Netball ANZ Shield Match – Hyundai vs SMOGA

Well this weekend has been one of big sporting games. Hey didn’t the All Blacks do well on Saturday night?!! Yay it looks like they have some of the old fight back in them. I was personally very glad to see them kicking for territory and playing the game in the Aussies half. Well at least if the ball is up there then the Aussies can’t score right? Good on Woodcock for 2 spectacular tries.

Adam and I both had netball on Saturday. This week though was the one of the big televised ANZ Shield match for us girls. After last weeks experience of reffing on the TV I was surprisingly calm. I think it was because I had seen that the TV does not capture everything and that you can’t hear all that is said!! Mind you I did spend an hour in the morning trying to teach my friend to drive a manual car, yes our car! She did pretty well actually along with a few laughs and scenarios of waving people past each time she conked out! Luckily we were driving in circles around her back yard and not out on the road. My nerves survived!

We arrived at the courts in plenty of time as the B team was playing the match beforehand. A number of the girls had not slept the night before, 2 had been out (!!!) and the rest were extremely nervous. Our goal keeper was shaking like a leaf as I was trying to tape up her fingers. I suggested a shot of whisky – but all she had was a Vailima beer. We did wonder if she should dash off and drink it but thought the better of that! We all had on our “winning” shoes or toe nail polish etc and were fired up and ready to go. Before the match both teams were announced onto the court (just like the Silver Ferns). It was all very official and nerve wracking (yes my nerves had kicked in by this stage!)

The match began for us with a pretty bad start. It took us at least the 1st quarter to calm down and slot into our groove or get our mojo back as one of the girls says! It then went on to be a hard, hard game. We all played as well as we could but were just not good enough on the day. It was about 30 degrees which for me is so out of the ordinary. I am used to playing in under 10 degrees and wanting to run around to warm up! In this game however I was getting the dehydrated goose bumps even in the first quarter. At each quarter break I was drinking icotonic drinks and putting ice on my kneck while standing outside looking for a breeze with the other palagis in my team.

We did some good stuff and we did some bad stuff! Mind you the other team made their fair share of mistakes too. Our biggest problem though was that we have lost our best shooter, she has done something bad to her calf muscle and can’t walk, and our fill in had to go off with a strained side. Our centre tweaked her dodgey knee and then got dealt to by her partner just to finish it off a bit more! Our shots were therefore not dropping when we needed them to and all the hard work from the defence and the mid court to get the ball up to the circle was going un-converted. I got bashed about a bit by the 2 WDs I had but at least I’m still standing! What a bunch of injured old farts!

Our second quarter was our best. We pulled our score up a lot but by half time people were wanting a rest and we swapped the team around which we can now see was our biggest mistake. By the last quarter we had our Centre (with the dodgey knee) shooting and the rest of us doing the best we could. We managed to keep them at 6 goals each though. In the end a very high scoring and fast game. We lost 55 – 30 but were pleased with our efforts and with managing to score 30 goals against a good side.

The boys did much better. After losing by 20 goals last week they were keen for a win and managed that so good on them. Adam either celebrated, or drowned his sorrows for our loss, a bit hard so is suffering today! Our B side has also won all their games so far so are looking good. It’s just us that need to sort ourselves out. Want a bet we will be on to it by the last game of the season!

Anyway it’s Sunday today. Adam and I came up to the library at 12.00pm so that we could watch the game on TV. This is where we get the best signal. It’s very hot today so have got all the fans going full bore in the library. Watching the game was good, I have managed to make many notes for things for us to work on (yes me and my lists!!) I opened up the library at 2.00pm and so far have had hardly anyone in. Some of the students who live on campus have been in to check their email etc and that’s about it. I have had 2 boys studying but I don’t even think they are USP students!

We have managed to get the panels up on the walls so I’ve uploaded some photos to Flickr. Just hoping they stay up now in an earthquake! We had yet another power cut during the week and also had no water on a few days as apparently the tank was running low. Even though we have had heaps of heavy rain it has been pretty fine in the last 2 weeks so I suppose things are drying up. Not too good when you can’t flush the loo or wash your hands though. I’m pleased to say it’s come back on now and it rained last night so hopefully that has helped the situation.

Off home in 20 minutes. Might watch Hairspray on DVD tonight as kindly sent over by Latika along with the Swifts vs Magic netball game and some chocolate!! We are planning a BBQ for the netball club one night soon to watch the netball and relax. Next weekend is a long weekend as Monday is a public holiday for Fathers Day (yes I know!) Wouldn’t we all like to be able to have a day off and close the library for Fathers Day?! After netball we are planning a trip over to Lalomanu beach and might go and stay on Namu’a Island in one of the 8 fales there. Apparently it is close enough we could paddle our kayak across and the snorkeling is good so look forward to having some other news to tell you next week!