Local U19s too strong

The two local under 19 netball teams were just too strong for visiting English netball teams from Bradford Girls Grammar.

To be fair to the visitors, they were on Rarotonga for a break after a three-week netball tour of New Zealand and were perhaps more keen to play in the sun and surf than play netball.

Nevertheless they donned their netball gear and shoes and gave our local girls some valuable ‘international’ experience.

The local girls were the stand out players from the under 19 squads of the six clubs on Rarotonga and coached by perhaps the island’s best, Margharet Matenga, who lead the Titikaveka pearls to their 10 consecutive club championship win, and Tai Manavaroa who coached the second runner up team the Avatiu Dragonflies.

Two netball games were played on Thursday night where the Cooks’ number two team thrashed the visitors 72-9.

The second game was more competitive and although the skill level of the Cooks and Bradford teams were on a par – Bradford weren’t able to finish with goals, giving the local girls another comprehensive win 51-18.

The local girls certainly looked the sharper players on court which lead to one mama in the stands asking why it was then that girls had to be brought in from New Zealand and Australia to make up our national team.

Well, it seems that this tradition could be a thing of the past soon judging by the skill level of the two under 19 teams.

The managers, coaches and players would like to thank everyone who supported them in this short campaign including Vonnia’s and Dawn Pureau as well as all the mamas who brought along food to feed the visitors after the two games.