Winning margins suggest gulf between bottom and

Central Otago sports roundup

All top four teams had little difficulty in accounting for their bottom four opposition in the latest round of the Central Otago Premier Rugby competition on Saturday.

An average winning margin of 46 points in the four games indicated the gulf was growing wider.

Wakatipu hosted Maniototo and hammered it 8312, after leading 400 at halftime, and bagged 13 tries in the process.

Angus MacCallum, Ian Bal maceda and Tom Kelly all crossed for two, while Joe Cairns, Henry Youngman, Brad Cross, Steve Bruce, Tom Gray in his 50th and blazer game, Matt Ashe and Harwin Brown all got one each.

Ashe converted eight of the tries and Kapa Moeke added one.

Maniototo scored two secondhalf tries through Angus Gibb and Logan Bain.

Cromwell withstood the challenge for the White Horse Cup, winning 5021 over a gallant Clyde Earnscleugh side after leading 247 at halftime.

The home forwards dominated the visitors and allowed their side to score six good team tries.

Kees Scott, Cody Mitchell, Ethan Molloy, George Tiko, Kane Dodds and Stefan Blakeborough all dotted down, while Dodds, who scored 25 individual points, added four conversions and four penalties. The challenger played into a strong wind in the first half and scored three converted tries to Charlie Tiko, Kahli Kafoa and Asivorosi Serukalou.

Arrowtown travelled to Omakau and left with maximum competition points, beating Matakanui Combined 4310.

Arrowtown got out to a 335 lead at the break and the home side will be encouraged by its secondhalf performance.

The inform Liam Jenkins scored two tries, while Tom Grandiek, Adam Dunn, Reece Borbely, James Larsen and tighthead prop Tom McKenzie got one each.

Matakanui Combined scored a try in each half, to Andrew Kerr in the first and Willie Lake in the second.

Upper Clutha continued its winning way with an impressive 6212 win over Alexandra at Molyneux Park after leading just 145 at the break.

The visiting team steamed away in the second spell, ending with 10 tries, five to player of the day centre George Gilchrist.

Fraser Dowling, Jack Gilchrist, Josh Roberts, Oliver Stirling and Jason Richan rounded out the tryscoring.

Fullback Nathan Craddock and replacement back Dominic Saladino scored tries for the host.

Netball

Roxburgh Area School A had its chance to prove it deserved to be in A Grade at Molyneux Park on Saturday afternoon and took it, beating Diamonds 3521.

Diamonds opened its campaign in an uncontrolled manner, with wayward passes into the shooting circle.

Roxburgh was quick to pounce on the turnover ball, using speed and agile movements through court to move the ball with ease down to its own goal circle. Roxburgh led 127 at the first break and continued its dominance in the midcourt. Wing attack Emily Darling and centre Caitlyn Johnson combined extremely well as a tight unit.

The Diamonds defenders were unable to stop the dominance of GS Mackenzie Prew, who was strong in the air and used her feeders to go to the post. Going into the break, Roxburgh had stretched out its lead 2011.

Diamonds returned to the court with a shuffled attacking lineup that created much more space in their attacking third. Goal attack Jaada BartlettTaylor combined well with goal shoot Lana Toms to open up the court and slot some crucial goals.

Roxburgh changed it up and the Diamonds’ sluggish transition from attack to defence left the court wide open for Roxburgh to fire down court and assert its dominance for the win.

Molyneux A had a good win over Cromwell College A 3328, and Dunstan A proved too strong for Vincent 2419.