Netball: Ngongotaha have one goal in mind

For the Ngongotaha Premiers this season is all about victory in the Tauranga Harbourside premier netball competition.

The Rotorua side play in the Tauranga league on Thursday nights and with the second round about to start they are leading the competition. While they are also playing in the Baywide Open, of which a further three rounds were played on Sunday, it is very much a secondary competition for them.

As a result, manager Edith Taipeti is not too bothered by her side's mixed fortunes in the Baywide Open to date.

"It's fun playing in it and it's a bit of extra netball but the main focus remains Thursday nights," she said.

Taipeti said in the past players had found it hard to focus fully on two separate competitions, so this year they had adopted a more relaxed attitude to the Baywide Open. Their Baywide line-ups are never full strength, in fact four of the Ngongataha team have elected to turn out for the Paroa Panthers in the Baywide instead.

That more laid-back approach resulted in two defeats for Ngongotaha at the TECT Arena on Sunday, going down 62-33 to the Bay of Plenty under-19s and 54-44 to fellow Harbourside club Mount Allied. They did manage one win however, thrashing fellow Rotorua team Marist Shakers 77-28.

By contrast, Whakarewarewa Red, leading the Rotorua club competition, had two convincing wins. In their first match of the day they beat Nga Hau E Wha Putoi 52-23 before beating Mount Allied 61-34. They then won by default over Whaka Black who, with just eight players for a testing three-match day, opted out of the final game.

Whaka Black had managed to hold off Bay of Plenty under-19s 52-50 before pushing one of the competition favourites Paroa Panthers hard, going down 60-49.

The next round of matches will be held at Trident High School and Rotorua Girls' High School on June 5.