Sammy Holden looks to move the ball through the court during her College A side’s upset win over Celtic A on Thursday night. Photo Erin TaskerWhen the final whistle blew on their latest win in the Mid Canterbury Netball premier one competition on Thursday night, you’d have thought the College A netball girls had won the final.

They hadn’t, but they had done something that no other team had been able to do since 2017 –beat Celtic A.

And it wasn’t just a win, it was a big win, with the final margin being 11 goals – 40-29.

College A coach Kaye Kennedy, like her players, was over the moon with the result.

She said her side was composed and stuck to their structures.

“And we had really good accurate shooting again.

“All of my girls are shooting at over 80 per cent a game, and you can’t ask for much better than that,” Kennedy said.

When the two sides met in round one the game finished in a draw.

College A led for most of it, only for the class Celtic side to come back and square things up right on full-time, and that was on the minds of the young College players on Thursday night.

But this time when Celtic came roaring back, they were ready.

After that round one draw, College A went through a bit of a lull and lost to the newly promoted United A early in round two, but in the past couple of weeks they’d finally rediscovered their mojo.

In Christchurch on Wednesday night, in the Canterbury secondary schools’ SuperNet competition they pushed competition leaders Christchurch Girls’ High School to the limit, just going down 37-32, and then brought that form back to the local competition.

Celtic A coach Ange Leadley said College A were outstanding and deserved the win.

“You can definitely tell that they have had lots of time on court, their shooters didn’t miss a beat,” Leadley said.

She said her side simply didn’t connect after a week where they’d been hit hard by sickness and injury.

“The difference was they were well connected and their transition was outstanding, and we were too slow to react,” Leadley said.

It may have been their first loss since 2017, and although Leadley said the fact they hadn’t been beaten for so long hadn’t really been on their minds, the loss had put a slight dent in their pride.

It also meant that the Mid Canterbury premier netball competition had just one unbeaten team remaining, and that was the team that Celtic A were due to line up against next, United A.

This time last year United A were in a vastly different position to where they were now.

They were at the bottom of the premier one heap and found themselves in the position of having to fight it out in the promotion/relegation game that followed round two, and they lost it, meaning they finished last season and started this season down in premier two.

They were determined to get back up, and they did, going through round one unbeaten in premier two to earn promotion, and then continuing that run when they got back into premier one for round two.

They were now the surprise package at the top of the premier one leaderboard with just one match remaining in round two, adding to their unbeaten run with a 27-21 win over Methven A on Thursday night.

Methven A started the game strongly, with the unexpected threat of the relegation game hanging over the heads of last year’s premier one runners-up, but United A slowly moved away to take the win.

It means Methven A now needs to beat Hampstead A in next week’s final round of round two to stand any chance of avoiding the relegation game.

Hampstead A were the team just one point ahead of Methven A on the points table heading into Thursday night’s games, but they picked up a 32-20 win over Mt Somers to give themselves a bit of breathing space.

That meant that the dreaded bottom spot on the table at the end of round two would now be occupied by either Methven A or Mt Somers.

A win to either side and a loss by the other next week would see the winning team safe, but if both won or lost it’d be Methven A having to play for the right to stay in the top flight.

Southern A were still shaping up as the team that would be playing for promotion, continuing to lead the way in the premier two competition with a 49-18 win over Methven B on Thursday night.

Ashburton College B had been looking like their toughest opposition, but they lost to the team relegated from premier one at the end of round one – Celtic B – on Thursday night, 30-23, while the battle between Hampstead B and Hampstead C went the way of the Bs 36-22.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 21 June 2019