Sundaymail Editor
Shelly Guni
ZRP Mambas emerged winners of the Rainbow Netball Amatuer League Dry Run tournament, following a narrow 27-24 win over Glow Petroleum Queens in the final at Morris Depot last night.
RANL reigning champions Correctional Queens and Lusumbami finished off on positions three and four respectively.
The Dry Run tournament saw most major teams participating in the RANL league, in a show of confidence in the division.
There have been genuine concerns on whether the league would be able to retain most of their teams which participated in the previous years after some of the clubs deferred to the newly-formed Premier Netball League.
“It’s a very exciting development, we have been absent from the court for a very long time,” said RANL secretary-general Moses Gukurume.
“We just wanted to test our preparedness in running the league and to see how much it costs to run the league and what might be needed in terms of resources to have our girls get back into shape, for them to prepare for the beginning of the season.
“We are very excited because as you know there are lot of developments in the netball circles and the coming in of PNL we thought we were going to lose most of our teams, but it’s exciting that we retained most of our powerhouses.
“We have written to the Zimbabwe Netball Association more than six times now and their responses have always been negative but as RANL we are unfazed, we always exercise our constitutional right.
“We will continue to play. Whether ZINA is there or SRC is there.
“What we want to create is a landscape that benefits the girl child,” he said.
ZRP Mambas coach Talent Museka said he was surprised with the win as they were not expecting it.
Musaka was also named coach of the tournament which had a US$50 prize.
And for their effort, Mambas went home with US$1 350.
“When we played our first game, I thought we were just going to play to enjoy but when we were paired with a weaker team in the semi-finals we knew we had cruised into the finals.
“That’s when we knew we had to change our mindset. And the final was intense but we fought until the last whistle.”
Last week, the newly registered league, Premier Netball League hosted their inaugural tournament at White City Stadium in Bulawayo, which saw Platinum Queens being crowned champions.
The ‘Golden Hand’ award was given to Pauline Jani with the best player of the tournament gong being snatched by Lusumbami’s Sheila Mpofu and Beaula Hlungwane from Glow Petroleum. And Terrence Madziwa was the best umpire of the tournament.
They each received US$50.
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