Sport 18 Ashburton Guardian
www.guardianonline.co.nz
Saturday, February 23, 2019
■ SWIMMING
In brief
Mission accomplished A team of young Ashburton swimmers headed away to Invercargill last week with certain goals in place and then came home having achieved those goals, much to the delight of their coach. Younger members of the Ashburton Swim Team were in Invercargill for the three-day Junior Festival Mako Zone with the focus of using skills and techniques which have been put in place during training sessions. And for coach Pip White it was mission accomplished. “We’re extremely happy with how everyone went,” she said. “Seeing so many personal best times and top 10 placings showed that the skills learnt in training were showing good results for future meets.” The entire team of winners produced some fantastic personal best times, with ribbons presented to the top three placings and each swimmer who gained a personal best got to place their time on a personal best board. A highlight of the meeting was the second placing in the 6x50 metre mixed relay by Finn Veix, Henry King, Bede Giera, Kylana Peauafi Symonds, Lucie Hood and Lucy Reeve. Hood was in exceptional form,
Powerhouse Penrith prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard insists he’ll carry no mental demons into his return from a second jaw break in tonight’s NRL trial against South Sydney. After missing six weeks last year while his jaw was wired shut following a brutal collision with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Campbell-Gillard was injured again in training in December. This time it was courtesy of friendly fire from James Fisher-Harris in a ruck session at training but no surgery was required and he’s fit in time to return to the end of the Panthers’ pre-season. - AAP
Tough lesson for Haas Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold has spoken out in support of the Broncos’ tough love approach to rising star Payne Haas. The 19-year-old has been suspended for four NRL matches and fined $20,000 after failing to co-operate with the league’s integrity unit. Seibold says the punishment is a big one for Haas but he’s confident the youngster will learn from his mistakes. - AAP
New format confirmed
gaining four second placings over the meet with her efforts in the 50 and 200 metre freestyle as well as the 100 metre butterfly and the 200 metre individual medley.
Reeve picked up a third placing in the 200 metre butterfly while Chloe Lowe was the other podium finisher with her third placing in the 100 metre breaststroke.
The Ashburton Swim Team came home from Invercargill with a heap of personal bests and top 10 placings.
■ CRICKET
Stags have a target on their backs With the business end of the cricket season just around the corner, Mid Canterbury’s four teams have just one more week to get things right before heading into finals. Today’s games are the last of the Muirhead Rosebowl round robin, with next weekend’s action set to be semi-finals, with a final to follow on March 9. It’s crunch time, and the big question on everyone’s lips is
Broken jaws forgotten
whether anyone can stop the Tech Stags. The next team to get a chance to do just that is Lauriston. Lauriston will host the Stags in this afternoon’s final round, while Coldstream are set to head to the Methven Domain this afternoon to take on a Methven side that has been struggling for numbers in recent weeks. Players haven’t always been easy to come by for Tech this sea-
son either, but it hasn’t held them back. Back in round four of the Pritchard Shield competition before Christmas they could only muster seven players against Lauriston, but they still managed to pick up a win. Tech has simply been on a roll this season, drawing the season opening T20 competition final with Lauriston to share that prize, before taking out the Pritchard
Shield and then, in their final home game of the round robin last weekend, locking the Bevan Stroud Memorial Trophy away for the winter. All that remains is the Muirhead Rosebowl and the one that takes into account the entire season, the Studholme Shield. But with only four teams in the competition, just who finishes the season on a high is anyone’s guess.
English cricket chiefs have confirmed the playing conditions for a new 100-ball cricket format known as The Hundred, which is due to start in 2020. Eight new city-based teams will play in the domestic competition over a five-week period, the England and Wales Cricket Board said, adding that the white-ball contest would consist of 100 balls per innings with a change of ends after every 10 deliveries. Bowlers can deliver either five or 10 consecutive balls, with each bowler allowed a maximum of 20 deliveries per game. - AAP
Massive turnaround Just two days after being skittled for just 24 runs, Oman’s one day international squad have bounced back in a major way. The side levelled their three-match series against Scotland yesterday, posting a respectable 248-8 from their allotted overs before bowling Scotland out for 155. It was a stark contrast to the team’s performance two days ago, when Scotland needed fewer than four overs to chase the minuscule 24-run target, the fourth lowest total in List A history. - NZME
Short in spin school ahead of India series D’Arcy Short has gone back to spinning school in a bid to enhance his Australian selection prospects. Short is working with former Indian tweaker Sridharan Sriram, hoping his left-arm wrist spinners give him a selection edge for Australia’s Twenty20 series against India starting tomorrow. “Definitely if I can give two or three overs, or even four or five in one-day cricket, then it’s always going to help my selection in the end and hopefully it goes in my favour,” Short said yesterday. Short took 10 wickets in 15 Big Bash League games for the Hobart Hurricanes in the recently competed
tournament when he was the leading scorer with 637 runs at a strike rate of more than 140. Spin consultant Sriram has previously worked with Short on Australia A tours and helped the 28-yearold gain further confidence with his bowling. “I did a lot of work with him in the A tour in August, that was good, and did a bit of work with him yesterday, just refining things,” Short said. Sriram was urging Short to “keep things simple and keep my momentum ... and energy through the crease”. Australia meet India tomorrow in a T20 game in Visakhapatnam with
another T20 game three days later in Bengalaru. The Australians then play five one-day internationals against the Indians with the series opener on March 2. Australia’s squad has a host of opening batting candidates to partner captain Aaron Finch – Short, Usman Khawaja and regular BBL openers Alex Carey and Marcus Stoinis. And Short said if he won selection, he would adopt a simple batting outlook. “Just try and enjoy it and have fun and not put too much pressure on myself while I’m out there,” he said. “Just go about my plans and hopefully it comes off.” - AAP
D’Arcy Short