WHAT WENT ON June 27 - 28

Mercantile Squash
A busy and exciting Friday night with lots of support! The top teams of both pools lost their matches which means the leaderboard has tightened up! There are still 3 rounds left to play before we head into the semi finals, so anything can happen. Check out the results below:

Emergency Smash Services bt. Pickering Cabinet Makers 13 - 10
PGG Wrightsons bt. Farmlands 12-9
Waikare bt. AFFCO Stingers 10-7
Smithy Motorcycles bt. Slort Sports 12-9

Senior Netball
Both teams had two games this weekend. Oslers Bakery Athletic White started their second round in the gold grade. The first game against TKT was physically challenging as they placed constant pressure throughout the court. TKT came out on top 44-13. In the second game, YMP Raupunga’s defence was relentless. White persevered using tight marking and strong body presence to stifle attacking flow, however YMP shooters were on their game. YMP took the win 33-13. Players of the day for Oslers Bakery Athletic White 3: Teri, 2: Courtney, 1: Amanda.

Oslers Bakery Athletic Black took the court against Mahia Mai Tawhiti and lost 19-14. The low scoring game saw plenty of turned over ball and action in the mid-court. Black took time to build momentum in the shooting circle. Players of the game 3: Georgia Broad, 2: Jahnaka McIntyre, 1: Josie Mulgrew. For game two, Nuhaka White started the way they planned to finish, physical and fierce. It proved difficult for Black to manage resulting in a 28-9 loss. Players of the game 3: Jahnaka McIntyre, 2: Georgia Broad, 1: Sarah Johansen.

Netball takes a break for two weeks over the school holidays and resumes Saturday 19th July.

Senior Rugby
Charteris Choppers Athletic Rugby took on Mahia. Overnight rain made for some wet underfoot conditions. Mahia opted to kick off and the game was underway, the opposition put the pressure on from the get go causing handling errors and in no time Mahia had 4 unanswered tries. Athletic managed to dig deep just before halftime and Kalaney Ruwhiu scored close to the posts. Three starting forwards were injured in the opening 20 minutes meaning the bench had to put in some serious minutes. Mahia had a very comfortable lead going into the second half and Athletic had some serious work to do to get back into the game. The tone was set with 2 back to back tries from Daniel Knubley getting the black and white back into the game. Another try saw the scores closing up but Mahia were too resilient, scoring twice in the last 15 minutes of the game pushing their lead back out. On the final play of the game, James Fulford scored in the corner closing the scores off at 36-27. Players of the day were 1. Inoke Raivalita 2. Stephen Foley 3. Will Rouse.

Athletic rugby face Mahia again at Kaiuku in the semi final this weekend. Two training sessions this week and some returning players will hopefully be enough to get the win and hold on to their title for another week.

Senior Football
Saturday's match up against Gisborne United 2nd's was the final game of the first round. QRS Athletic Football were looking to continue building momentum to finish the first round strong so we can start the second round with confidence. The first half was a very dominant display of Athletic's attacking and United's defence canceling each other out. Athletic managed to score from a corner cross sent in by Jason Smith who found Jonny Hardie, Athletic 1-0. The second half began and Athletic were looking to be more accurate with the chances that were created, and managing to do so with Tom Rowley-Westwood getting the second goal making it 2-0. Followed by Karan Singh adding to his tally by charging down the united keepers clearance kick taking Athletic's lead to 3-0. Athletic kept building good phase play and managed a 4th goal through the boot of Michael Hardie who sent a screamer from the sideline who reckons it was a cross but found the back of the net instead. Athletic didn't stop there, securing a 5th and final goal from a brilliant pass from Mike Hardie that found captain Ben Blake who finished it off, Athletic 5-0. Full-time QRS AthleticFootball (5) and Gisborne United 2nd's (0). Player of the day: Harry Champion.

We now await conformation of what the second round fixtures are going to be. Athletic finishing fifth means we'll be competing in the top half of Tairawhiti Division Two. We are also still in contention for the Chris Moore Cup where we made the semi-final, which is to be played at a later date.