32 NT NEWS. Tuesday, August 13, 2013. www.ntnews.com.au

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Panthers pounce on title

Darwin 1 player Belinda Anderson swings hard as Panthers catcher Bianca Scrymgour shapes to collect during the 2013 NT Softball Championships women’s Division 1 final Picture: HELEN ORR

SOFTBALL

PANTHERS took the lion’sshare of silverware on offer inthe women’s divisions at the2013 NT Softball Champion-ships held at the Tracy Vill-age Sporting Complex.

Panthers beat the hotfavourites, Darwin 1, 13-3 inthe women’s division 1 final.

The Darwin team was madeup with NT representative

nominees. Along with AliceSprings, it had been pre-tournament favourites — butAlice was knocked out in thepreliminary final and theDarwin team was upset inthe decider.

Softball NT media and com-munications officer EmmaHarvey said: ‘‘We alwayshave a mixed team that playsin the championships underthe Panther banner and this

year it was essentially Dar-win and Katherine women.

‘‘None were NT represent-ative players and it surprisedall when they took the title insuch a commanding manner.

‘‘Panthers pitcher MelanieRetchford won the Division 1MVP and it was her perform-ance on the mound that wasthe major difference.

‘‘It was expected the Dar-win 1 and Alice Springs teams

would play off in the final, butPanthers had other ideas.’’

In women’s Division 2, Pan-thers won by the narrowest ofmargins when they took thetitle 9-8 over Darwin A.

But in the men’s division,Palmerston upstaged peren-nial champs Panthers 9-6.

Palmerston was predomin-antly a team of baseballersand took the title on the backof a solid performance from

Anthony Bell, who won theMVP and fielding awards.

‘‘Overall it was one of thebest Championships we havehad — the level of compe-tition was strong across alldivisions,’’ Harvey said.

‘‘The Brolga’s was a men’steam from the Tiwi Islandsand they were unbelievablytalented — if they played reg-ular competition, look out theDarwin teams.’’

Results and awards.Women’s Division 1: Panthers d

Darwin 1 (13-3). MVP: Melanie Ret-chford. Pitching: Virginia Morris.Fielding: Michelle Krauer. Batting:AshleeMcInnes.Women’s Division 2: Panthers d

Darwin A (9-8). MVP: Noelene Chel-lingsworth. Pitching: Marie Napatali.Fielding: Jackie McSkimming. Batting:Noelene Chellingsworth.Men’s: Palmerston d Panthers

(9-6). MVP: Anthony Bell. Fielding:Anthony Bell. Pitching: Darren Braun.Batting:WilliamBouwer.

System Homes Roadies edge out ChampionsTABLE TENNIS

IT was a big night for Roadiesin the second round of Caza-ly’s A-Grade table tennis com-petition when they unveiled anew sponsorship deal whichwill see them known as theSystem Homes Roadies.

Star player John Pudneygot them off to a flying startagainst Champions, but un-fortunately he had to leave af-ter his singles win.

Junior player, Sonny Car-twright, was enlisted to rep-lace Pudney, and he com-bined with the in-formDennis Evans to take a cru-cial doubles rubber, winning12-10 in the final set after sav-ing two match points.

That was enough for Sys-tem Homes Roadies to clinchthe match 6 rubbers to 5.

Cartwright is one of fourjuniors who will representthe NT at the National Junior

Championships in Melbournein six weeks time.

The other matches werejust as tight. Honey notchedup their second consecutive6-5 victory, this time againstPalmerston Golf Club.

In the pivotal rubber PedroLay (Honey) outlasted ElfridaKalich in a nail-biting five-setter, winning 12-10, 14-12,8-11, 8-11, 13-11.

Ladder leaders Brothersgot home against Phoenix,

but only after a scare. An-other representative junior,Jonathon Tong combinedwith Graham Symons to winthe second doubles rubberwhich tied up the match at 4rubbers each. When Tongtook the first set of the ninthrubber against Thong MannLee, a major upset looked tobe brewing, but the experi-enced Lee steadied andclinched the rubber three setsto one, after which Brothers

recorded a 7-4 victory. ToongYeen Lee is the only player tohave won a perfect six out ofsix singles rubbers.

In Cazaly’s B-Grade compe-tition, Reapers and Stars bothhad convincing 9-2 victoriesand will battle each other fortop spot on Thursday night.

There will be considerableinterest in the match-up be-tween Robert Ho (Reapers)and Mukesh Jain (Stars) whoare the only players to rack

up six singles wins in the firsttwo rounds. Robots andNinjas were both beaten. Adepleted Robots line-up wentdown to the Bulls. The Ninjaslost three tight five-setters toBlasters’ Sonny Cartwrightand Chris Depasquale.

Round2 results.A-Grade: Honey 6 d Palmerston Golf

Club 5; Brothers 7 d Phoenix 4; SystemHomes Roadies 6 d Champions 5.

B:Grade Bulls 9 d Robots 2; Blasters7 d Ninjas 4; Stars 9 d Tigers 2; Reapers9 d Geckos 2.