WHAT WENT ON June 13 - 14

Mercantile Squash
We finished up the first round of pool play on Friday night. Another great night of squash with some solid matches. Based on the points from the first round, all teams are now re-seeded into new pools for the second round. In Pool A are Pickering Cabinet Makers, AFFCO Stingers, Waikare, Emergency Smash Services and Pensioners. In Pool B are Farmlands, Slort Sports, Smithy Motorcycles, PGG Wrightsons and The Wishing Stars. Results from last Friday:

Slort Sports bt. PGG Wrightsons 18-3
AFFCO Stingers bt. Pensioners 15-9
Pickering Cabinet Makers bt. Waikare 10-8
Smithy Motorcycles bt. Farmlands 12-6

Junior Rugby
Our juniors played all their games at Lambton Square over the weekend, while Rippa Stripes had a bye. It was pretty chilly but the rain stopped just in time for the 9 o'clock games. Check out the results below:

Rippa
YMP Rascals (10) vs Athletic Black (10)
Player Of The Day: Nehe
Rippa Of The Day: Tukotahi
Good Sport: Willow

YMP Young Guns (8) vs Athletic White (9)
Player Of The Day: Cayden
Rippa Of The Day: Ken
Good Sport: Johannes

Athletic Stripes
BYE

Junior
Athletic (0) vs YMP (13)
Player Of The Day: Grayson, JJ, Stuart & Anaru

Primary
Athletic (3) vs YMP (13)
Player Of The Day: Eligh

Senior Netball
Saturday saw the end of round 1 for both gold and silver grades for the 2025 netball season and the start of round 2 for the silver grade.

Oslers Bakery Athletic White played the dynamic and aerial TKT. The first half was closely matched, however unexpected injuries caused several players to play out of position. Players adapted quickly, but the girls unable to match the accurate shooting of TKT and went down 42-25. Players of the match 3, Clare Cvitanovich 2, Sam Luka 1, Alice Wilson. With this result Oslers Bakery Athletic White placed 6th in the gold grade and are looking forward to what round 2 has in store.

Meanwhile, Oslers Bakery Athletic Black faced TKT Rangatahi who are playing like their seniors team, dynamic and aerial. TKT Rangatahi have only had one loss this season and were successfully held at bay by a hardworking team drawing 23 all. This was the final game of round 1 seeing Oslers Bakery Athletic Black third on the table out of six teams for the silver grade. Players of the match: 3, Georgia Broad 2, Suzy Chrystal 1, Paige Bentley. With back to back games, Oslers Bakery Athletic Black then took the court immediately and faced Nuhaka Blue for the beginning of the second round. It turned to be a very physical match which built as Black gained momentum winning the game 24-14. Players of the match: 3, Suzy Chrystal 2, Grace Young 1, Jan Little.

Senior Rugby
Charteris Choppers Athletic Rugby boarded the bus to Gisborne to take on Ngatapa, the toss was lost and we were left to receive the first kickoff. Ngatapa came out firing scoring the first try off an intercept pass, Athletic answered with an unconverted try from Jonty Le Lievre and another just before halftime going into the break with Athletic leading 10-7. The first half was a back and forward battle with neither team wanting to give up any ground, strong ball carrying and dominant tackles. After a talk at halftime from coach Moss Doran, the attack was changed and a first try from the black and white was scored not long after the second half whistle, after that the tries came one after another taking the final score out to 46-7 showing a strong second half performance and the perfect way to send off George Twigley and Harry Newman who played their last games of the season. Players of the day were 3. Will Collier 2. Sid Drinkrow 1. Jonty Le Lievre.

Senior Football
Round 9 of the Tairawhiti Division Two competition had QRS Athletic Football host Pro Roofing Thistle in an entertaining match where the field under wet conditions favoured no side, and the return of a former Athletic Veteran set for a bit of banter between the two sides. Both teams struggled to play any kind of structured footy, both sides made changes early on but it was Athletic who struck first through a cross from captain Ben Blake where Thistle's keeper fumbled it and Athletic midfielder Tom Rowley-Westwood pounced on it to finish it off, Athletic 1-0. Thistle didn't stay down for long returning the favour, catching the Athletic defenders napping and shooting from out wide scoring a screamer, levelling the score 1-1. After Athletic keeper Aaron Ioane managed multiple saves, Thistle managed to crack another in before halftime taking a 2-1 halftime lead. The second half began pretty similar to the first, Athletic came out firing and scoring first through Raihania Edwards-Hammond who cleaned up yet another fumble from Thistle's Keeper, Athletic 2-2. Thistle were a quality side who wouldn't stay down from everything Athletic threw at them, managing to put pressure on Athletic in the mud pit and scoring a brace of goals before an accidental own goal helped seal the victory for the visitors. Athletic kept fighting until the end where Josh Cowan was able to scramble a 3rd and final goal for the black and white, final score 5-3 to Thistle. Highlight of the match was when Michael Hardie was yellow carded for a Hollywood dive from former Athletic player Shannon (Blocker) Crane. Next weekend Round 10 sees QRS Athletic Football travel up to Gisborne to take on High-school Old Boys Eels in hopefully some better weather for the long weekend. Player of the Day: Goalie Aaron Ioane.