The Star: October 22, 2020

Belle Of Montana.
PHOTO: NZH / STUART MCCORMICK
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
• By Michael Guerin
THE SECOND of pacing’s
glamour girls is out of the New
Zealand Trotting Cup, raising
the very real possibility there
may be no mares in the great
race this season.
Trainer Barry Purdon has
pulled multiple group one
winner Belle Of Montana out of
the $540,000 Cup at Addington
on November 10 and will instead
aim her at mares races.
“I have actually given her a
week off and will set her for the
mares races at Alexandra Park in
December,” said Purdon.
“With the good mares races
she has coming up over the
summer, I decided she doesn’t
need to be going down the NZ
Cup path.
“It takes a very good mare to
win a race like that and she has
plenty of good group one options
remaining where she doesn’t
have to take on the boys over
3200m.”
Belle Of Montana’s arch rival
Princess Tiffany was pulled out
of the Cup last month and has
since headed to Victoria where
she was stunning, winning a
major mares race on Saturday
night, and now finding herself
favourite to win Melton’s Triple
Crown.
That leaves just one mare in
New Zealand Cup reckoning,
the much-improved Wild
Excuse, who after her third in the
Methven Cup last week, sits 17th
in the rankings.
With doubts over a couple of
those ranked above her she may
Thursday October 22 2020 The Star
SPORT 33
Another glamour girl out of NZ Trotting Cup
make the final 15.
One horse guaranteed to be in
the race should his connections
want is Ashley Locaz, who
returned from an Australian
campaign earlier this week to
bolster the All Stars numbers for
the Cup.
Alexandra Park will host the
next Cup lead-up on Friday night
with the 2200m mobile there
featuring On The Cards, who
has snuck into the Cup field for
now with Belle Of Montana’s
withdrawal.
Two of the north’s leading Cup
hopes will be missing, though,
with both Copy That and Mach
Shard heading to the Flying
Stakes at Ashburton on Monday
to take on Self Assured and
Spankem.
- Harness Racing News
Trophy cabinet full
at Cashmere Tech
• By Chris Barclay
PAUL NICHOLLS has ample
wins to savour when he reflects
on another dominant season by
Cashmere Technical, though
it is two games the side didn’t
win which really impressed the
football team’s manager.
Cashmere Technical put
the exclamation mark on an
unbeaten three-tournament
campaign when they completed
another Mainland Premier
League-English Cup double by
beating Christchurch United 2-0
in the final last Saturday.
That victory means the club
formed in 2012 has ownership of
four trophies.
They also hold the Hurley
Shield – Christchurch football’s
version of the Ranfurly Shield
– plus the South Island Championship
trophy after beating
Football South Premier League
winner Green Island 4-1 in
Dunedin.
Only the Chatham Cup is
missing from the silverware
cabinet at Garrick Park, and
possibly only because Covid-19
ensured the competition could
not be held this year.
Cashmere Technical’s defence
of the league crown was so
emphatic they won the 21-round
competition by 21 points, they
amassed 82 goals and conceded a
mere 13 while racking up 19 wins.
“It’s obviously been a very
successful season,” said Nicholls,
who switched focus to 3-3 and
2-2 stalemates with Ferrymead
Bays and Nomads respectively.
“We were on the verge of
losing them, but we kept going
and ended up getting something
out of those games. As far as the
league was concerned it didn’t
really matter but for the boys to
keep that loss column zero was a
fantastic effort.”
TROPHY HUNTER: Cashmere Technical manager Paul
Nicholls with the spoils of the premier men’s team’s ultrasuccessful
football season.
“We conceded three in the
first 25 minutes at Garrick Park
on wet, windy, horrible day. We
managed to get one back before
halftime, we kept plugging away
and we managed to score twice
in the final seven minutes.”
Garbhan Coughlan netted the
point-salvaging double while
Danny Boys equalised in added
time in the final match of the
regular season to thwart Nomads.
The goal glut was spread
around with Lyle Matthysen
the league’s top scorer with 19,
Coughlan produced 12 while
Japanese newcomer Yuka Taguchi
and Andy Tuckey 10 apiece.
Cashmere Technical have not
lost in the league since the opening
round last season where they
lost 2-1 to Ferrymead Bays.
Nicholls attributed the
34-game unbeaten streak to a
cohesive team blessed with the
experience of 200-game veterans
Dan and Tom Schwarz and
Danny Knights.
Coach Dean Hutchinson has
also been at the helm since 2016
after succeeding John Brown.
“The turnover isn’t high, that
is a big part of it. We’ve also got a
very successful reserve side as well,
that ensures the first team don’t get
complacent,” Nicholls said.
Cashmere Technical were
also unbeaten in 2018 when
the league was played over two
rounds – but they were knocked
out of the Chatham Cup at the
semi-final stage so this campaign
in one for the history books.
And now the challenge is to
maintain those high standards
in 2021.
“It’s a question we always ask
ourselves,” Nicholls said.
“We’ll give it a couple of weeks
rest and then we’ll sit down, start
talking about that and see where
we go.”
• By Chris Barclay
CANTERBURY’S allconquering
women’s rugby
team have conjured up pressure
situations they have rarely faced
during their defence of the Farah
Palmer Cup in a bid to be ready
for a rematch of last year’s final.
Training sessions have taken
on even greater importance at
Rugby Park this week after Canterbury
booked a home semifinal
with Auckland on Saturday
after laying waste to their south
pool opposition.
Canterbury head into the sudden
death clash with an imposing
record after racking up five
commanding victories.
Manawatu, who face Hamilton
in the other semi-final on
Sunday in Hamilton, produced
the greatest resistance by limiting
the deficit to 26 points in the
opening round.
Since then Canterbury have
swamped Otago, Hawkes Bay,
Wellington and Tasman, posting
at least a half-century in each
lopsided encounter.
They claimed maximum
points in every game and
amassed a positive points differential
of 284.
Canterbury head coach Blair
Baxter denied complacency
would be an issue as Canterbury
target a fourth successive title,
with precautions already in
place.
FOCUSED:
Canterbury
head coach
Blair Baxter is
confident his
team will be
able to handle
the pressure
of a semi-final
with Auckland
in the Farah
Palmer Cup.
PHOTO:
GETTY
Women geared up
to defend title
“We’ve talked the whole way
through the pool about making
sure we’re ready. We’ve been
working really hard in our training
to replicate that pressure we
may be under on Saturday,” he
said.
Baxter, who took over as coach
this season after moving from
the men’s under-19 programme,
said keeping a settled squad
focused was key as they amassed
331 points, including 84 without
reply against Tasman last Saturday.
“We’re constantly asking them
to get out of their comfort zone,”
said Baxter, who unveils his lineup
on Friday.
“We can do outcome stuff like:
‘Let’s try and limit the penalty
count to five this week’. How do
we create scoreboard pressure
due to the penalty count? How
do we play quick taps?”
Auckland, who have not won
the title since 2015, qualified
with a four-win, two-loss record
to edge out Northland and
Counties Manukau, though
that record gave Baxter no
satisfaction.
“They’ve got lots of Black
Ferns in the 15s and sevens.
We’ve had a look at how they’ve
been playing for the last couple
of weeks, it’s a big challenge for
us,” he said.
“It’s hard to isolate one threat,
they’ve just got so many.”
The match kicks off at 4.35pm.