Blue Lightning is the first Nomndayi netball tournament winners
The player of the tournament walked away with R3 000.
Kwa-Thema – The first netball tournament of the Nomndayi Community Games was played over the Easter weekend.
Held at the Kwa-Thema Stadium, the tournament saw 12 teams battling it out for the R15 000 prize money.
The participating teams were Olieven Queens, Chipeya Black Diamond (CBD), Blue Lightning, Ofezela, Brainwashers, 7 Stars, Arsenal, Archaar Girls, Metro Stars, Black Eagles, Johannesburg Inner City Netball Club (JI CN) and Johannesburg Central Netball Club (JC NC).
Four teams, Olieven Queens, Brainwashers, Archaar Girls and Metro Stars, were knocked out in the first round and the other eight moved to the quarter-finals.
Results of the quarter-finals:
*Blue Lightning beat Black Eagles 24-8
*Ofezela had a walkover against CBD as CBD got to the stadium late.
*7 Stars beat Arsenal 21-19
*JI CN beat JC NC 20-17
Semi-finals:
*Blue Lightning 27-10 7 Stars
*Ofezela 19-16 JI CN
7 Stars and JI CN went head-to-head in a losers’ final where JI CN won 27-23.
Ofezela and Blue Lightning met at the finals, where Blue Lightning won the tournament by beating Ofezela 29-21.
Masabatha Mdluli, one of the organisers of the tournament, said, “It was a great honour organising the tournament even though we faced a lot of challenges, such as another time frame that was given to us to organise it.
“We wanted this to happen so bad that we worked day and night to make this event a success. The tournament saw national players from Zimbabwe, Botswana and our own NSA players compete.
“We also had a lot of development players from the age of 15. Our player of the tournament who received R3 000 is only 16.”
The individual winners were:
*Best shooter: Mercy Nangoyi of JC NC
*Best centre: Lerato Mthimkhulu of Black Eagles
*Best defender: Zamokuhle Mpila of 7 Stars
*The MVP/ Player of the tournament and R3 000 prize winner was Agreement Zitha of Brainwashers.
