NETBALL
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
THE Bathurst Netball Association’s 2016 carnival couldn’t have been much more successful from a local perspective as the home sides dominated almost every division they contested on Sunday.
With all 14 courts in action non-stop from 8.30am through to the late afternoon, there was no shortage of action at the carnival which featured players from the under 11s age group through to open age teams.
The majority of entrants were using the event to prepare for the State Championships on the June long weekend.
Incredibly, Bathurst took out seven of the eight categories contested, and narrowly missed out in the other, finishing second behind Hawkesbury in the under 13s.
In the under 17s and 14s they split the honours with Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury respectively, while Bathurst took out the 15s, 12s, and 11s blue and yellow divisions.
The Bathurst under 21s side managed to take some bragging rights over their open age counterparts, claiming the open division honours by winning seven of their eight matches on Sunday.
“We only dropped the one match and won the rest, I was really pleased with the way all my girls played,” 21s representative coach Catherine Welch said.
“We got the better of the opens team which was nice, they went on to finish third and I think in fairness to them, their coach [Michael Germech] was using the carnival as a chance to try a few new things.
“It isn’t the same side that contested State League a few months ago. There’s been some changes so he probably could have helped them win more games, but was trying to make sure he tested some new combinations and swap some players around.
“We would have still beaten them though!”
On Saturday it looked like the carnival would be long odds to go ahead as the local round of matches had to be abandoned due to the wet weather, but Sunday’s conditions couldn’t have been better.
Welch explained that the hosts were hopeful of some success, but were surprised to do as well as they did.
“You would always like to have all your teams winning or going close to winning, it isn’t unrealistic to have them all being pretty competitive,” she said.
“But for us to be that strong and successful as we were on Sunday requires a lot of planning, commitment and hard work with training and that sort of thing.
“I didn’t get a chance to watch many of the other teams because I was with my side, but speaking to the other coaches afterwards, they were all pretty pleased with what they saw, and said that they had a mix of close wins and some really big margins.”