Four teams from around the South Island will battle it out in Ashburton this weekend for the Senior Whakataetae netball title.

The Mid Canterbury Netball hosted event is aimed at tier 2 level netball centres and for the second year in a row it will be contested by the same four teams – Mid Canterbury, South Canterbury, Selwyn and Nelson.

Mid Canterbury Netball centre manager Erin Tasker said the tournament, which was held for the first time in 2023, was aimed at centres like Mid Canterbury who had senior representative teams who wanted to play more games but didn’t want to go to the New Zealand Open Champs.

“Without this tournament, the only tournament our senior rep team has is Hanan Shield. And while Hanan Shield is great, it’s one day, two games and it’s all done,” Tasker said.

“Being selected to represent your region is a big deal. We wanted to give our players more game time, and more of an opportunity to shine, and we know that it’s a similar story for a lot of centres our size, which is why we decided to create a tournament for those teams.”

For the Andrea Cousins coached Mid Canterbury side it’ll be a chance at revenge when they take on South Canterbury, after the Timaru side won the Hanan Shield for the second year running last month. South Canterbury did the double last year, winning both the Hanan Shield and the Senior Whakataetae.

The tournament will run both Saturday and Sunday at the EA Networks Centre, and as it’s run one game at a time it’ll be a great day out for spectators, with the stadium’s concertina seating set to be brought out to provide plenty of space for people to take in the action.

Games will also be hour-long, as opposed to the 10-minute quarters Mid Canterbury players are used to in the ACL Premier competition, adding to the challenge ahead.

Play will get under way at 9.30am on Saturday, when Selwyn take on South Canterbury, before Mid Canterbury play Nelson at 11am. After a short break, play will resume at 1.30pm with Nelson playing Selwyn, before Mid Canterbury and South Canterbury finish the day off.

On Sunday, the round robin will be completed with South Canterbury playing Nelson at 9am, followed by Mid Canterbury playing Selwyn at 10.30am.

The Mid Canterbury team this year is Alice Breading, Charlotte Waddell, Faith Scott, Fiona Watson, Liv McLennan, Loumaile Manumua, Meg McIntyre, Natasha Waddell, Rebecca Cochrane and Sophie Worsfold, while Mid Canterbury’s umpires at this weekend’s tournament will be Heath Lyttle, Renee McLeod and Kevin Opele.

Tasker said it was great to have the same teams back as last year, and it was hoped that over the next couple of years a couple more centres might realise what they’re missing out on and come along and join the fun.

Article added: Thursday 05 September 2024