Two of Rarotonga’s social legends, Dawn Baudinet and Theresa Manarangi-Trott, were caught enjoying the exterior seating in sunny conditions which also offered them a great view of two games which were being held today at the Telecom Stadium. On Court 1, New Zealand was involved in a rather aggressive match against Trinidad and Tobago. NZ won 89-31. On Court 2, Northern Ireland battled out a much closer contest against Scotland, winning their game 53-40.
Never short of a comment or two, Dawn and Theresa expressed disappointment that a number of people had been turned away from the games because “there were no more seats”, yet inside there were several pockets of empty seats around the immediate court area. It would have been better for the teams to have had more voices on the sidelines cheering them on during their hard-fought matches. “The Cook Islands is very privileged to have been given the opportunity to host this tournament,” said Theresa, “and to be able to showcase the calibre of skills demonstrated on the courts by these experienced players is something that our young netballers would not normally get a chance to see.”  From what they have seen of the tournament so far, their favourite players are New Zealanders Paula Griffin and Alanah Cassidy who are “doing an awesome job in the goal area”.