Netball: Reluctant Ferns skipper finds star quality

By Suzanne McFadden

Silver Ferns captain Belinda Colling did not want to leave the south to play for someone else in netball's new Star Series with England starting tonight.

But she will happily lead the Central side, shooting with the country's latest sensation, 16-year-old Daneka Wipiiti.

"When Yvonne Willering asked me I said 'no-oo-oo! Choose someone else,'" she laughed.

"I've been playing for Otago for seven years. I play with the same girls in the Silver Ferns. It's like security.

"Netball's strength is in the south at the moment and I didn't want to leave it.

"But Yvonne talked me through it, and the more I thought about it, the more I realised that this is a great opportunity to play with someone else."

But it is not a permanent move. There has been other shuffling of players - like Fern defender Belinda Charteris, who will share the Central captaincy with Colling - to even up the local teams.

Linda Vagana and Jenny-May Coffin will co-captain North, while former Ferns captain Bernice Mene leads the South.

As fate would have it for Colling, Central come up against South in tonight's first game at Papatoetoe, before North play England.

It is a match Colling cannot wait for, and she is also looking forward to the chance to shoot with the towering Wipiiti, the youngest and tallest player in the series at 1.92m.

"I had never met her before today. She has such great potential," Colling said. "When she told me she was 16 I nearly keeled over."

The series represents more of a national trial than a regional tournament, looking ahead to the world championships in four months.

South coach Lois Muir, a former world champion coach, said it was also a perfect series to expose the new young breed of players to an international foe.

The three coaches of the New Zealand teams - Muir, Leigh Gibbs (North) and Georgina Salter (Central) - all have southern ties.

The trio were interested spectators at England's warm-up game against the Talent 2000 squad on Wednesday night.

Said Salter: "England's defence are very willowy. They have improved so much in the shooting circle. They shot quite high, which is new for them, and we need to offset that."

The English have brought a squad of 16 to the Southern Hemisphere, with the same idea in mind as New Zealand - to find a team for the world championships in Christchurch. From here, England go to Australia for a three-test series.

But in the meantime, the tourists will travel with the three zone teams, playing in Palmerston North on Sunday, Christchurch on Tuesday, with the series final in Dunedin next Friday.

Tonight: Central v South, 6pm, North v England, 7.45pm, Allan Brewster Stadium, Papatoetoe.