Owaka impressive in beating Toko

OWAKA recorded its second win of the season, beating Toko 497 in emphatic fashion at Milton on Saturday.

The travelling side was on the ball early and led 180 at the break.

Toko scored a brilliant team try shortly after the restart to give it confidence.

Owaka’s selfbelief and selfcontrol was strong and it hit back with two more quick tries.

From there it was all the away side.

It has been a long time coming for the muchimproved Owaka side, which has been very close in recent weeks.

Owaka had several standout players, none more so than replacement fullback Jacob Beal-Harris, who entered the game midway through the first half and immediately stamped his authority with two nicely taken tries. He scored 18 points.

Clinton recorded the second upset of the weekend, beating Clutha Valley 2721 at Clinton.

Clinton played into the wind in the first half and kept possession for numerous phases. Valley made the most of possession it had and went into the halftime break 2120 ahead. Clinton pinned Valley in its own half for much of the second half and kept it scoreless.

Clinton first five-eighth Maurice Tairua scored a hat trick of tries, was strong on defence and led from the front against his former team. Forwards Josh Hurring and Craig McKenzie were also strong. Valley fullback Brayden Wilson scored a try and kicked three conversions for his side. Prop Macrae Sanderson and lock Kyle Forbes both played well.

Clutha and Crescent drew 2424 at Balclutha.

The battle of the top two sides lived up to expectations. Clutha played a solid first half, keeping possession away from Crescent and went into halftime 175 up.

Crescent’s bench put in a huge secondhalf effort and scored a matchdrawing try right on fulltime. Crescent scored two length-of -thefield tries and looked good in broken play.

Todd Holgate and Daniel Miller stood out for Clutha. Forwards Cole Birse, Jamie Sutton and Andy Carruthers all played well for Crescent, as did Harley McHardy and Ethan Edwards.

Heriot secured fourth place with a 2915 win over Lawrence at Lawrence. Heriot went into halftime 193 up, after its forwards dominated around the park and at set piece. The only thing keeping Lawrence in the game was Heriot’s illdiscipline.

Heriot continued its dominance in the second half and was a worthy winner, scoring five tries to Lawrence’s two. Heriot hooker Craig Stanway had another huge game for his side. He was supported well by backs Aaron Kimura and George Sheild. Pete O’Malley in his 50th game for Lawrence was solid, as were hooker Simon Chamberlain and midfielder Pete Willis.

Netball

Hillend started strongly in its match against Redwyns with Erica Milligan at centre strong on attack and Rebecca Cootes had a perfect shooting percentage in the first quarter. Redwyns had to work hard to break down a tight zone defence.

Ashley Katon did a fine job mopping up any loose ball at the back for Redwyns.

Sasha Cochrane made the Redwyns’ defence work hard with her numerous drives out of the circle. Redwyns led 1811 at halftime.

The introduction of Catherine Whitefield kept up Redwyns’ relentless pressure throughout the court. Despite Hillend giving its all, it was quite simply outplayed by Redwyns who won 4121.

Southern P came out strong against Clutha but could not keep up the intensity for the full 40 minutes against the cotop of the table side, with Clutha winning 4231.

Clutha’s best was Emily Melville and Southern’s best was Elese Lloyd.

South Otago High School A put up a polished performance top beat Black Gold Best for the school was Paris Skipper and Amy Morrison played well for Black Gold.