Ominous start for sluggish Eastern

Poor shooting and soft turnovers contributed to Eastern's woeful start to the National Netball Championship at North Shore.

"A positive was the fact we made 49 attempts, which means we are getting the ball to the circle," Eastern head coach Jewels Falcon said after the 71-26 loss to North Harbour on Saturday. "However we only succeeded with 53 per cent of our attempts and that's something all of our shooters have to take responsibility for."

"It was always going to be a battle to hang on after that. We were up against a side coached by Yvonne Willering and Linda Vagana ... they had three New Zealand secondary schools representatives and some experienced campaigners in Julie Kelman-Poto, Brigette Tapene and Jessica Moulds."

Eastern were beaten 17-6 in the second quarter and produced their best quarter in the third when beaten 13-11. North Harbour won the fourth quarter 17-5. Woodford House and HHSOG Huias player Millie Ironside was the best of the Eastern shooters with three from five attempts.

Veteran Physique shooter Cheleme Smiler-Ah Kiong had a couple of long shots as the North Harbour defence did a top job in keeping Smiler-Ah Kiong well away from the net.

Falcon said goal keep Rhiarna Ferris and goal defence Briar Chalmers worked tirelessly. "They did some honest defensive work and then we would turn the ball over and Harbour would be shooting again. Rhiarna and Briar both play for Otane ... I tried to go with club combinations as much as possible as we only had one training session as a team.

"Things won't get any easier in the buildup to Sunday's game against Western in Pettigrew-Green Arena."

Ironside and the Hastings Girls' High School pair of Taylor Greening and Leykin Rowlands-Huirama will be away at the Lower North Island secondary schools tournament in Palmerston North this week and with the Wellington-based pair of Candis Cardie and Bianca Lloyd-Jones not arriving until the weekend, Saturday will be the only day Falcon can have a full team training.

Opposite the house is also a townhouse with big trees. But this house is quite open as it is the place where Jatuporn welcomes his guests. He said the second townhouse does not belong to him. "If they didn't give it to me, I wouldn't have bought it," he said, without elaboration.

Decorating his house here and there are products made by the red shirts, especially from Chiang Mai's Ban Thawai. He is particularly proud of the bouquets made with Bt20 banknotes that the red shirts made for him while waiting to hear the bail order for this suspect, who is facing a terrorism charge.

On the second and the third floors of the Bt2.7-million worth townhouse that he has reported to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, Jatuporn keeps dozens of Buddha images, sculptures of Thai revered kings and respected monks as well as the clothes - red shirts - given to him by his admirers.

"It is strange. They just came to me. One time I thought before I went to bed that I'd like to have a sculpture of King Taksin the Great for me to worship. In no time, even before I woke up in the morning, someone called me and told me that he would give me this sculpture," he said. He now has such sculptures of King Taksin the Great in various postures, he claims.

Jatuporn also proudly said there were delicate ceremonies and mysterious stories behind the transportation of such sacred items. For example, a rare set of sculptures of six Great Kings of Thailand made in Nakhon Si Thammarat were meant to be given to some other person before, but the engines of the vehicles did not work so the set was safely transported to his house.

"And this is the house of the person accused of overthrowing the monarchy," he said, laughing. "I am sure I have more sculptures of Thai kings than the Army chief does."