Spotlight on Southland Sport: Friday Edition
Plenty of sport to delve into in this week's Spotlight on Sport: Friday Edition. Enjoy the read.
Welcome to The Southland Tribune’s Spotlight on Sport: Friday Edition offering. We’ll be back again on Sunday with our “Sunday Special”.
Queens Park to again fly Southland flag in big league
Queens Park coach Paddy Murphy has set a pretty simple goal for the 2023 ODT Southern Premiership. Well simple in the terms of explanation, not so simple in achieving. (READ MORE HERE).
Injured Shark likely to miss the start of NBL season
Key Southland Shark Brayden Inger is likely to miss the start of the 2023 National Basketball League as he continues to recover from an ankle injury. Inger badly damaged his ankle in training almost a month ago joining his netball playing fiancée George Fisher on the injured list. (READ MORE HERE).
Yes Tom Sexton, Southland’s proud….
We love a bit of cycling success in Southland don’t we?
Southland’s Tom Sexton has won the elite time trial honours at the Oceania Road Cycling Championships near Brisbane.
Sexton was emphatic in his performance, winning in 27:21 with Australian Jordan Villani runner-up.
Sexton, who enjoyed a successful Oceania Track Championship campaign for the New Zealand team, turned his attention to the road where he was second in this event last year behind teammate Aaron Gate,
The Bolton Equities Black Spoke professional is also a former junior world champion on the track and won gold in the team pursuit in the Commonwealth Games last year, and claimed silver in the individual pursuit.
He was the only New Zealander in the elite field.
More Southland cricket award winners….
A week after Southland Cricket Association development officer Keegan Russell picked up a community award at the New Zealand Cricket Awards the sport had plenty more to celebrate this week.
At the Otago Cricket Awards Southland umpire Peter Pasco was named Match Official of the Year, Sam Downing was named Community Coach of the Year, Hamish Ottrey picked up Volunteer of the Year, and Marist batsman Tobias van den Heever was honoured with his 224 from 114 balls selected as the Outstanding Individual Performance of the season.
Southlanders were also recognised in the representative awards with Nick Brown named Under-19 batsman of the season and Louisa Kotkamp picked up the U19 women’s Outstanding Performer.
The Southland Cricket Association Awards were also held this week the winners were:
Round 6: Tribune Super Rugby picks panel….
Firstly, congrats to Matt Saunders. Saunders picked every winner and margin correct from last week’s six Super Rugby Pacific games.
Scott Eade also picked all six winners but came up short on a couple of margins. Jason Rutledge came unstuck with his selection of the Reds over the Rebels.
Eade still leads the overall tipping comp, but rumour is his boss at Rugby Southland - Saunders - still isn’t happy Eade broke the loyalty code in the first couple of weeks and picked them to lose.
Overall picks standings: Scott Eade (134 points), Jason Rutledge (123), Matt Saunders (115).
Position-by-position: How the Stags squad is shaping up
There’s one thing we know about Southland Stags fans, they love a bit of offseason speculation. Who may or may not be wearing maroon later in the year? Who’s the new players on the radar? Logan Savory takes a look at each position and also comes up with his Stags playing 23 from the players we know are current contenders. (READ MORE HERE) (Paid subscriber content).
Big day for Invercargill Bowls Club….
There were plenty of celebrations at the Invercargill Bowls Club last weekend with the club locking away a couple Bowls Southland Champions of Champions titles.
The club won both the men’s and women’s fours title. The men’s team - George Amos, David Clark, Graeme Thomson, and Mike Ineson - beat Gore in the final.
The women’s team - Maree Jones, Sharon Siegruhn, Glenice Paisley, and Pam Calder - toppled Lumsden to win its title.
In triples action in was the Gore combo of Tony Cockerill, Thomas Cockerill, and Elliott Mason who was triumphant and Waikiwi - Shirley jennings, Lois Wheal, Fiona Willis - who claimed the women’s honours.
Well done to all involved.
Charlotte Hawkes. Charlotte impressed many at the recent Southland Primary School Athletics Championships at Surrey Park in Invercargill.
The Southland Girls’ High School pupil is regarded a brilliant all-round talent. She won the 1500m and 800m by impressive margins and was first in the discus.
On the athletics front all eyes will be on Surrey Park over the next three days with the South Island Secondary School Championships being held in Invercargill.
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(Out & About)
Southland Sharks v Otago Nuggets (Preseason) - Friday 6pm - ILT Stadium Southland
Yes, I know it’s just preseason, but it’s been a while since we’ve got to have a look at the Southland Sharks in action so I’m sure there will some keen Sharks fans taking a look at how they are shaping up.
(On The Couch)
Southern Steel v Northern Mystics - Saturday 7.15pm - Sky Sport
Anyone picking an upset? Park up on Saturday night, settle in and see if the Southern Steel can break the drought with its first win in six games. Or would we simply be happy with a strong showing?
In case you missed it….
Nathan Burdon caught up with talented Southland athlete Kennedy Taylor this week where he she outlined her bust schedule which includes competing in both the New Zealand Secondary Schools Triathlon Championships and South Island Secondary Schools Athletics Championships. (READ MORE HERE).
Get in touch….
If you have something you think is worth featuring in either our Friday or Sunday Spotlight on Sport editions, please get in touch. NOTE: Please provide as much detail as possible to help us collate everything at this end. Email logan@southlandtribune.com