Twenty-one teams got their first taste of serious netball in 2012 with the Whangarei Netball Centre pre-season tournament.
Luckily the weather stayed fine on Friday and some great games were able to be played, despite a minor holdup for 30 minutes when the lights and power went off just ondarkness. The tournament gave insights into the changes in club and team composition from 2011 and resulted in some strongly contested competition on the night across all grades.
Eight A-grade teams, seven B-grade teams and six C-grade teams were broken into two pools, playing a round robin before having crossovers to determine the winner in each grade.
In A-grade, Whangaruru 1 were the winners of pool A and visitors Otamatea Ex won pool B so these two teams met in the crossover final. The final was a close game in the first half with only a goal in it but in the second half Whangaruru dominated.
By fulltime, Whangaruru 1 had pulled ahead to lead by 11 goals and won convincingly. The final score was 23-12.
In B-grade, BBC Waipu were the winners of pool 1 and they played KHS Red the winners of pool B in the crossover final. This was a strongly contested match with the scores being drawn at half time. In the second half BBC Waipu managed to forge ahead by a small margin and they were the eventual winners, 10-6.
Huanui won pool 1 in the C-grade, while Marist 4 were the winners of pool B. They were required, however, to play an extra crossover game with Huanui playing Wahine Toa Social and Marist 4 playing THS Junior 1. Huanui won their game 23-9 and Marist 4 won their game 14-6. The two teams then met in the final and this was yet another good game with both teams winning a half. The halftime score was 6-3 to Marist 4, however, Huanui played a comprehensive and impressive second half and they were the clear winners (14-6).
The Whangarei Netball Centre pre-season tournament was preceded by a visit from the Mystics roadshow and some junior and intermediate games. Overall the afternoon and evening was a successful one with all levels of netball being showcased.
The Whangarei Netball Centre winter competition starts on March 31 for premiers. Senior, secondary and intermediate grades start on April 28 and juniors start the following week on May 5.
