Nine Secondary Schools from the Hawke’s Bay region headed off yesterday to compete in the week long Lower North Island Secondary School Netball Tournament in Palmerston North starting Monday 3^rd September.  There is an A Grade and B Grade at the tournament with 32 teams in each.  A Grade teams all fighting for a top five position to qualify for the NZSS Tournament later in the year.  B Grade teams playing for top three position to qualify for A grade in 2019. Teams are ranked from their 2017 performance and placed into 8 pools of 4 teams.  First round of pool play will determine top 16 and bottom 16 in each grade, then teams are split into a further pool of 4 teams, again to split into top 8 and bottom eight, then move into quarter, semi and finals.

Hawke’s Bay Netball have high expectations particularly of our two school teams (NGHS and HGHS) who also compete in our club competition, especially NGHS who won the competition.  One of the reasons behind allowing them to play in this competition is to give them weekly hard competition, so they are better prepared at this tournament.  Central Hawke’s Bay College who also made top four in our Secondary School competition we are expecting to do well in B Grade and qualify for A Grade for next year.

A Grade Teams

Napier Girls High School

Hastings Girls High School

Havelock North High School

Taradale High School

B Grade Teams

Iona College

Wairoa College

Central Hawke’s Bay College

Woodford House

Sacred Heart College

Also Dannevirke High School who play under the Netball Manawatu umbrella.

Results after day one are as follows:

A Grade:

Both NGHS and HGHS were off to a cracker start with both schools winning both of their games today.

NGHS beat Heretaunga College 45 – 26 in their first game and Fielding High School 49 – 20, both should have been expected being ranked much lower than NGHS 9^th position from 2017.  Their first challenge of the competition will be first up tomorrow when they play 8^th seeded Samuel Marsden Collegiate, in which if they win will be ranked first in their pool going into the 2^nd pool phase.

HGHS also had a great win first game beating Sacred Heart New Plymouth 42 – 29, but their huge victory of the day was beating 2^nd seed St Mary’s College Wellington in their second game of the day 42 – 39.  So with only 31^st seeded Lytton High School in their pool to play they are highly likely to finish 1^st in their pool also.

HNHS were probably disappointed with their start today losing both games in their quest to make top 16.  First game went down to St Orans 48 – 42 and second game a big loss to last years 3^rd place getter Palmerston North Girls High 54 – 24.  With only one game to go in the pool they are reliant on an upset in the pool to make top 16.

Taradale High School started out with a very tough game against last years Champions Manukura and lost 67 – 10. They however, will be pleased with their second game against Whanganui Collegiate which they won 27 – 24, keeping their top 16 dream alive.

B Grade:

A very strong Central Hawke’s Bay team had a great start to their B Grade campaign today taking two wins from two.  First up beating Tu Toa 55 – 24 and secondly Cornerstone School by a huge 52 – 18.  With only lower ranked Onslow College to play in their pool they are looking likely to finish top in their pool before the second phase.

Woodford House were also off to a very good start and had a good first win against Queen Elizabeth College 48 – 21, second game another great win 44 – 11 against St Mary’s Diocesan, making it two from two.

Sacred Heart College won their first game 49 – 17 Tararua College and 63 – 12 against Dannevirke High School, some huge scores also looking likely to top their pool.

Iona College first up beat an invitation team 36 – 31, then had a loss in their second game to St Matthew’s Collegiate.

Wairoa College had a loss first up against an invitational team 40 – 24 and redeemed themselves in their second game by having a huge win 50 – 23 against Mana College in their second game.

Overall some really great results from our school teams on day one, which is great to see.  Our ultimate goal is to get at least one team qualify for NZSS, which we have only done once since the formation of HBN, when NGHS qualified in 5^th position.  HGHS fantastic start is promising that perhaps we could do the amazing and get two teams through.  Our B Grade teams performed well also on day one, let hope we can take all three promotion spots for A Grade in 2019.