North Canterbury (Rangiora) Pre-season Netball Tournament 2025

Waking up bright and early around 4:00 am to be ready by 5:50 am to catch the van to Rangiora, it was wet and freezing. As soon as we got on the road, the weather finally cleared. After getting stuck in traffic and at bridge roadworks (of course) we completed our journey to Rangiora netball courts at Dudley Park. Everyone started out tired and grumpy but, as soon as daylight hit, everyone was suddenly awake and alive, blasting music, braiding and tying hair, eating delicious foods and taping previous injuries. 

After about two and a bit hours, (it felt like five) we finally got to the courts and jumped out of the van as fast as all of us could to stretch and walk over to the Geraldine Old Girls teams to set up gazebos and seats. We finished setting up and ran to our court to start the warm up on a slippery court with no sun in sight. By the time we got all our bibs on and finished warm ups, we were ready to play only to find out the first team we were opposing was supposed to be under 18’s, except they didn’t look like it. After playing three games and losing we were tired, cold and sore to the point where most of us were crippling in pain and dragging our own feet. Not wanting to play one more game, Stacy, our amazing coach, encouraged us to go have fun and make the most of it. And…we did!

We played, had fun, connected together with our skills and techniques and learnt from each other and the other team. The other team were supposed to be “under 15” but in my opinion didn’t look like it. Although we lost all our games and were tired and sore, we enjoyed our time playing in Rangiora and playing against other teams based in and around Rangiora in the North Canterbury area. Shortly after having done our stretches and cool down. We ended up at the gazebo again to end our day with a chocolate coca-cola cake with caramel inside and other goodies we had lying around. It was all so good!! It was a quiet ride home to Geraldine. It left us wishing we could keep playing and knowing we had heaps of fun spending the day with our team, learning from each other and enjoying each other's company. 

I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to North Canterbury Netball for providing us with the court and hoops. Thank you to all the umpires that gave up their time to umpire our games. A massive thank you to all the teams we versed and their kind sportsmanship. And one last thank you to our amazing supporters, Geraldine Old Girls teams and Geraldine High teams for participating in this amazing event. I hope you had an awesome day and hope to see you in Rangiora again, ready for another round of netball.

• Elayna P