Netball: Gibbs orders tasty dish for Star final

By Suzanne McFadden

Former Silver Ferns coach Leigh Gibbs will get her wish - she will dine out in her favourite Dunedin cafe after her North netball side sneaked into the final of the Star Series last night.

North, who did not think they had a chance of making it to Dunedin for Friday night's final, will come up against South, so far unbeaten in this fledgling series.

The Northerners scored just one win from their three games - succinctly beating Central 62-55 in Christchurch last night. North slipped into the final through the valuable bonus point gained from their one-goal loss to England in the first round.

The English had to settle for the curtainraiser against an under-21 side on Friday. Their run ended last night as they lost by an almost identical score, 63-55, to South.

In her pre-match team talk, Gibbs told her players that she did not want to go home to Gisborne today - she intended to be eating her meals in Dunedin.

"That was our challenge, to get Leigh to her cafe," North shooter Tania Nicholson said. "It wasn't easy. We'd had a bit of a nightmare all week - we just hadn't clicked.

"After we lost to South on Sunday, we figured we were out of the series. But Louisa [Wall] said we could still do it if we beat Central by more than five."

North started strongly and never relinquished their hold on the game. It all came down to the shooting prowess of Silver Fern Teresa Tairi, who had struggled in the earlier games but simply controlled last night's match.

Tairi, at goal attack, teamed up with Nicholson, her old North Harbour team-mate, in the shooting circle - a combination Gibbs had not used in the series.

With Canterbury shooter Lisa Gregory at wing attack, the Northern front line troubled Central's ever-changing defence.

North led 31-26 at halftime, but that was the closest Central came, despite some classy midcourt play by Amigene Rangitaawa.

South are quite comfortably the final favourites - they were rarely challenged in the round-robin and ended up seven points ahead of North.

England gave them a bit of a hurry-up last night, though, getting within one goal at halftime, 28-27.

Said South coach Lois Muir: "We raced ahead in the first quarter while England stood and looked at us, but because we were up we did some silly things. I always knew to respect the English."

But the Southern shooters swung the pace of the game their way again in the second half.

Muir was bursting with praise for Donna Loffhagen, playing at goal attack, and young Otago shooter Adine Harper.

"For a youngster, Adine has really shown her worth in this series," Muir said. So far this season, Harper has shone in the shooting circle, the defence circle and even the midcourt, where she played for the first time last Sunday.

England's shooters improved dramatically after a stuttering start last night, coach Mary Beardwood reverting to her first-match pairing of Lisa Stanley and Tracey Neville.

The shortest combination in the English line-up, Stanley and Neville caused plenty of problems for Southern defenders Bernice Mene, Anna Veronese and Katie Fay. Muir singled the defence out as an area which would need sharpening before Friday night's match.

England will play the Talent 2000 squad in the curtainraiser, before heading across the Tasman for a three-test series against Australia.