“They produced a strong team performance. Everyone did their part and the ball moved speedily through the court to be finished off by shooters Paku-Jane Skudder and Kiara Swannell.
“YMP continued with the starting team members for the whole game, while Whangara made changes at each quarter,” Beale said.
“The 2020 champions pressured their opposition at every opportunity, causing Whangara to make uncharacteristic errors.”
The teams scored five goals apiece in the third quarter and Whangara outscored YMP 9-7 in the final period of play, but the damage had already been done.
“It was too hard for Whangara to peg back that nine-goal deficit,” Beale said.
“It is hard to single out players in YMP as every one of them worked extremely hard. They all managed to tip or intercept several times through the game.”
YMP captain Paku-Jane Skudder said she was proud of her girls.
“We did it for our families, for our club, and I think we wanted it more right from the start.”
YMP coach Ingrid Brown was “over the moon” with the result.
“I'm happy,” she said.
“We had more urgency at the start, more hunger and at the same time the girls were pretty calm and focused.
“Everyone contributed. If you do your job on court you get the result at the end of the day. It's awesome to take home the silverware.”
Whangara coach Ronnie Martin said her team did not fire up at the start as they wanted to.
“YMP played a really strong game,” she said.
“Bronya McMenamin and Ata Mangu played their guts out for them.
“We threw the ball away too many times early on and that cost us.”
Beale said YMP were deserved winners of the Jan Duncan Memorial Trophy, and they also claimed the Bess Logan Memorial Cup for the lowest goal average in premier grade.
Whangara were presented with the Jan Duncan Trophy for runners-up in premier grade — the same position as last year.
In other results, Claydens Waikohu Masters defeated IMS High School Old Girls Masters 29-18 to win the A Grade crown.
“Those two teams were in the final last year when HSOG Masters won by a goal, so Waikohu Masters will be very pleased with that convincing win,” Beale said.
Waikohu Masters won the Stoneham Cup and also the GNC Millennium Cup for the highest goal average in A and A Reserve grades.
Tapuae beat Farmlands Ngatapa 42-26 to win the A Reserve title. Tapuae won the Pat Tamatea Cup and the Ruapani Cup for the lowest goal average in A and A Reserve grades.
Gisborne Girls' High School Junior A beat Steve Craill Builder Ngatapa 36-10 to win the First Grade title. GGHS Jnr A won the Tait Family Cup for the First Grade title and also the cup for highest goal average in all other grades below A Reserve.
“The winners in those last three finals went through the season unbeaten,” Beale said.
First Reserve and Second Grade completed their round-robin games and did not have finals.
Gisborne Glass Ngatapa 34 OBM Red Social 15, GGHS TSA 55 Thistle Phoenix 7, YMP Manawanui 45 Ritana Toa 21, Kotahi Aroha 37 OBM Red Social 20, Tatapouri Sportsfit Social 26 Uawa Kahukuraiti 23.
The winners of the grade were Uawa Kahukuraiti, and the runners-up were Tatapouri Sportsfit Social.
