England gives N.Z. tough battle in World netball

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 34

England gives N.Z. tough battle in World netball

NZPA Karlsruhe New Zealand got the tough work-out it wanted when it beat England, 32-24, in a physical fourth round match at the World Games netball tournament in Karlsruhe, West Germany, yesterday. Having dished out three uncompetitive beatings to Scotland, the Cook Islands and Fiji, New Zealand badly needed a solid match before meeting Australia in the final today. England had run Australia close, going down 41-29 and then pushed New Zealand even harder for a time. However, the defending champion pulled out two scoring spurts just at the right time — one in each half — and finished a more comfortable winner than the final scoreline indicated. After the match the coach, Ms Lyn Parker, admitted she

has some hard thinking to do before settling on a lineup to play Australia. Her chief concern was the attack where the goalshooter, April leremia, managed only 25 goals from 36 attempts. The goal attack, Julie Carter, had a 50 per cent success rate from 12 shots, and Rita Fatialofa, who took over at half-time, scored one from four. England mounted a strong defence, with the goal defender, Kendra Lowe, in outstanding form. However, leremia, who produced a brilliant performance on the first day of the tournament, might have lost her place against Australia on the strength of yesterday’s display. The match was played at a fast pace, several players tumbled to the ground and there was plenty of physical aggression from both sides.

Both teams had vocal supporters in the best crowd of the netball tournament, about 1100, and New Zealand had to work hard to reach a margin of safety in the third quarter. At half-time New Zealand was ahead 18-11, after England had levelled at 7-7 then 10-10, before the Kiwis pulled out Seven successive goals. New Zealand began slowly for two reasons. One was the delay in reaching the stadium, because of the non-arrival of the team bus. The players arrived 20 minutes before the start of the match. The other factor was the significantly stronger opposition than New Zealand had faced earlier in the tournament. “They weren’t going to let us do what we wanted to. It took a little while for our players to adjust to the fact that someone was saying ‘no

you can’t do that’,” Ms Parker said. She switched Fatialofa to goal attack and introduced Ana Noovao at wing attack for the second spell, but it was England which made the early running. With the goal shooter, Jaon Bryan, in brilliant touch, England narrowed the gap to 1815 before New Zealand rattled on four goals to give itself a cushion for the final quarter. New Zealand was easing away in the closing minutes and would probably have won more comfortably in the more conventional 60-minute game. ■ Results from round four matches: Australia 62, Cook Islands 22; Scotland 28, Fiji 19; New Zealand 32, England 24. Points table: Australia, New Zealand 8, England 4, Cook Islands, Scotland 2, Fiji 0.