Harcourts in ominous opening performance

Huge as the final scoreline was Harcourts coach Kelly Sargent wasn't waxing lyrical about her team's massive 71-17 win over Salute Greytown in their Netball Wairarapa premier one match played at the Genesis Recreation Centre on Monday night.
Sargent said too many wild passes were thrown and too many goal scoring opportunities were wasted, hence her labelling it as no more than a "pretty good" performance.
"I know the score might suggest otherwise but there is still plenty of scope for improvement,"Sargent said.
"We were strong in defence but we can certainly sharpen up on attack, not everything went the way it should have there."
Spearheading an impressive defensive effort for Harcourts were newcomer Elana Heggie and Sarah Brooking, both of whom made a number of intercepts and often made life difficult for the Greytown shooters.
Centre Katie Wyeth and Geraldine Carroll also had busy games while if shooters Michelle Teahan, Hope Phillips and Sargent herself didn't always take their chances the 71 goals they did manage suggests they weren't exactly struggling either.
Sargent admits that less than a month ago the prospects of Harcourts even fielding a premier one team looked slim with many of last year's squad considering retirement and it was only in the last couple of weeks that numbers had increased to the point where participation could be guaranteed.
"It was looking a bit grim for a while but we've got 11 players in the squad now and that should be enough to keep us going," she said.
While Wairarapa was not represented as a team in this year's Wellington regional superleague series three of the Harcourts side Wyeth, Carroll and Sargent, were part of the Hutt-based Maoribank side.
A close finish always seemed on the cards in the other Wairarapa premier one match played at the Genesis Recreation Centre on Monday night between Gladstone All Blacks and Sports Arena Carterton and close it was, a 34-all draw being the end result and fairly reflecting the merits of the two sides.
Carterton took an early lead in the game but Gladstone All Blacks clawed their way back to hit the front and from there the advantage moved continually from one team to the other Both sides did lack consistency in their goal shooting and turned over too much ball but as a first up effort there was enough to suggest they will be competitive units as the premier one season progresses.