NETBALL - Spills and thrills at champs

THERE was a thrilling end to competition at the Aotearoa Maori netball championships yesterday with Ikaroa Ki Te Tonga pipping Waiariki 32-28 in the final round to take out a closely contested premier title.
The Wellington side were crowned champions on Saturday night at the closing ceremony of the event at Kensington Stadium. Waiariki (Bay of Plenty) held off the other form team of the competition, Tamaki Makarau (Auckland), for second place after a countback of goals.
In the early rounds of the competition the three teams identified themselves as the only likely champions and it came down to the matches between them to sort out who would win the trophy for 2008.
Ikaroa ki Te Tonga played possibly their best match of the tournament against Tamaki Makarau on Saturday, beating them by a single goal 28-27. Waiariki drew with Tamaki Makarau 25-all but they couldn't repeat that form again when they needed it in the final round.
Ikaroa Ki Te Raki, a newly formed Maori netball region from Palmerston North, won the under-19 section, ahead of runners-up in the round robin competition Waiariki.
Waiariki ended up winning two titles, the under-17 and under-15, at the competition with Ikaroa Ki Te Tonga and Ikaroa Ki Te Raki, the respective runners-up. Tainui (Waikato) won the under-13 section, with Ikaroa Ki Te Tonga the runners up.
Tai Tokerau teams didn't have the greatest success at their own tournament but all but one of the five teams finished on winning notes.
The premier team had three wins from its seven matches but they were never humbled unlike some of the teams in the division, who seemed genuinely out of their league against the top three sides.
Tai Tokerau thumped Tainui 41-7, they also beat Tarawhiti 33-25 in a much closer match before finishing with a 32-14 win over Te Wai Ponamu (South Island).
The under-19s had four wins to finish well placed in their section, while the under-17s had their second win in their final match against Tairawhiti (Gisborne) 20-19.
The under-15s did very well to collect two wins and two draws, while the under-13s will have to put the tournament down to experience after earning competition points in just one of their matches.Peter Thorley