Central Pulse

So you thought I was kidding about the netball?

ANZ are the sponsors of the Trans-Tasman netball competition, known as the ANZ Championship, so there is yet another sporting fixture for which I receive discounted tickets. We decided that we should take a look at this game of netball next time it came to town...

The Central Pulse are our local team in the ANZ Championship (there are 5 teams each from Australia and New Zealand). They play in various stadia around the central New Zealand region, with a couple of games in Wellington's TSB Arena. Their opponents this week were the Melbourne Vixens.

We drove into town for a 4:20 start, getting to the Arena in time to take our seats with 10 minutes to spare. I went to the bar to get us some drinks, and found that the selections available were definitely targeted at a different audience to what's available at the rugby! There wasn't even a decent Kiwi beer on sale, but the wine selection was far wider. How I suffer for my art. I bought a Heineken.

The game started and for the first quarter, the Pulse kept on level terms, finishing the quarter 1 point down at 11-10. At the beginning of the second quarter, though, they had a points drought as they were intercepted, missed chances, and generally failed, and were soon 9 points adrift. they finished the quarter at 29-19, and never really recovered from that. They started to close the gap in the third quarter, to 3 points at one stage, but then it opened up again, They finally finished at 52-40, which was a bit of a hammering.

It was good fast action, and I think we'd go to another match. it would be nice if the Pulse could get their act together and win next time! Still, the Vixens are top of the table at the moment so I suppose it's not too bad to lose to them.

So, that's another sporting event off the "I've never been to..." list.