Spotlight on Southland Sport: Sunday Special
What a massive weekend for Southland sport filled with magic moments and milestones. Plenty to delve into Tribune readers.
Welcome to our Spotlight on Sport Sunday special, where we do our best to wrap up the sporting weekend.
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Southland triumphs in thriller to claim U18 NZ touch title
Southland has beaten Waikato 6-5 in a thrilling final, after trailing 4-2, to claim the national U18 mixed title. (READ MORE)
'Southern Lads' get the job done at Coast to Coast
Southlanders Rikki Griffin, Dwight Grieve, and Mike White have teamed up to win the three-person team Coast-to-Coast two-day race. Read about how it all came about. (READ MORE)
Southland's singing Fijian community unites over rugby league
“Some of the boys just came from Fiji last week and it’s their first time playing league so it’s really good to see them out there.” (READ MORE)
Back-to-back Steel losses….
The Southern Steel ended a big week of netball on Friday and Saturday with two preseason losses to the Mainland Tactix in Timaru.
It lost its first outing 54-56 on Friday before the Tactix grabbed a second win pushing out to 60-44 the next day.
Earlier in the week the Steel had banked wins over the NSW Swifts and Central Pulse in Invercargill.
Let’s be honest, preseason results aren’t all that important.
But naturally, there’s some nerves around Steel fans as to what its ANZ Premiership campaign, without injured shooter George Fisher, might look like.
No doubt there’s some work being done to try to fill that void.
A beautiful sight….
There are few better sights in rugby than a front rower chipping, chasing, and then regathering to score a match-winning try. But when it’s a Southland Stag in charge of that chain of events it is absolute bliss.
With less than a couple of minutes to play in the Highlanders preseason game against the Crusaders 19-year-old hooker Jack Taylor went on a 50m run to score the thrilling try which clinched a 35-33 victory.
It was the former Southland Boys’ High School pupil’s second second-half try.
How good?
There were plenty of other Southland Stags connections in the preseason fixture as well, including fellow hooker Jacob Payne, Stags captain Josh Bekhuis, and midfielders Scott Gregory and Isaac Te Tamaki.
Not to mention the Southland youngsters we still cling onto as being our own - Cam Millar, Sean Withy, Finn Hurley, and Will Stodart.
From the Birdcage (The Nathan Williamson Show)….
Win No 1 for horse driver Nathan Williamson came back in 2005 at Forbury Park on a horse called Brooker which his father trained.
Some 18 years later the Southland driver brought up the 1000th win milestone at the Riverton Trotting Club’s meeting at Ascot Park raceway on Sunday.
Williamson went into the race day on 999 wins with plenty of opportunities to get the 1000th.
He got the job done quickly winning Race 1 on board Janaka’s Delight, which is trained by Brett Gray.
It’s been a big weekend for Williamson given he also won with Tact McLeod at Addington on Friday night. (Dividends: $4.40, $1.40).
Tact McLeod, which is trained by Trevor Proctor in Winton, will stay with Mark Jones this week and could start at Addington on Friday.
Check out Bruce Stewart’s story on the Southern Harness Racing site for a full run down on how Tact McLeod’s victory unfolded at Addington. (READ MORE HERE)
Hart at the heart of Appleby victory….
The Appleby Rams are steadying themselves for a shot at the ILT Premier League club cricket playoffs banking another win over Waikoikoi at Waikoikoi on Saturday.
With three round-robin games to play, Appleby sits well-positioned at the top-of-the-table. On Saturday it recorded a 60-run win over Waikoikoi which was set up by all-rounder Hayden Hart.
Hart notched up a half-century to help Appleby put together 202 for six from its 50 overs. He teamed up with the inform Keiran Lloyd (68) to put on 106 for the second wicket.
When Waikoikoi was 79 from one with Jared McKenzie and Kurt Thompson at the crease, the home team was well position.
However, Hart dismissed McKenzie for 44 sparking a collapse. Waikoikoi lost five wickets for just 10 runs and was eventually bowled out for 142.
Hart finished with three wickets.
Meanwhile Marist made it three straight wins on Saturday with their commanding seven-wicket victory over the Metropolitan Tigers.
Metro managed just 139 batting first with Alec Mathieson picking up four wickets and Ethan Yeo.
Marist passed the total with the loss of just three wickets and 22 overs still to spare.
Keep an eye on….
Marshall Erwood. The Southland cyclist produced a stunning ride in the U19 road race to claim silver at the Elite Road National Championships.
In spite of a late puncture, Erwood made it back to the front of the race, finishing second to Eli Tregidga by the narrowest of margins, with Carter Guichard (Southern Junior Development Team) in third.
Tom Kerr (Southern Junior Development Team) finished in the leading bunch for 15th place. Hugo Sinclair (Southern Junior Development Team) was in 18th, Magnus Jamieson (Southern Junior Development Team) in 21st, and Liam O'Rourke (Cycling Southland) in 25th.
No shortage of options this week given some of the results and magic moments produced by Southland sportspeople.
However, we can’t go past the national title delivered by Southland U18 touch players. There’s something special about that group of youngsters who represented the province so proudly.
So, this week we are awarding the Tribune Sportsperson of the Week honour to the entire Southland U18 Mixed Touch team. Congrats to all involved.
Get in touch (no pun intended)….
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 in collating everything at this end. Email logan@southlandtribune.com
In case you missed it….
New Rugby Southland director of rugby Matt Saunders opens up on why he put his hand up for the job and why he wants to help deliver some results Southland rugby fans deserve. (READ MORE)
