Whangara OG, Girls’ High to kick off Round 3

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

A keen contest can be expected when Whangara Old Girls (1) take on Gisborne Girls’ High Senior A in the opening games of Round 3 of Premier grade netball in the YMCA tonight.

The 6pm encounter in the Pak’nSave competition promises to be hard fought.

Whangara have won both games between these teams this year — the first by three goals and the second comfortably by 16.

The first quarter of that Round 2 game was close before the students buckled under  Whangara’s pressure.

Since then, GGHS have upped their work rate and intensity to the full

60 minutes and have moved  up to third-equal with Horouta and Clayden’s Waikohu on the table (although both those sides have a game in hand) —  one point behind Whangara.

The students will need to continue working as a team if they are to have a chance of stopping the Whangara flow as they, too, have been playing well, including a one-goal loss to runaway leaders Turanga FM YMP two weeks ago.

In the 7.30pm game tonight, Farmlands Ngatapa face another stern test when they front up to the table-topping YMP.

Ngatapa have had injuries to contend with and are yet to record an on-court win after being promoted alongside YMP (2) from Premier Reserve.

They have had some good passages of play but need to increase these over the full hour — especially against a team the calibre of defending champions YMP.

YMP go in on the back of a perfect record of six wins for the maxiumum 24 points and are 11 points clear of Whangara.

The two Premier games scheduled for last Saturday — Waikohu v Horouta Koura, and Character Roofing YMP v Whangara Old Girls — were called off due to the state of emergency. These were the last games of Round 2 .

Gisborne Netball Centre, on its Facebook page, said the games would be rescheduled.