By RICHARD BOOCK
Netball's Coca Cola Cup playoffs have taken on the makings of a classic North-South battle after the likely semifinalists took their first tentative steps forward at the weekend.
Defending champions Southern Sting and Wellington's Capital Shakers guaranteed themselves of a final-four placing after scoring wins of contrasting nature, while
the North Harbour-based Force and the Canterbury Flames have gained the inside running for the remaining vacancies.
Third-placed Force remain in contention despite losing 46-49 against the Flames in Christchurch yesterday, a result which has made life tricky for last year's runners-up, the Otago Rebels, and extremely difficult for the Auckland Diamonds and Western Flyers.
With just two rounds left before the semifinals, the Rebels need to win both matches to force their way in through the back door, while the Diamonds gave themselves only a mathematical chance of survival despite a 69-62 win over the Flyers on Saturday.
There are no qualification worries for league leaders the Sting, however, who travelled to Dunedin yesterday and over-ran the Rebels 63-44, after establishing a 19-goal lead (39-20) at the halfway point.
The Shakers received an unexpectedly torrid workout at home from the bottom-placed Magic before scrambling to a 55-49 win, with Irene van Dyk nailing a perfect 13 from 13 in the final quarter to rescue the Wellington side on the wire. Her total for the match was 40 from 42 attempts.
Now in second place on the ladder, Lois Muir's side took the first quarter 15-13 and the second 13-11, but were out-pointed 11-13 in the third period and only made the game safe after making a strong start to the final 15 minutes.
The Force, meanwhile, face a tense couple of weeks as one of the two teams (along with the Shakers) facing a bye in the lead-up to the playoffs.
The northerners, in third place with 19 points, sit out next week and end their round-robin campaign against the Sting. They are subsequently unlikely to add to their competition points tally.
