Defending champions Celtic A returned to their best with a 30-24 win over United A in Thursday night’s latest round of the Mid Canterbury Netball premier one competition.

And they weren’t alone when it came to producing some of their most clinical netball of the season, with the table-topping College A side also coming away with an impressive win over Hampstead A 41-23.

They were results that ensured that with just one game to go before semi-finals, College A and Celtic A were shaping up to be the two teams to beat, with College A topping the leaderboard and Celtic A in second spot.

College A are yet to drop a game in the competition’s third and final championship round, and their latest win was set up by an outstanding first half where they led Hampstead A 22-9 by half-time.

College A coach Kaye Kennedy said the first half was great, but there was still work to do.

“We are working on just getting our structure and our composure right through all four quarters, we just seem to have one quarter where we drop off a bit,” Kennedy said.

On Thursday night, that was the last quarter, but by then College A had already done more than enough to secure the win.

It was a strong performance by the young side, but the game of the night belonged to Celtic A and United A.

As expected, little separated the two sides early on, but early in the second quarter Celtic A got on a mini-roll which helped them to a 22-16 led at half-time – a six-goal margin they still held at the end of the 40 minutes.

United A moved Olivia McLennan to the bench, and moved Anna Edzes from goal keep to goal shoot in the third quarter, but Celtic A’s defensive duo of Anna Holland and Olivia Hutchinson continued to make life difficult for United’s attack end.

Life wasn’t easy for Celtic A’s shooters either, though, with Sophie Worsfold producing numerous turnovers, but unfortunately for her side, all too often the ball found its way back into the hands of Celtic players before they could capitalise.

The gap was still six at three-quarter time, 22-16, and United A again made a move, reintroducing McLennan in the final quarter – at goal keep instead of goal shoot.

While United did manage to make some late inroads, they also made errors at crucial times, and Celtic made them pay.

Celtic A were having the sort of night where it would have been tough picking a player of the day, and against a side like that you couldn’t afford to make mistakes.

Celtic A coach Angela Leadley summed her side’s performance up in one word – awesome.

“Defensively we stepped up and that made a huge difference, which gave us confidence in our attacking game and we just seemed to find each other,” Leadley said.

Thursday night’s round also featured a bottom-of-the-table clash between Methven A and Mt Somers which was won by Methven A 21-14, which put them into fifth position with a round to go.

In premier two, Southern A’s top form continued with a 31-16 win over College B, while Methven B beat Hampstead B 33-22, and an all-Celtic battle was won by Celtic B over Celtic C, 41-30.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 2 August 2019

Riley Sa. Photo supplied.A tough night at the office is probably the only way that the Ashburton College boys’ basketball team could describe their trip to Rangiora High School on Tuesday night.

After managing to pip the Rangiora side in overtime in front of a home crowd earlier in the season, the Ashcoll boys headed to North Canterbury full of hope, but came up against a passionate side who had everything to play for in front of a large fan base.

Ultimately, foul troubles, which sent a number of key players to the bench, led to the side falling to a heavy 95-60 defeat.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though with College setting all the early pace in the match through man-to-man defence working well, with the Ashburton boys taking a 19-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Those problematic fouls meant that the side had to go to the bench earlier than they would have liked and it impacted on the cohesion of the College side at both ends of the court.

That, coupled with a hungry Rangiora side who really got into their work inside the second quarter, went into the halfway break down by eight, 32-40.

The third quarter offered up more of the same and adding insult to injury, Rangiora started to find their rhythm from outside the three point line.

That led to them extending their lead to 67-46 at the end of the third.

Try as they might, College were unable to bridge the gap and with three of their starting line-up on the bench, it was always going to be a case of too hard and Rangiora ran away comfortable winners.

Coach Brian Kerr said a number of factors led to his side’s demise.

“There are a lot of things which certainly didn’t help our cause especially when Fotu Hala spent much of his time on the bench after picking up early fouls,” Kerr said.

“We were also hindered by some injury niggles before and during the game (Quinn Ritchie and Sam Pearce) which limited their time on the court”.

A 20-8 foul count played a big impact on the match as well.

“It was just one of those games were we didn’t get much going our way.”

Will Joyce led the scoring for College with 11 points, including two from beyond the three-point line.

Riley Sa contributed 10 points and Mitch Ruffell shot well for his 10 points.

Kerr said that while the loss was disappointing, being able to get everyone good minutes on the court and toughing it out against a good side did have its benefits.

“They never dropped their heads and kept battling away,” he said.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 2 August 2019

The search is on for members of the 1969 Ashburton College First XV rugby side. Photo SuppliedThe celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first steps taken by man on the moon prompted ex-Ashburton College student Garry Hampton to start thinking about half century celebrations that were closer to home.

He realised that 1969 also marked his final year at college and dug out the school’s magazine of that year. Flicking through the pages started him thinking about fellow students who had been close mates, many of whom he had lost touch with.

Many of those mates were fellow members of the school’s First XV and when he looked at the end of year photo of the team, Hampton said he realised how many of those students he had lost touch with.

“You drag out an old photo, you look at it and wonder and I realised I didn’t know what a lot of those guys had got up to, where they were now,” he said.

Hampton managed to track down some of the team and enlisted the help of a local, Colin Morgan, to find others, but said he’s still looking for around eight players from the past.

“I am keen to organise a reunion of the team, probably over Christchurch Show weekend this year, but of course tracking them down will be the challenge.”

His own rugby career didn’t end with his school days, and Hampton was active for many years as a touch rugby coach and referee and only stopped playing golden oldies rugby eight years ago.

He’s hoping to have a reunion dinner in Christchurch for team members and their wives and partners and is keen to hear from anyone who has contact details for the team of 1969 members.

Hampton can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 30 July 2019