Netball: Caribbeans court disaster

By Richard Boock

CHRISTCHURCH - A second Caribbean netballer was sent from the court yesterday as New Zealand's netball world championship campaign entered the land of sudden death, and the most treacherous of the two available paths to the final.

The hosts completed the pool section of the tournament last night with a solid 74-41 win over Trinidad and Tobago and can now brace themselves for a genuine quarter-final challenge from Fiji tonight, and a semifinal acid test against the controversial Jamaicans tomorrow evening.

However, there was drama again on No 1 court last night as Trinidad and Tobago ran headlong into further calypso controversy, with coach Grace Parkinson-Griffith accusing the umpires of favouring New Zealand and applying the rules unfairly.

Trinidad and Tobago goal-defence Marlene Joseph was sin-binned for one goal early in the final quarter by match officials and team-mate Anastasia Wilson was reprimanded as the sixth seeds occasionally let their emotions get the better of them in a torrid, if one-sided test match.

New Zealand coach Yvonne Willering said afterwards that Trinidad and Tobago had obviously decided to slow down her team's transition game, and in some ways had done them some favours in terms of the play-offs.

"We had to be above that sort of stuff and play our own game," she said. But it was good to get a taste of that sort of style at this stage of the competition.

"They play a different style and we don't have a problem with that, but I think most people would struggle with some of the off-the-ball stuff."

Parkinson-Griffith, though, said the game was another example of umpires placing more scrutiny on a Caribbean side than the opposition, and though conceding her team should "probably" not have reacted the way they did, said it was high time the umpires started calling games more objectively.

"The umpires favoured New Zealand," said Parkinson-Griffith.

"It's no good when one team's being penalised for something the opposition gets away with."

There was little to get excited about in the game, with the frequent whistling and off-the-ball fouls leading to a disjointed and sometimes ill-tempered match.

New Zealand's play-offs fate was effectively sealed yesterday when Jamaica edged out England 61-59 in the match of the tournament, the fifth seeds coming from behind to snatch a dramatic win in the final minutes.

England will play South Africa in the quarter-finals today, with the winner virtually certain to play the other semi-final against defending champions Australia, who today face a virtual stroll in the park against Trinidad and Tobago.

In the other quarter-final today, the Jamaicans square off against the Cook Islands, who lost 68-46 to South Africa.