Manawatu’s best to face Aussies

Four Manawatu roller hockey competitors will be wearing New Zealand colours at the trans-tasman series in Auckland this weekend.

Blair Dench and Karlen Redfern are in the New Zealand under-20 men’s team and Cindy Jones and Jade Mckinnon are in the open women’s side.

There are six different divisions across men and women and all teams will play Australian in a three-match series tomorrow and Saturday.

It is a good result for the Manawatu Roller Hockey Club, who got the sport up and running in Manawatu again earlier this year. The Kiwi Manawatu club stopped operating about 14 years ago, but Dench got things started again and numbers have been growing since.

Mckinnon and Redfern are both relatively new to the sport, but Dench and Jones are more experienced. The four players were selected for New Zealand after a recent tournament in New Plymouth where the Manawatu team finished second.