Canterbury has four easy victories

Press, 9 August 1982, Page 17

Canterbury has four easy victories

The Canterbury netball team walked all over the South Island's other top competitors to take the Skellerup tournament, played at Rangiora over the week-end.

Canterbury, producing its best form of the season, recorded four easy wins, against O.tago. South Canterbury, Southland and Canterbury Country. The four teams offered Canterbury no competition and showed why coach. Cath Brown, took the side on a North Island tour, as part of its build-up to the national championship.

The benefits of the North Island tour showed through with Canterbury playing crisp netball with high'goal'averages. Miss Brown said it was a pity the competition was not tougher, but she was pleased with the team’s performance, and it was a good final build-up to the nationals in a fortnight.

In three of the matches Canterbury's score reached the 595. with the opposition struggling to reach even half that number of goals. Canterbury Country gave Canterbury its toughest’ game, but was still 29 goats behind, going down 52-23.

Canterbury Country started well and the score was even for the first few minutes, but Canterbury got a break and the court was left wide open. Canterbury Country found 'it hard to counter Canterbury's strong defence of Maxine Munro. Wai Taumaunu, and Jane Eddington.

Many passes into the goal were fumoied. and both the goal shooter and goal attack found it hard to position themselves for a clean pass, with a resulting half time score of 23-10.

Canterbury Country's goalshooter, Karen Wild, played her best game of the week-end. netting some superb shots from the edge of the circle, and had she been given the ball more often, the score’would surely have been higher. Annette Blomquist, at goaldefence for Canterbury Country, also had a fine game, taking many valuable intercepts, but was let down by the mid-court play, where the' ball was often lost. ’

Otago, which was expected to provide the main opposition for Canterbury, proved to be disappointing, netting only 13 goals in the whble game and losing 37-13. The game started well for

Otago which put the pressure on and scored some deserved goals. But when Canterbury found its feet and the attack started moving. Otago crumbled.

Canterbury’s defence once again combined well, forcing Otago's shooters to the edge of the circle. Bromwyn Barker, a New 'Zealand under-21 representative, did not shoot well, missing many easy shots.

. Canterbury, once into its stride, forced Otago into many errors while Diana Sullivan anil Adrienne Prattley netted consistently.

During this game. Canterbury’s centre. Leigh Gibbs, had to leave the court in the first half, suffering from flu. and she did not play again for the rest of the week-end. The team was reshuffled with Anne Davidson going on as goalshooter., a position she maintained for the other games. ,

The side took a while to settle down again, but in the second half the pressure went on and Otago could only score five goals to Canterbury's 28. Southland could provide ho opposition at all going down 52-13.

Canterbury was consistent throughout this game, except for one patch just after half-time when the side lost concentration for a few minutes and slowed down.

The goal-shooter. Anne Davidson. scored heavily, with virtually no defence to'stop her. Southland's defence was very loose in all areas and its mid' court play virtually non-existent. South Canterbury also took a hiding from Canterbury, losing 53-18. The South Canterbury side included the former New Zealand plaver. Frances Granger, at goal attack. Although she played well. Granger'could not lift the side's play enough to make any dent in the’Canterbury machine.

Changes were made to the attack after a half-time score of 23-6. and play improved a little. But Canterbury still steamrollered its way to another easy win. The Canterbury coach. Cath Brown, put on a different line-up for each of the four games, and she said she was pleased with the strength of each team.

Miss Brown said all the players' had shown consistent form over the week-end.

Canterbury will spend the two week-ends before the nationals in Blenheim playing friendly matches.