Netball
By Emma Hatton
Journalism student
Organisers of the inaugural netball festival were so worried about the persistent rain they slept at the Hawke's Bay Netball headquarters in Hastings on Thursday night.
But HB Netball operations manager Tina Arlidge and event administrator Nicki Lugt need not have lost sleep over it because the weather gods came out smiling yesterday for the first day of the Nimon-sponsored Court In The Bay tournament at the HB Regional Sports Park courts.
"It was amazing. We were at the venue putting up the marquee on a lake-like surface," said Arlidge yesterday.
"We ended up staying here for the night putting up gazebos and things while the weather was playing up but we woke up this morning and everything was all right," she said with a laugh, mindful the weather gods had accepted their sacrifices on the netball altar.