Deaf Sports NZ -  New Zealand Deaf Games

(Photos supplied by Karen Casey Photography.)

 Southern Zone won the coveted Aotearoa Turi Shield at the bi-annual New Zealand Deaf Games held in Christchurch over Labour weekend. Just over 150 athletes took part over three days of Labour weekend.

The New Zealand Deaf Games was first held in Auckland in 1969, while in 1970 at Palmerston North, the Aotearoa Turi Shield was first introduced. The games are now divided into three Zones, North, Central and South and compete in 12 different sports for the Aotearoa Turi Shield.

The 12 sports included were: Lawn Bowls, Ten Pin Bowling, Basketball, Netball, Indoor Netball, Touch, Badminton, Squash, Darts, Indoor Football, Indoor Bowls and 8 Ball Pool. The basketball and indoor netball was played in Cowles Stadium.

 

In the basketball, Southern Zone, consisting of mainly Canterbury players, came from behind in the second half to beat Central Zone A in the Grand Final 41-32 after the game was tied 19-19 at half time. Southern had the difficult job of beating Central B in the semi-final, and shortly after match up against Central A again in the final.

National Deaf representative Ross Freemantle kept Central A in the hunt with support from Theo Waterhouse while MVP Ashley Bensley of Christchurch led the Southern Zone efforts with a steadying performance. Some telling baskets against a tiring Central A in the middle stages of the second half saw Southern pull away to take the national title. Daniel Williams and player-coach Jake laBerge also contributed strongly for Southern.

Earlier, in round robin play on Friday, Central Zone A team started strongly, edging Southern Zone 31-27 in a close encounter, after the game was tied 13-13 at half-time. Central A then disposed of Central B, a side that contained several Northern players 51-26.

After a slow start, Southern ran the ball at speed through the efforts of Herbie Agnew while strong defence shut out Central B’s key player Fetuao Ualesi. Southern used its bench to good effect in the second spell to win the encounter 49-28 and re-match on Saturday in the semi-final. Southern again started well through the efforts of Daniel Williams and Mathew Flynn. After leading 15-8 at the break, Southern pulled clear, winning comfortably 49-28 with Bensley contributing three more baskets.

 

Results were:

Basketball: Round robin play: Central A 31 (Clive Morgan 9, Ben Webb 8) Southern 27 (Ashley Bensley 12), Central A 51 (Ross Freemantle 13, Clive Morgan 12, Ben Webb 10) Central B 26 (Fetuao Ualesi 9), Southern 49 (Dan Williams 12, Ashley Bensley 10) Central B 28 (Terence Chase 14, Fetuao Ualesi 12).

Semi-Final: Southern 38 (Ashley Bensley 10) Central B 19 (Fetuao Ualesi 8, Terence Chase 8).

Grand Final: Southern 41 (Bensley 15, Daniel Williams 11, Jake leBerge 10) Central A 32 (Theo Waterhouse 11, Ross Freemantle 11). MVP Ashley Bensley (Southern).

Other results:

Indoor Netball: Southern A beat Southern B in the final.

Netball: Southern comfortably toppled Central to take out top spot.

Touch: Southern held off Central to win Touch.

Badminton: Southern held off Central to win by 1 point.

Squash: Southern took out maximum points in Squash.

Darts: Central toppled Southern in both Mens and Womens darts to win with a points margin of 10-2.

Indoor Football: Southern comfortably toppled both Northern and Central to take out the Indoor Football at Howzat.

8 Ball Pool: Northern Zone took maximum honours with 9 points from their Men and Women with Central second with 3 points.

Lawn Bowls: The triples mixed Lawn Bowls title went to Southern with 4 points to Central's 2.

Ten Pin Bowling: Southern took out the top two spots against Northern to win the Ten Pin Bowling 5 points to 1.

Indoor Bowls: Central just managed to beat Southern with a victory of 3 points to 2.

Jake LaBerge sent in his report:

After the first 2 games on Friday, I went through where we made mistake in our first loss to the Central A team in that we didn’t pass the ball quick enough. The past few weeks I have been emphasizing my players to dribble less and pass more to make the defense move as much as possible so we can find holes and go for it. Our defense weren't solid and stingy enough, so in the finals I made sure that we made our defense more tight and draw plenty of fouls so that Central A team will struggle in the end of the game and it worked. I yelled at the players to stop looking at the scoreboard and keep their eyes in the court and stay focused. Less distractions. 

Southern Zone Deaf Basketball team: Ashley Bensley,  Daniel Williams, Rodney Roberts, Herbie Agnew, Toby Agnew, Matthew Flynn, Mustafa al-Momani, Miguel Javier, Jake LaBerge (player-coach).