For the second year running, grading games are required to determine what teams will compete in Mid Canterbury Netball’s premier grades.

Those grading games will be played on Wednesday and Thursday night this week, and they will decide who will take the last two places in both the ACL Premier 2 and ACL Premier 3 grades in 2023.

The ACL Premier competition is three grades of six teams, but when entries for all Mid Canterbury Netball winter grades closed on Friday there were 21 teams entered for those 18 spots.

ACL Premier 1 is a closed grade with the six teams that finished in the top grade the year prior secure in their spots, with the six teams to begin the 2023 season in ACL Premier 1 being Celtic Auric Electrical A, Hampstead Ray White A, United KFC A, Methven Wareings, Mt Somers Victory Lime A and Southern A.

The top four teams in ACL Premier 2 are also secure, with those top four teams from 2022 being Allenton A, College A, Rakaia ProShear and Celtic Darryl Phillips Motor Company B. The teams that finished 5^th and 6^th in that grade last year – Methven EuroAgri and Methven Shearmac – will be two of five teams vying for those last two spots in 2023, but if they don’t earn a spot in ACL Premier 2 they will be secure in ACL Premier 3, to acknowledge the fact they were top 12 teams last year.

Two other teams grading for premier 2 – College B and Hampstead Ray White B – are also secure in premier, it’s just a matter of whether that’s in premier 2 or 3. That’s because they were top four in ACL Premier 3 last season, with those four teams – College B and Y10A, and Hampstead Ray White B and Development – all deemed safe thanks to last year’s efforts.

Joining the two Methven teams, College B and Hampstead Ray White B in playing off for spots in ACL Premier 2 on Wednesday night will be United KFC B.

Once Wednesday night’s results are known, a draw will be done for Thursday night’s grading games for ACL Premier 3. The teams fighting for a spot in ACL Premier 3 are Rakaia B, Southern B, College U18, Methven Garage Gym, and if they don’t make ACL Premier 2, United KFC B.

The grading games will begin at 6pm on both Wednesday and Thursday night at the EA Networks Centre, with the draw for Wednesday night now online.

Teams that don’t make a premier grade will either move to the Saturday youth grades, or the Wednesday night social grades.

The winter netball season will begin the first week back of term 2, with ACL Premier netball beginning on April 27.

Article added: Monday 03 April 2023