On-court action from the Hanan Shield trials on Sunday. Photo Adam BurnsMid Canterbury Netball has revealed the representative squad who will strive to defend the Hanan Shield next month.

A 10-player squad was announced on Monday, following trials which took place in Ashburton at the weekend.

Another three players were confirmed as non-travelling reserves.

The team will again be coached by Claire Tappin.

Three of the playing squad are part of the Hampstead side, which has been the form team of the ACL premier 1 competition.

The annual Hanan Shield tournament, comprising of rep teams from Mid Canterbury, South Canterbury and North Otago will be held in Ashburton on September 6.

It will be the fifth year in which the trophy will be contested.

The squad will gather for their first training this Sunday.

Last year, Mid Canterbury clinched the shield in Waimate for the first time, after they pipped North Otago 39-38 in the final game of the tournament.

2020 Mid Canterbury Hanan Shield Squad:

Meg Ashworth (Hampstead A), Kelsey Bewley (Hampstead A), Alice Breading (Celtic A), Leanne Clemens (Methven A), Alice Eddington (Hampstead A), Poppy Kilworth (Ashburton College A), Abi Lunn (United A), Charlotte Samson (United A), Hayley Tallentire (Ashburton College A), Anita Watson (Methven A).

Non-travelling reserves: Caitlin Adlam (Celtic A), Loumaile Manumua (United A), Sophie Worsford (Celtic A).

Coach: Claire Tappin.

Manager: Caroline Polson.

By Adam Burns © The Ashburton Guardian - 18 August 2020

Charlotte McKenzie and Shania Harrison-Lee from the Smallbore Rifle Shooting Team. Photo supplied.Charlotte McKenzie and Shania Harrison-Lee from the Smallbore Rifle Shooting. Photo supplied.No hint of slowing down.

Mid Canterbury continues to be a hotbed of smallbore shooting chops at both school and then senior club levels, and now the national governing body is inquiring as to what the secret is in this neck of the woods.

It was another prosperous year in 2019 for the district’s young guns.

Ashburton College’s group of shooters, led by national representative master shooter Shania Harrison-Lee won the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Shooting Championship (SSS Champs) for the fifth consecutive year in 2019.

The team finished 19 points higher than it did the previous year.

At regional level, the Mid Canterbury Association team went on to clinch the Andrew Faulkner Shield South Island team event in Oamaru.

This year’s event was scheduled to be held in Ashburton last month but was cancelled when Covid first hit the country.

Although the competitive opportunities for smallbore shooters had been limited, locals were still able to face off during postal shoots.

The AshColl team was named Outstanding Junior Sports Team of the year at the recent Mid Canterbury Sports Awards for the second consecutive year.

Always in the local sports awards discussion, a second straight win attests to the shooting prowess in the wider region.

“It definitely made our juniors smile,” Harrison-Lee said.

“We’re such a family-orientated bunch.

“We’re just waiting for the trophy now.”

The Mid Canterbury club also had several talented shooters on the rise.

Charlotte McKenzie is in her second competitive season of shooting, putting together dominant displays in B grade.

At the recent Canterbury Championships, Harrison-Lee won the master and open grades while McKenzie was B grade champion.

As far as upcoming events, questions marks hang over this year’s New Zealand Secondary School Shooting Championships with the competition’s final round earmarked for next month.

With success comes rising expectations and the Mid Canterbury teams approach each event with the anticipation that they will perform well.

Harrison-Lee said the region was regularly challenging the Manawatu as the pre-eminent shooting district in New Zealand, despite a significant disparity in shooting stocks.

“They have the highest number of competitive shooters in the country.

“We have about 32 members down in the club here, but in the Manawatu they have about 50 master grade shooters.”

Harrison-Lee is one of only a handful of master graders in the district alongside Sandy Bennett and Steve McArthur.

Target Shooting Mid Canterbury president Nina McKenzie said local success had fed off great collaboration between the school and clubs.

“We are very fortunate to have very good coaching and very good resources,” she said.

“It’s growing but it is a well-established sport (in this region).”

Although the sport regularly lost young shooters who leave the district for tertiary study, it remained a code that allowed people to return to, McKenzie said.

She added that Target Shooting New Zealand had reached out to its Mid Canterbury association around its success.

“There’s been a lot of questions put to us in recent times from our national body on how we’re doing so well, what we’re doing, why are we getting all of these top quality juniors when our association area size is relatively small,” she said.

“The bottom line is we’re really lucky to have really great, positive and generous members.”

By Adam Burns © The Ashburton Guardian - 14 August 2020

Taylah Burrowes. Photo supplied.Taylah Burrowes in action during the Canterbury Classic in Christchurch earlier this year. Photo supplied.Over the past few years Taylah Burrowes has blazed the karate trail.

Now, as the code flourishes in the Mid Canterbury district, her success at both national and international levels has been the yardstick which younger karate participants have beheld.

However it’s early days for the 16-year-old as the sporting outlook remains wide open, given her strengths are not limited to the one code.

Alongside some immense achievements in karate, she is also a key member of the College A netball team, who won the ACL premier netball title last year.

It is karate however in which she has taken the bull by the horns, and is now a key influence among the thriving Ashburton club.

“Our club used to be quite traditional and we weren’t big on competition, and I was the first one in the club to make the New Zealand team,” Burrowes said.

“From then on the competition squad has definitely grown.”

She has also been an integral mentor, instructing and coaching younger members during competition phases.

It is another string to her bow in which her adaptability led her to the Outstanding All Round Sports Person award at the Mid Canterbury Sports Awards earlier this year – an announcement which was met with both shock and delight.

It capped off an eventful 12 month period for the Ashburton College Year 12 pupil.

Burrowes clinched gold in the Kumite Female under-16 category at the 2019 New Zealand National Secondary Schools’ Championships before making the step up to win gold at the Australian schools’ event.

“Me and my training partners, we all push each other to be the best,” she said.

“It’s a really good feeling taking out the Australian title when you’re a New Zealander.

“I would say the competition is a lot harder (in Australia).”

Burrowes also completed the accomplishment in Sydney without the guidance of her sensei she had been preparing with.

“There were some New Zealand coaches over there, but I did a lot of it by myself,” she said.

“Not having my coach there was a bit of a scary thing, but it seemed to work out alright.”

The milestones did not end there for Burrowes in 2019, and she has become more adept in juggling her sporting commitments around school work.

She was part of the College A team which toppled a Celtic team who had previously been unbeaten for three seasons in netball’s ACL premier championship.

“That was pretty exciting for us,” she said.

Although the side was more inexperienced this year, Burrowes who is again in the mid-court for College, said the team had greatly improved as this year’s competition had progressed.

“We never expected to improve in such a small amount of time.”

The team completed a thrilling win over its Celtic A rivals last week.

“That was a big moment for us,” she said.

By Adam Burns © The Ashburton Guardian - 14 August 2020