Canterbury regains national korfball supremacy in emphatic style Canterbury retrieved korfball’s National Provincial Championship over the weekend in Auckland, taking back the title it lost to the hosts in 2009 with an emphatic one-two finish.
Canterbury’s A team went through the tournament unbeaten, while the young Canterbury Development team ousted the hosts in an extra time tie break semi-final on Sunday, turning around a ten point loss to the Aucklanders the previous day.
Korfball Canterbury chairman Rob Smith said the result was hugely satisfying and capped off a good year for the sport locally.
“The semi final win by a team who are virtually all in their first year in the sport was a superb result and one the whole Canterbury contingent took great pride and pleasure in. An exciting game, with some high quality play, the Canterbury Development team led by three at one stage, but by the final whistle the Aucklanders had pulled it back to 13-13, which they have been known to do against Canterbury teams in the past. After each team had a couple of tense but unsuccessful extra time attacks, Canterbury Development’s Spencer Te Pou found space from about four metres and made no mistake to end the game.
“Most of the players in the Canterbury Development team are eligible to represent New Zealand at the 2011 Asia Oceania Youth Championships, which is for players aged under 23. They have shown what they can do at the national level and put themselves firmly in the frame for international selection, with the tournament to be played in Adelaide next July,” he said.
The golden point effort capped an excellent weekend for Te Pou, who was subsequently named the tournament’s MVP male, while MVP female was awarded to Canterbury A team member Alisha Muir, also playing in her first korfball NPC
Korfball is a mixed team sport in the same sporting family as netball and basketball. Male and female players compete in the same team, passing and shooting, with the object to elude your opponent and score through a basket set 3.5m up on a post.
Results from the 2010 Korfball New Zealand National Provincial Championship
Round robin:
Auckland 13 Wellington 7
Canterbury A 17 Canterbury Development 8
Auckland 5 Canterbury A 13
Canterbury Development 20 Wellington 17
Wellington 14 Canterbury A 19
Canterbury Development 15 Auckland 25
Semi finals:
Wellington 8 Canterbury A 24
Canterbury Development 13 Auckland 13 (14-13 after golden point)
Third-fourth play off:
Auckland 17 Wellington 6
Final:
Canterbury A 17 Canterbury Development 7
Final placings:
1. Canterbury A
2. Canterbury Development
3. Auckland
4. Wellington
Individual awards:
MVP male – Spencer Te Pou (Canterbury Development)
MVP female – Alisha Muir (Canterbury A)
Further information:
Rob Smith
021 764 996
Back to back Bulldogs blast Blues off the park
6/11/2010
The much anticipated clash between defending premiers, The Christchurch Bulldogs and the improved Eastern Blues turned out to be a lopsided contest. The final score, Bulldogs 12.12(84) def Blues 4.8 (32)
For the full story click here
For photos of the action click here
Western AFC teams do well at Tsunami Tournament 
26/10/2010
It is was another fantastic weekend, well run by Linfield Sports with great facilities at Linfield Park giving better pitches compared to previous years. It was always going to be tough for the boys to repeat previous successes, even with the experienced squad this year. It was great to see the addition of several new, young faces from within the club, with 5 boys training in the preceding weeks from our under 17 team, with three of the boys making the squad for the tournament weekend. Which I'm sure will prove a beneficial experience for them moving forward.
A crux of Premier and Reserve players made up the rest of the squad with several returning for their 3rd and final year, hoping for a swansong three-peat. To round out the squad we were fortunate to welcome Lee Morris home, Scott Dobson from ChCh Uniteds first team and Edward Ashton from St Bedes to ensure we had someone in goal!
After a relatively easy first day that saw the boys adapt to a new system with at times some great football, beating Roslyn and Blenheim Valley, the boys faced a tougher second day; finally overrunning Burnside 7-0 with a hatrick to Mickey Willis (after being held nil-nil for a long period), and then overcoming a physical Dunedin Tech side 2-0 in a tough semi-final. This meant after almost two years the team had not conceded a goal in this tournament - an astounding record.
The final this year however proved a bridge too far with a tired team being undone by a well drilled Nelson Suburbs team boasting the Player of the Tournament. Eventually going down 2-0, the boys still put on an excellent showing playing well and holding them selves well as a team expected to do well. All the boys deserve a mention as everyone contributed throughout the weekend, many showing that they will have big roles to play over the next few years. A massive thanks to everyone who helped and supported us over the weekend, especially Alby who as usual was entirely selfless. Also a massive thanks to Rob Stanton who put in a lot of time to ensure the team was prepared. Bring on next year!
Western U19 girls Tsunami Tournament
The Tsunami U19 tournament turned out to be a great step up for our Western girls. A majority of the team consisted of members from the U14 grade, and a couple of whom played in the Women’s 1st and 3rd Divisions during the winter season. The girls faced their biggest challenges on the first day, coming up against Avon (green), Waimak and the premiere dominated Coastal Spirit (black) conceding goals which seemed to imitate scores of a rugby match. However the girls showed an improved effort on the 2nd day, by finding the back of the net and only narrowly losing to both Ferrymead bays and Woolston Technical. The third and final day saw the girl’s soldier on against Avon (white), a game that was finally more equally matched, however they were unlucky not to take the win. The girls showed a great deal of courage throughout the tournament, and took defeat well, maintaining positive attitudes and a sense of hope. With such a young team, there is only space for improvement and success in upcoming years.
Local Canterbury Junior in NZ Lacrosse U15 Team
We are pleased annouce that one of our junior players, Taylor Konowe, will be representing Canterbury and the South Island in the NZ U15 Lacrosse team next month. The team is travelling to Adelaide to compete in the Australian Lacrosse Association National U15 Championships to be run in the first week of the school holidays at Lacrosse South Australia Headquarters - Barratt Reserve. We wish Taylor luck and hope the team comes back with some good results. Taylor is originally from Virgina in the USA but has been in Christchurch for the past 5 years.
Baxter Success at Youth Olympics
Canterbury Judo Area Association was thrilled with Haley Baxter’s achievements at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. A member of the Kaikoura club Baxter took out a silver medal fighting in the under 63 category in her team of eight mixed Judokas from around the world.
Junior 28kg champ Justin Evans in action
South Island Judo Championships Results.
Cowles Stadium was the arena for combat on the weekend as 226 entries from around the country competed at the South Island Judo Championships.
The men’s open division saw a big upset as Jason Koster was beaten by Eiji Nachi of Auckland. Nachi showed talent and flexibility to decisively beat the more fancied Koster who is heading to the Senior World Judo Champs later this year.
Lacking match fitness, Hitoei Takegahara struggled through the senior U66kg men’s division eventually winning over newcomer Alex Caird.
In other men’s results Andrew Butterfield swept past NZ coach Graeme Spinks to win the middleweight on points while in the 90kg class Jonathon Broman who recently placed 5th at the Oceania Tournament in Canberra had a narrow win over Neil Calder from Auckland.
In the cadet division Joss Traub was a clear winner against Kaikoura’s Jackson Baxter while Ella Spinks dominated the senior girls open division winning all her fights and now looks like a real chance for a NZ title in November.
For a full list of results click here
For photos from the event click here
For Further Information contact:
Mark Nugent (President Canterbury Judo Area Association)
027 3933157
Details of New Westminster Park Indoor sport and recreation centre taking shape
Netballers, martial arts combatants, fitness fans will all benefit from a new multi-purpose indoor sport and recreation facility on Westminster Park, which took a step forward today following publication of detailed feasibility analysis indicating demand for such a centre.Eddie Cropley is chief executive of Westminster Sports Incorporated, the 2,400+ member multi-code sports club that is progressing the plans and last year was granted a lease on the former Christchurch City Council works department land adjoining Westminster Park for the proposed facility. Click here for more
