Horouta Gold tear up the form book

Tough tasks: Whangara Old Girls centre Taryn Walford takes the ball as Horouta Gold goal keep Nicky Hitaua stays close. Both teams have tough games at the YMCA tomorrow night. Horouta play High School Old Girls at 6pm, and Whangara play YMP at 7.30pm. Picture by Paul Rickard

Hard-fought wins to Horouta Gold and Gisborne Girls’ High School were highlights of another action-packed round of grading in Pak’nSave netball at Victoria Domain on Saturday.

The results have tightened up the points table with one more round of grading to go in two weeks before the challenge round games.

Horouta pulled off the result of the weekend with a thrilling one-goal victory over previously unbeaten Whangara Old Girls.

Whangara led 13-11 at half time, but Horouta hung in, got ahead 19-18 at three-quartertime, and then won the game 25-24.

“It was certainly a helpful result in terms of team morale,” Horouta coach Claire Campbell said.

“It takes a bit of the pressure off in terms of the challenge round.”

Unfortunately, Horouta could not reproduce the same intensity in their second match and lost to Taste One High School Old Girls 34-14.

“That result did not feel very good at all, but we’ll certainly take the points we earned against Whangara,” Campbell said.

The win against Horouta moved HSOG into a share of the lead with Whangara.

“That game shows how well our defensive end is winning ball for us,” HSOG coach Tanya Owen said.

“We got lots of turnovers. But we could have capitalised on more of them.

“We’re very happy to be at the top of the table. It’s definitely a new year, new team, new look.”

YMP marched up the table with two good wins.

The defending premier grade champions beat Claydens Waikohu 33-22, and led throughout. The quarter scores were 10-5, 17-10, 26-17 and 33-22.

They were tested a bit more by Gisborne Girls’ High School Senior A in their second game, to the students’ credit.

YMP led by a goal at the first quarter, by four at halftime and by three at three-quartertime, before winning 33-27.

That match followed the students’ tough come-from-behind win against Lytton Senior A earlier in the day.

Lytton led 7-5 at the end of the first quarter and 14-11 at halftime. Girls’ High levelled the score at 19-all at the three-quarter mark and finished stronger to take the match 28-23.

It was a match that contrasted sharply with the games between these teams last season, when Lytton had the upper hand.

“It was fairly close the whole game until the last quarter,” Lytton coach Ronnie Martin said.

“Girls’ High have some nice new strong players and a new coach. You can see the improvement in their game from last year.

“I thought they played very well.

“As far as the Whangara Old Girls game against Horouta is concerned, we missed too many shots on goal,” said Martin, who also coaches Whangara.

“You cannot win if you cannot slot the goals.

“We’re still happy to be where we are on the table.”

Whangara picked up a bonus point in the Horouta match to be on 13 points, along with HSOG. YMP have 12 points, Lytton and Girls’ High have 8, Horouta have 6 and Waikohu have 4.

The netball competition takes a break this weekend, with the fourth and final round of grading on April 28.