Harcourts made to work hard for victory

Harcourts got their expected comfortable win over Kuranui College in the final of Netball Wairarapa's premier one competition, played at the Genesis Recreation Centre on Saturday afternoon, but they did haven't everything their own way in their 67-26 success.
In fact, Harcourts player-coach Kelly Sargent was quick to give praise to Kuranui for their gutsy display after being outgunned in three previous meetings between the two sides.
Sargent said they actually had her team a "bit worried" at the end of a first quarter which saw Harcourts restricted to 14 goals, meaning they were still one short of the 15 they required to reach a remarkable 1000 goals for the club season, and that after winning one game by default!
"They (Kuranui) showed a lot of fight early on, they made us work hard for everything we got," Sargent said. "It wasn't all one way traffic, that's for sure."
By halftime, however, Harcourts had stretched their first quarter advantage of 14-5 to 34-9 with Sargent delighted at the manner in which they had lifted their game to meet the determined Kuranui challenge.
"We started to get better flow into our play and the goals started to come more regularly," she said.
Kuranui, who had the misfortune to lose of one their starting line-up through injury, kept battling hard for the remaining two quarters but even though Harcourts made changes to personnel their dominance continued and they had 41 goals to spare in the end.
Outstanding for Harcourts was Hope Phillips, whose accurate shooting ensured the scoreboard kept ticking over on a regular basis. Her elevation was remarkable and she thrived on the excellent service given her by the likes of Katie Wyeth and Carlene Karaitiana, both of whom also had busy games. The solidness of their defence was another hallmark of the Harcourts effort with Elaina Heggie and Astee Karaitiana playing a leading role there.
Whether Harcourts will defend their premier one title next season remains to be seen.
They are keen to be part of a superleague series which would involve the top club sides from Wellington, Hutt Valley and Kapiti as well. To qualify for that competition Harcourts would very likely need to win the first round of the Wairarapa premier one league, something which would appear a foregone conclusion going on this season's results.
Saturday was Kuranui's first-ever grand final appearance and they did them and their loyal and vocal band of supporters full justice. They gave it everything they had with the consistent shooting of Waimarama Phillips the individual highlight of their performance. She was often forced by an assertive Harcourts defence to take shots from well out and her accuracy was very impressive considering the circumstances.