NORTH OTAGO
- Terry O'Neill
In a thrilling final, Excelsior won the North Otago premier grade netball final at the Hine Marae courts on Saturday with a 28-27 victory over Kurow.
Excelsior led 15-11 at halftime.
The game started cautiously with the ball going through court three times before the first goal was scored. It was then goal for goal with Excelsior leading 7-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter started sluggishly. Janelle Casey, WA for Kurow, drove strongly to get good feeding position on attack, as did Anika McLennan for Excelsior.
At halftime both teams made positional changes. Kate Taylor came on for Kurow at GK, with Becky Martin moving to WD, and Sonya McDonald shifting to centre. This gave Kurow more height in the defensive circle and put the Excelsior attacks under more pressure.
Although the Kurow defence worked hard, the side still had trouble getting the ball to its shooters and Excelsior pulled out to a seven-goal lead in the middle of the third quarter.
Excelsior lost Anika McLennan, who was replaced by Kim Mavor for the rest of the game, playing at WA.
Kurow got slowly back into the game and with two minutes and 30 seconds remaining scores were tied.
The work of sisters Kate Taylor and Vicki Laughton in the Kurow defensive circle was superb. Taylor came out of the circle to hunt down at least five intercepts in the final quarter but Excelsior at fulltime held a one-goal advantage.
Swimming
Oamaru swimmer Isabel Ryan (14) has been identified as one of the top youth swimmers in the country.
Swimming NZ has invited Ryan to participate in the 2011 youth squad camp, part of the Youth and Age National Development goals programme. Selections were based on performances from the national short course championships in August. The top 24 female swimmers aged 15-17 have been selected off the Fina points scores in the stroke categories.
The following North Otago swimmers have been selected for national events in 2012: Ryel McColl (juniors); Olivia Macaulay, Libby McGee, Isobel Ryan, Jeremy Tasker (age groups); Isobel Ryan, Jeremy Tasker (open); Renee Bond, Olivia Brien, Adam Hope, Lachlan McGee, Oscar Pedersen (division 2).
Hockey
St Kevin's Girls First X1 has beaten Shamrocks in a high-scoring game in local hockey, 7-4.
Shinaad Flannery and Lori Kingan scored three goals each for the College side while Beck Wilson got two goals for Shamrocks.
Two goals to Deon Bridger enabled Pirata Blue to beat Waitaki Boys Second X1 3-2, while goals to Amber Watson, Rebecca Bisson, Hayley Breen, and Masie Robinson gave Waitaki Girls Second X1 a 4-3 win over St Kevin's Mixed.
Indoor bowls
Twelve teams took part in a triples tournament on Friday night.
In the final, the Oamaru club team of Sue Jones, Norm Robertson and Bev Robertson beat another Oamaru club team of Bede Mallon, Rhonda Sinclair and Joan Williams, 7-0.
Football
Meadowbank United was knocked out of the South Canterbury Cup semifinals when it was beaten 3-1 by Timaru Boys' High School First XI in Timaru on Saturday. Meadowbank led 1-0 at halftime.
