Netball: Wet start for netball tourney

Local netball teams Whakarewarewa and Ngongotaha will compete in the Kurangaituku Netball Tournament A grade this weekend. Whaka player Pex Huata (right) is pictured playing against Ngongotaha earlier this year, in the local premier competition. PHOTO/BEN FRASER A-270414BF3

Local netball clubs Whakarewarewa and Ngongotaha are Rotorua's top hopes of winning the 81st Kurangaituku Netball Tournament.

The competitive weekend for the Kurangaituku Netball Tournament gets under way today at the Westbrook Netball Courts on Malfroy Rd.

The long-standing tournament runs across three consecutive weekends, with the competitive senior sides taking the court today and tomorrow.

About 160 senior teams will compete this weekend and are split into five grades - A, B, C, D and Masters (over-35s).

Whaka are defending champions in the A grade and will compete against nine other top sides, including Ngongotaha.

Tournament organiser Mary Thompson, who has been involved with the event for 35 years, said teams would be coming from all over to play.

"We have teams from all over the country and six from Australia," she said. Thompson said having teams from Aussie added a great element to the competition. "It makes it interesting for the ones who come every year, it gives them something to look forward to."

She said the A grade competition would be set up as a first-past-the-post competition.

The 10 teams in the A grade will play a round-robin competition, with the champions the team who finish top after the round-robin.

Unfortunately, MetService is predicting rainy weather today and tomorrow.

Thompson said they had never cancelled the tournament because of bad weather before and would play through the conditions this weekend.

She said the netball tournament was unique which helped attract hundreds of teams every year.

"I think the reason it is so successful is there is no other tournament like this that people can attend.

"Most centres just cater for representative and higher-level netball but we cater for grassroots," she said.

Thompson said it was also well run and organised.