What's happening in Whanganui sport
Hockey
The Wanganui men's hockey team has earned a well-deserved week off after scraping back into the top-six bracket of the Manawatū Premier A Hockey League.
After a luckless first part of the Covid-19 disrupted season the Wanganui lads beat Palmerston North Boys High School 2-1 last weekend in a crucial promotion/relegation play-off in Palmerston North.
The league had been broken down into pools to determine the top and bottom teams to fight out the remaining seven games before the semifinal and finals play-offs.
Player/coach Craig Ritani said the win last weekend was both timely and well-deserved after a first round of close calls.
"We were unlucky in the first round with close-scoring games pretty much all the way through that could easily have gone either way," Ritani said.
"We managed a 2-1 win over PNBHS last week when they came back at us late. It puts us back in the top six and a week off before we all start the next round with a clean slate.
"Everyone has a bye this week and we will use that to train for the remaining seven games plus the semifinals and finals.
"Our initial aim is making the top four and then take every game as they come. We have a realistic chance against them all, including College who have been unbeaten in the last two or three years – they only beat us by two goals in round one."
Football
In football, Versatile Wanganui City has technically lost its lead in the Yorb Horizons Premiership after last week's match against Massey University Reserves was called off.
"One of their players had returned home from Auckland and had trained with the rest of his team. He had to be tested [for Covid-19] and none of the teammates he had trained with were allowed to play, so our game was called off," coach Kelvin Francis said.
"The young fella tested negative. No points were allocated to our missed game, so we effectively drop to second on the ladder. We do get to play them at the end of the season if we need to. We play North End AFC Reserves in an away match this weekend and they are the only side to beat us this season when they won 2-1 at home at Wembley.
"We really shouldn't have lost that game and I do think we can turn that around this weekend. It will be a bit of a revenge game and we will be without one of our key players, Adrian Ngaau. It will, however, give one of our younger guys a go."
GJ Gardner Homes Whanganui Athletic Reserves still sit third on the Horizons table after a 2-1 win over Japac Homes Hokowhitu last week. They play One Staff PN Marist Reserves in an away fixture this weekend.
In the Lotto Federation League, GJ Gardner Homes Whanganui Athletic remain frontrunners after demoralising Levin AFC 7-1 away last Saturday.
Athletic have not been favoured with many home games this season, but play North End AFC on Wembley No1 on Saturday at 2.45pm.
Netball
Meanwhile, the top three teams clearly stamped their authority on the Netball Whanganui Premier A competition on Monday night.
Fortunately, fans could still catch all the action, thanks to Netball Whanganui's Facebook Livestream of all matches.
Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau A1 continue to show they are a team on the improve, with a dominant performance over Phillips Electrical Whanganui High School A1, winning 62-30.
On court one, Nga Tawa again suffered a heavy defeat, losing to unbeaten Whanganui High School Old Girls 102-23.
In the final game of the night, Kaiwhaiki A1 thrashed Thompson Plumbing & Gas Kaierau A2 62-23.
This Monday night the most anticipated match-up will be between Kaiwhaiki A1 and Kaierau A1, as the outcome determines their placings for play-offs. Whanganui High School will take on Nga Tawa and Kaierau A2 will face WHS Old Girls.
Netball Whanganui hopes to continue live streaming of premier games while under alert level 2 restrictions. These games can be found on its Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/netballwhanganui
Rowing
Out of town crew fought out the prognostic finish of the 7km Blinkhorne and Carroll Winter Series race on the Whanganui River a fortnight ago,
First and second was a battle between Horowhenua clubmates, men's sculler James Donne-McDonald with a prognostic score of 82.03 per cent, and the wiry Bruce Tate, a masters F Grade Single with a prognostic of 80.67 per cent.
**A nice third was a young composite crew of Aramoho rowers. They were James Clear, Georgina Ross, Messina Su'a and Joseph Barritt. **
Also competing was a group of around 40 Central Year 12 Development Camp rowers from as far as Blenheim, Nelson, Wellington, New Plymouth and Whanganui under the watchful eye of Central RCP coach Marion Haorwell and other regional coaches including Tyler Scott, Kit Croxford (Collegiate), Alan Greer (AWRC) and Phillippa Baker-Hogan (Clifton) invited to help.
The young athletes had a variety of on-water sessions, including rowing up as far as Webb's Mile, erg sessions and running up to the top of Durie Hill Tower, down to the Memorial Hall steps, over to Cooks Garden where they ran a mile in honour of the late Sir Peter Snell, before making their way back to Union.
Iain Hyndman
Whanganui Chronicle 22/8/20