Keri takes its chances at Kaiwaka

Otamatea Hawks 7 BP Kerikeri 45: Kerikeri is getting the campaign for the Joe Morgan Memorial off to a convincing start by comprehensively dealing to Otamatea at Kaiwaka on Saturday.

The Kerikeri Reserves side also claimed victory by a similar margin, beating the Hawks 17-58 in the day’s curtain raiser. Keri coach Shaun Anderson said both teams managed to get off to a cracking start, with the Reserves leading by something like 30-nil at halftime which allowed everyone on the bench to get a run.

“The prems played pretty well, never relinquished,” he said, noting the A-grade result was remarkable considering the Hawks had the lion’s share of possession while Kerikeri claimed an unimpressive penalty count of 17-6 against them. Anderson was at pains to note no one blamed the ref, just that these two aspects showed the visitors made the most of their opportunities when they came. “The whole squad performed pretty well,” he said.

Standouts for the prem side included Matt Bridgeman in the forwards and (ex-Awanui) Dane Subritzky Clarke in the backs.

Other results from round 1 on Saturday were, Prems: Waipu 17 Hora Hora 43, Western Sharks 24 Wellsford 32, OBM 48 Mid Northern 45 (the defending champions taking out this replay of last year’s grand final), Kamo 36 Hikurangi 15; Reserves: Kamo 55 Hikurangi 12, OBM 38 Mid Northern 20, Waipu 46, Hora Hora 12.

Kerikeri travels to face Waipu this Saturday. ■