Horouta close out midweek nail-biter

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

IT was a nail-biter between Horouta Gold and Gisborne Girls’ High School Snr A in a Pak’nSave Gisborne premier grade netball game this week.

Horouta took out the game 46-42.

They led by two after the first quarter but the students tied it up 26-all by halftime.

Quarters 3 and 4 were a tussle but Horouta edged away to win by four goals.

In the other midweek game at the YMCA, Whangara Old Girls (1) bounced back from last week’s loss to Girls’ High to beat bottom-of-the-table Farmlands Ngatapa 63-48.

Ngatapa led 16-15 after the first quarter before Whangara took control and ran away in the last quarter, winning 19-9.

Tomorrow is likely to deliver more excitement as teams head into the business end of the competition.

IMS High School Old Girls play Claydens Waikohu at 9am, and YMP (1) play Ngatapa at 11am.

Expect another close game between HSOG and Waikohu.

They drew their Round 2 meeting, Waikohu coming back from a nine-goal halftime deficit.

The determined spirit that saw Waikohu turn that game around will be stronger than ever tomorrow, with team members dedicating their play to Te Karaka stalwart Starr Rutene, who died last weekend.

“They’ll be going hard, dedicating the game to him, he was an uncle to all but one of the girls,” Waikohu coach Cheryl Te Rito said.

Competition leaders YMP (1) should be too strong for Ngatapa.