Defending Wairarapa premier one netball champions Harcourts 1 kicked off their campaign with a hard-fought 44-30 victory over St Matthews on Saturday. A re-match of last year's final, the game was keenly contested but was effectively decided on experience. While the school side showed plenty of agile and flashes of brilliance, theyoffered up far too many intercepts and made too many errors under pressure. On defence, Jess Smith did her utmost to keep her opponents at bay but the Harcourts shooters showed plenty of guile to hold their space under the hoop. Overall, there was plenty to admire about the young St Matthews's side and they showed enough promise in the mid-court, where centre Harriet Somerville exuded plenty of energy, to prove they will again be tough to beat once they get into stride. Harcourts, however, never looked particularly troubled by their opponents and went about their business with a degree of calmness. They were not without errors themselves and often struggled for cohesion through the court but would have to be relatively happy with their season opening effort. In the week's other matches newly promoted Celtic got off to the perfect start with a 41- 34 victory over Sports Arena Carterton. Carterton Red then made it two from two for the region when they succumbed in a tightly contested battle to Wairarapa College, going down 34-30. On Friday night, Kuranui pulled clear of last year's premier 2 champions Harcourts 2 to win 44-35 and were followed on court by Gladstone who comfortably saw off the challenge of Salute Greytown 45-31.
