New Central team in the zone

Netball

The new Netball Central zone will be officially launched at a ceremony in Palmerston North on Sunday.

The unveiling of the inaugural under-23 team will be a highlight of what is being dubbed the Grand Launch and also revealed will be the logo under which the organisation will be operating.

Netball Central covers the lower North Island, stretching from Hawke's Bay in the east, Taranaki in the west, and Wellington (including Wairarapa) in the south and has Manawatu as its centre.

It is one of five new zones created by Netball New Zealand as part of a structural overhaul and is designed to align the "grassroots" of the sport with the five professional franchises.

Along with the introduction of new zones there has been a change in the representative structure. Each zone now has an under-23 squad as part of a programme aimed at bridging the gap between club, age group and secondary school players and the next level, the idea being to create a clear pathway towards the ANZ championship for players and coaches, as well as umpires and other officials.

The Central under-23 side will take to the court for the first time in a round-robin tournament to be played in Timaru on July 6 and 7 and they will then contest the national championships for that age group at Wellington's ASB Sports Centre from July 15 to 18.

On the local front, the second series of matches in the premier one/premier reserve grading round will be played at the Colombo Rd courts tomorrow with the main interest likely to be on the battle between arch rivals Wairarapa College and St Matthew's Collegiate.

Last weekend St Matthew's kicked off their season with an impressive 61-44 win over Makoura College while Wairarapa College probably had the more difficult draw of the two, going down 38-29 to Pioneer Blue.

The draw for tomorrow: Harcourts v Gladstone, Greytown Red v Carterton New World Red, Wairarapa College v St Matthew's, Makoura A v Wairarapa College B, Hot Shots v Trevs 1, Eketahuna v St Matthew's B, Celtic v Carterton New World Legends, Carterton New World Vipers v Pioneer Blue.