WHAT WENT ON 8 - 9 May

Mercantile Squash
A busy and exciting Friday night for the first round of Mercantile 2026! Great to see everyone getting back into it and what a first round we had. A big win over Slort Sports sees Emergency Smash Services at the top with 15 points, while reigning champions Pickering Cabinet Makers went home with only 6 points. It promises to be an exciting tournament. Check out the results below:

Emergency Smash Services bt. Slort Sports 15 - 3
Farmlands bt. Racket Squad All Hui 6 - 12
Smithy Motorcycles bt. Pensioners 12 - 9
The Wishing Stars bt. Pickering Cabinet Makers 12-6

Junior Rugby
On a beautiful sunny morning our juniors got their first matches for 2026 under their belt. Lovely seeing their smiling faces as they run around the field. Check out the results below:

Rippa
Athletic Black (8) vs Tapuae Rossco's (6)
Athletic White (3) vs Wairoa Primary School (10)
Athletic Stripes (5) vs Te Mahia School (5)

Junior
Athletic (17) vs Tapuae Little Taniwha (1)

Primary
Athletic (6) vs St Joseph School (11)

Senior Netball
On Saturday Osler's Bakery & Cafe Athletic Black had a tough start to the season, coming up against a strong TKT. The girls started the game with a bang, seamless connection and converted turnovers - couldn’t have had a better start. TKT were rattled and began putting their foot down. Unfortunately we didn’t get the win, going down by 6 points. However there were some great passages of play, led by our tireless captain Becky. Back to training to come back stronger and ready to take on our next game! Final score: Athletic (29) - TKT (35).

Osler's Bakery & Cafe Athletic White took on Nuhaka Rangatahi in a hard-fought and competitive game. Although the result didn’t fall our way, every player showed amazing determination, teamwork, and effort from start to finish. There were some standout performances across the court. Sarah Spicer worked tirelessly in Goal Attack, creating strong attacking opportunities in the circle. Sophie Mickelson was outstanding defensively, making crucial plays and coming away with a couple of impressive interceptions. Alyssa Deam stepped into Wing Attack, a position she doesn’t normally play, and did an awesome job feeding into the circle and keeping the attacking end flowing. While the scoreboard didn’t go our way, there were still plenty of positives to take from the game, along with a few things for us to work on at training on Thursday. Huge effort from all the girls and plenty to build on heading into next week. Final score: Athletic (10) - Nuhaka Rangatahi (18).

Senior Rugby
Charteris Choppers Athletic Rugby put in a determined performance against YMP Gisborne in a hard-fought clash, eventually going down 19–10. Athletic started the first half strongly with the wind at their backs and looked dangerous early on, creating several quality attacking opportunities. One of those plays paid off when Kasey Chemis crossed under the posts for a well-worked try. YMP responded with a try of their own to keep the match tight. Just before halftime, Moss Doran calmly slotted a penalty goal to give Athletic a 10–5 lead heading into the break. The second half saw YMP come out firing, with the home team managing to score two converted tries to swing the momentum their way. Athletic continued to battle hard and created chances throughout the half, but unfortunately missed a few crucial opportunities that could have changed the result. Despite the loss, it was an outstanding effort from the Athletic men in an entertaining and physical contest. Final score: YMP Gisborne (19) -  Athletic (10). Player of the Day points:

Will Taylor - 3 points
Fergus Casey - 2 points
Wade Perrett - 1 point

Senior Football
Round 5 saw QRS Athletic Football host Wainui Salty Dogs in what was a fairly even battle across the pitch. Athletic opened the scoreboard through a brilliant play from Raihania Edwards-Hammond early on. Wainui battled back, slipping one past Athletic's keeper, making the score 1 all. Athletic had multiple scoring chances but just couldn't capitalise. Playing into the sun and wind hindered Athletic and benefited Wainui, when their keeper booted the ball from inside his own box all the way across the pitch, bouncing over the Athletic keeper. This made it 2-1 to Wainui going into the halftime break. The second half began and Athletic was fairly dominant, looking to equalise and managing to do so through the boot of Tom Rowley-Westwood. The battle continued until the final whistle but neither side managed to create the match-winning opportunity, ending in a 2 all draw. Athletic had many positives to take out of this game. Even the Player of the Day vote ended in a 3-way tie between Raihania Edwards-Hammond, Grant Young and Mike Hardie.

Next weekend Athletic travel up to Gisborne's Childers Road Reserve 1 to take on defending Division 1 Champs Thistle Bobcats, with an earlier kickoff at 12:30pm.