Netball: Favoured four grab wins against feisty opponents

By DAVID LEGGAT

None of the favoured four fluffed their lines, but unfancied netball teams rolled their sleeves up to give the opening weekend of the Coca-Cola Cup some spark.

Defending champions the Southern Sting had the weekend off, but those fancied to join them as semifinal contenders - the R'toto Force, Canterbury Flames, Waikato/BoP Magic and Capital Shakers - all got through the weekend with a pass mark.

The most emphatic victory - on paper and in fact - came from the Force, who made sure there were no early hiccups in their Battle of the Bridge with the Auckland Diamonds, winning 57-42.

However, it was far from one-way traffic for the first half - indeed the Diamonds were 13-12 up at the first quarter break - and it was not until the second spell that the Force made it clear they will put up a decent challenge for the Sting's crown this season.

The Diamonds struggled in the shooting circle, where Monika Gabriel's energy was not matched by her success rate of 26 from 40 shots.

The Force stuck with the same seven throughout, coach Maria Lynch resisting the temptation to tinker.

"They deserved to finish what they had started.

"They had a pretty torrid time out there," Lynch said.

Shooters Teresa Tairi and Tania Dalton were effective for the Force, Tairi missing just four shots.

In Wellington, the Shakers beat the Otago Rebels 50-44 to give new coach Tanya Dearns a winning start, even though her star performer, Irene van Dyk, had a rare off-day. The tall shooter bagged just 35 from 48 shots.

The Rebels will struggle this year, but they stuck at the job yesterday, and were just six shots down at halftime.

In the last 15 minutes, they twice got within three goals, but could not put the finishing touches on what would have been a significant upset.

The Western Flyers and CMTV Cometz should take a bow as well.

While there are whispers the unheralded Palmerston North-based Flyers will turn heads this season, the Cometz have largely been written off.

The Flyers came close to toppling the Waikato/BoP Magic, going down 50-53 - at least getting a bonus point for being beaten by five or fewer goals - and the Cometz largely blamed themselves as they went down 43-51 to the Canterbury Flames in Papatoetoe.

Cometz coach Tabitha Beaumont admitted that her players did themselves no favours yesterday. "We made way too many costly mistakes. We know it's our fault we lost the game."

But Beaumont probably spoke for Lois Muir at the Rebels and Barbara Clarke at the Flyers, the teams expected to battle for the big spoon at the wrong end of the table.

"If that's what we can do against the finalists last year we know we can do better against everyone else."