Consistency key as Gisborne midweek netball resumes

Defending champions Whāngārā Old Girls will be looking to recapture top form tonight when they take on Horouta Koura in the YMCA in Premier Grade netball at the YMCA. Waikohu Prems face Gisborne Girls' High Senior A High in the other game. Waikohu's Humaria Higgins (right) contests possession with Whāngārā's Summer Marama-Kingi in a round 1 game. Photo / Liam Clayton

Improving consistency and producing full team efforts across the court will be the focus for three of the teams involved in Gisborne Pak’nSave Premier Grade midweek games in the YMCA tonight.

Claydens Waikohu Prem 1 and Gisborne Girls’ High Senior A start the ball rolling at 6pm.

Front-runners Waikohu need only to keep what they have been doing all season long as they build towards the business end of what could be a memorable season for the title hopefuls.

They eased past the students last time they met, working with ruthless efficiency on attack and in defence, so more of the same is expected tonight.

Over the season, Girls’ High has enjoyed good passages of play, but to keep Waikohu honest they will need to bring a full hour’s performance to the court.

Whāngārā Old Girls (1) and TR Builds Horouta Koura clash at 7.30pm.

Competitive battles have been a feature of their encounters this year and tomorrow should be no different if both teams are at full strength.

Horouta have had the wood on Whangārā both times they have played this year. They slipped past them in a close tussle first time up and the score was close up to halftime in the second before Horouta clamped down in defence and ended up winning convincingly.

Whāngārā will be focused on working together for the full hour, but will need to be more consistent tonight or Horouta will rack up a third win over them.

Gisborne Netball Centre’s competition committee called off all games last weekend in the wake of the fishing tragedy and storm.

“This means we have had to look at various options and look at what was going to be the fairest with the least impact,” GNC said on its Facebook page.

Finals day for the senior grades has been shifted to Saturday, August 24, and an updated format was to be outlined this week.

Secondary and intermediate grade semis have been rescheduled to July 6 and finals will be on July 27.

Years 5 and 6 final games are on July 6, as previously scheduled.

Meanwhile, GNC is running a Years 3 and 4 holiday programme on Tuesday-Wednesday (July 9-1) from 10am to 2pm at the centre courts at Victoria Domain, and a Years 5 and 6 holiday programme on Tuesday-Wednesday (July 16-17) from 10am to 2pm at the same venue.

For more info, contact Mon on 021-100-0290. To register for either, go to www.sporty.co.nz/gisbornenc