NORTH OTAGO
- Terry O'Neill
Excelsior will meet Kurow in the premier netball grand final next Saturday after both won their semifinals on Saturday.
Excelsior led Athletic Maroon 17-16 at halftime before holding on for a 27-22 win. It was an excellent game, with Athletic unable to reproduce its form of the previous week and it made a lot of basic errors.
St Kevin's A took the game to Kurow for the full 40 minutes in the other semifinal and at halftime it was tied up at 12-all. Kurow had to dig deep to keep on top, but some basic errors by the college side gave Kurow the slight advantage and it took the game 24-22.
• In the bottom-four final Eastern A will play Waitaki Girls Lightning Strike. Eastern A beat St Kevin's B easily after going out to a 19-11 halftime lead. Waitaki Girls Lightning Strike beat Waitaki Girls Wild Fire 31-23.
Football
Meadowbank United won its way into the South Canterbury Cup semifinals on Saturday with a 2-0 win over Thistle B in Timaru. Meadowbank led 1-0 at halftime through a goal to captain Simon Willetts, with Andy Lane scoring goal No 2 in the second half.
Meadowbank United Reserves were knocked out of the South Canterbury plate, going down to the Timaru Boys' High School 1st X1 2-3 in Timaru.
The score was tied at 2-all at halftime, with Tony Moore and Logan van Rooy scoring for Meadowbank and Cory Myers and Mark de Joux for Timaru before Grant Adams got the winner late in the second half.
The St Kevin's College 1st X1 made it through to the final of the secondary schools cup with a convincing 5-1 win over the Timaru Boys' High School 2nd X1. St Kevin's led 3-1 at halftime and added two further goals in the second spell. Jamal Vira and Michael Hannigan scored twice each for St Kevin's, with Isaac de Buyzer adding the fifth, while James Harris scored a first-half goal for the Timaru Boys' High School team.
Indoor bowls
In the champion of champions women's singles played on Saturday, Sue Jones of the Oamaru club beat Rhonda Lockerbie (Wesley) 15-13 in the final. In the men's final Awamoko's Wally Strachan beat Mike Howard of the Oamaru club 11-8.
In the fours tournament on Friday night Wally Strachan, Pat Grant, Tamsyn Grenfell and Alister Angus beat Frank Greig, Chris Poole, Nola Searle and Emma Robb 7-5 in the final.
Bob Lewis, Pat Grant and Eric Benge took the Yankee bowls with 2.5 wins and 31 points from Wally Strachan, Brian Hawley and Doreen Hill, who finished with two wins and 31 points.