Boland took the lead with two more victories on the fourth day of the Spar National Netball Championships at the Pretoria University Indoor Sports Centre on Thursday.
The winelands team, who last won the title in Port Elizabeth in 2006, beat their neighbours, Western Province, in a hard-fought derby match. Western Province took an early four-eleven lead, and at half time were leading 20, but Boland forged ahead in the second half and ran out 43-35 winners.
In their second match, Boland beat another front-running team, North West South, 36-33. North West South led until the final round – at the end of the third quarter they had a slender lead of 26-24 — but some handling errors and inexperience let them down as Boland came back hard.
Earlier, North West South went down to Nelson Mandela Bay, who secured a convincing 46-32 win. "We didn’t start off too well – they were a bit flat in the first quarter, but they came back strongly after that," said coach/mentor Reginald Sharp.
"It’s a team of seven to nine good players, without any stars, and fresh legs at strategic times make all the difference. I believe the team with the best bench will win the tournament, because it is a gruelling competition, with two matches a day."
However, fresh legs were not enough in their match against defending champions Gauteng North, who beat them 39-36. Gauteng North also beat Free State 34-28, and although they are two points behind Boland, they have a game in hand.
Free State brought Griqualand West back to earth on Thursday by beating them 44-40 in a hard fought encounter at the Spar national netball championships at the Pretoria University Indoor Sports Centre.
The match was the most exciting of the tournament so far. The first quarter ended with the teams level-pegging on 11-all, but Free State got their noses in front after that, and never surrendered the lead again.
Several times, Griquas got within one goal, but mistakes cost them dearly. Although goal shooter Claudia Basson was in fine form, Griquas persisted with long passes that were frequently intercepted by the more experienced Free State team.
Earlier, Griquas recorded their fourth win when they beat Gauteng Central 57-52. National coach Karin Strauss praised the newly-promoted Griquas side.
"It has been amazing to see what Claudia Basson and (centre) Liezel Wium have done for that team," she said. "Also, of course, they have the same team that played in the National Netball League, and so the players know each other very well."
The other newly-promoted team, Gauteng West won both their matches, registering their first victories of the tournament. They beat Gauteng East 39-31 and Gauteng Central 46-43.
After four days, the tournament is still wide open. Boland lead with 12 points from seven matches, while Gauteng North and Griqualand West each have 10 from six matches. Free State have 10 points from seven matches.
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