Bay Harbour: November 14, 2018

Wednesday <strong>November</strong> <strong>14</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />

BATTLE:<br />

Sumner<br />

captain<br />

Johnny<br />

Beveridge<br />

scored 41<br />

against<br />

Riccarton.<br />

• By Louis Day<br />

SUMNER SUFFERED their<br />

second defeat of the season after<br />

losing to Riccarton at St Leonards<br />

Square.<br />

Skipper Johnny Beveridge<br />

scored 41 runs but was unable<br />

to prevent his side finishing on a<br />

disappointing 70 all out.<br />

Club coach Dan Vann said they<br />

were not “mentally switched on”<br />

in what he described as a bad day<br />

at the office.<br />

“We had that really heavy rain<br />

on Thursday and Friday, which<br />

meant the pitch and block got<br />

quite wet, which meant we didn’t<br />

get started till 2.30 when we usually<br />

start at 10.30. We normally<br />

have a good warm up and routine<br />

that we follow, but because of the<br />

delays we just had a last minute<br />

coin toss and got put into bat and<br />

just didn’t show up really.”<br />

Riccarton were initially<br />

cautious in their reply, with<br />

Sumner’s Dean Smith and Nawid<br />

SPORTS<br />

Sumner slump to second<br />

one-day cricket loss<br />

Mohamaddy managing to take a<br />

couple of early wickets.<br />

The Riccarton middle order<br />

then decided to take a few risks<br />

and managed to gain traction<br />

with some aggressive batting and<br />

eventually ran down the total,<br />

losing five wickets on the way.<br />

Sumner remains second on the<br />

championship ladder, two wins<br />

behind rivals Heathcote who they<br />

will face at the weekend.<br />

Vann is confident the team<br />

can bounce back against the<br />

championship leaders and bring<br />

their unbeaten run in the one-day<br />

competition to an end.<br />

“If we play well we can knock<br />

them off which will keep us in the<br />

running for this year. We know<br />

we have got a good enough side to<br />

beat them.”<br />

Sumner’s over 35s were the only<br />

other team at the club to play over<br />

the weekend. They defended the<br />

Challenge Shield, which they won<br />

the previous week, with a victory<br />

over Merivale Papanui.<br />

Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />

• By Louis Day<br />

SUMNER basketballer Sofia<br />

Kennedy was “heartbroken”<br />

after missing out on<br />

qualification for the FIBA junior<br />

world championships with the<br />

Junior Tall Ferns.<br />

They missed qualification<br />

after losing to Australia in the<br />

quarter-finals at the FIBA Asia<br />

championships in Bangalore.<br />

“It was obviously a big game<br />

because it’s Australia and it’s a<br />

bit of a grudge match, but also<br />

because it was our chance to get<br />

into the semi-finals. The top four<br />

qualify for worlds so we needed<br />

to win that game to qualify.”<br />

The year 13 Middleton<br />

Grange student said fatigue had<br />

a major impact on their performance.<br />

“We came out kind of tired<br />

looking and low on energy, so<br />

we were down by like 30 at halftime<br />

and got a bit of a bollocking<br />

by the coaches.”<br />

The Junior Tall Ferns managed<br />

to reduce the deficit to six points<br />

but were unable to hold on and<br />

ended up losing 82-66.<br />

“We were pretty gutted about<br />

it to be honest as we definitely<br />

thought the Aussies were beatable.”<br />

Following the defeat, they<br />

managed to beat Chinese Taipei<br />

75-47 to claim fifth, missing out<br />

on qualification by one place.<br />

In spite of missing out on the<br />

world championships, Sofia said<br />

the tournament was an invaluable<br />

experience.<br />

“It was my first international<br />

tournament so it was great to<br />

have a bit of exposure to the way<br />

the Asian teams play, it was definitely<br />

a lot faster and just better<br />

to what I’m used to.”<br />

As well as competing in the<br />

FIBA Asia championships, Sofia<br />

BAY HARBOUR<br />

PAGE 21<br />

Sumner basketballer ‘heartbroken’<br />

over loss to Aussie<br />

ALMOST: Sofia<br />

Kennedy made<br />

her debut for<br />

the Junior<br />

Tall Ferns at<br />

the FIBA Asia<br />

championships<br />

in Bangalore.<br />

also took part in the crosscountry<br />

world championships in<br />

Paris and the Australian crosscountry<br />

champs earlier this year.<br />

Sofia is now looking to secure<br />

a basketball or cross-country<br />

scholarship at an American<br />

university. She said a basketball<br />

scholarship was a priority over<br />

cross-country.