of the first throw-off but it was Sacred Heart who scored from it. Sacred Heart, recovering from the shock of the College domination settled into a combination and with Dianna Sullivan, the goal shooter, now able to speed up her shooting, and move more freely against the tiring College defence Sacred Heart moved relentlessly into a. clear lead.

Umpires: Mesdames J. Walsh and E. Rouse. Sacred Heart B 34, Cashmere 32 Sacred Heart B benefited from the switch of Mary-Ann Bums from wing attack to centre, where she has more chances to direct play and steady the young team. This allowed them to contain the more favoured Cashmere side and win by a slim margin. Sacred Heart showed its lack of confidence in their young goal attack, Debbie Cummings, in their often misguided efforts to get the ball to the more experienced Colleen Taurima. Cashmere defence often anticipated this move and kept the scoring rate down.

In the closing stages of this half Sacred Heart had their slender two goal lead unexpectedly shortened, when, due to a misunderstanding by Cummings over injury time, she put the ball on the ground when time for all the other courts was sounded. This was quickly snapped up by Cashmere centre Jane Drew and swiftly netted by Lynley Neutse.

In a.. very even second-half Cashmere managed to gain a one goal advantage on several occasions only to drop behind again as Sacred Heart fought back.

Umpires: Mesdames F. Beckham and J. Swift.

St Nicholas 43, Bumside 37 This was netball at its best, with no quarter given or expected, vet both teams able to give a display of clean, open netball of a high standard. Ann Davidson, the goal shooter for St Nicholas, despite being in considerable pain from a poisoned foot, managed to net 36 goals from 40 attempts and was sustained by the equal accuracy of goal attack Angela Pickering with seven succeses from eight shots. St Nicholas took an early three goal lead, but this, was quickly pegged back by Burnside, the goal defence, Wai Taumaunu anticipating the St Nicholas pass to put Burnside back on attack. While the St Nicholas combination was working efficiently, it was more their ability to capitalise on the few passing errors made ,by Burnside that allowed them a six goal lead at half-time.

, The Burnside defence of Taumaunu and Nick! Lay allowed the St Nicholas attack little room to manoeuvre and it was only the accuracy of the pass into Davidson

that allowed St Nicholas to maintain its lead through this half. The goal shooter for Bumside Jan Pickering, using her height to advantage showed that she too could shoot accurately and this helped to keep the .score even in this half. Riccarton 30, Technical 20 The Riccarton goal keeper Jan Thompson, and goal defence Niki Robinson, had a field day against the uncertain Technical attack and consequently had a feast of ball to direct down court from the centre Adrienne Williamson, to the unguarded Roberta Thrupp, Thrupp was always in position to drop the seemingly casual pass into the waiting hands of the goal shooter Dianne Nelis.. Technical’s combination never clicked and the half-time score of 15-9 to Riccarton was indicative of the play. ' A rather complacent Riccarton persisted in using the high lob pass into Nelis which Technical’s Gay Johns accepted with relish. Time and time again either Johns or the goal defence, Marion Vriend anticipated. this pass.

Umpires: Mesdames P. Tainui and K. Norris.’.