Rennie Hemara shooting for Celtic against Waicol. Celtic won 42-20. PHOTO/JADE CVETKOV
NETBALL
JAKE BELESKI
[email protected]
Harcourts and Carterton showed why they are the top two teams in the Netball Wairarapa premier one competition at the moment with a thrilling 41-41 draw on Friday night.
For Harcourts, it was the first time they haven’t won this season after they went on a seven-match winning streak to start their campaign.
Carterton finished second after the first round of matches was completed and produced another inspired performance to stick with Harcourts.
The result means that Harcourts, Carterton and Celtic are tied on eight points apiece at the top of the standings after three rounds of matches in the second round-robin.
Also on Friday night, Gladstone produced a dominant performance to beat St Matthew’s Collegiate 68-28.
On Saturday at Colombo Rd, Wairarapa College performed admirably against defending champions Celtic, but it came to nothing as Celtic pulled away for a 42-30 win.
In this week’s matches, Gladstone and Waicol will open the round at 6pm on Friday night at Chanel College, followed by Carterton against St Matthew’s at 7.30pm.
The match of the round should be Saturday’s clash at Colombo Rd between Harcourts and Celtic – a rematch of last year’s final.
Celtic prevailed by a single goal on that occasion, but Harcourts should be considered warm favourites judging by the form of both teams so far this season.
When the two teams met in the first round, it was close for a large portion of the match but Harcourts eventually pulled away for a 52-41 win.
Carterton and Gladstone will be heavy favourites against the secondary school teams and, if that is the way it plays out, the final rematch becomes even more important as the winner will stick with Carterton at the top of the points table.
