Tickets on sale for Steel’s Queenstown tournament

Tickets to the Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel’s annual preseason tournament in Queenstown are now on sale.

Australian franchise the Queensland Firebirds will join New Zealand-based ANZ Championship teams the Canterbury Tactix, Central Pulse and the home side at the three-day netball spectacular to be staged in the resort from January 28-30.

The talents of several netballers who competed at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October, including Steel’s gold medal trio Daneka Wipiiti, Liana Leota (nee Barrett-Chase) and Leana de Bruin, will be on display. Australian Diamonds Laura Geitz, Natalie Medhurst and Lauren Nourse, together with Jamaican shooting star Romelda Aiken, will spearhead the Firebirds, while Silver Fern defender Katrina Grant captains the Pulse.

Members of the victorious FastNet Ferns, who claimed the World Series title in Liverpool last month, will also feature.

A late decision by the NSW Swifts not to attend forced a reshuffle of the draw, which will now include semi-finals and a final. Steel sponsorship and marketing manager Brett Williams said the Queenstown fixture was the highlight of the team’s preseason preparation.

“The tournament is always well supported and it’s great to bring games to the regions that back Steel so passionately,” he said.

“Our fans will have the opportunity to see some of the world’s best netballers from both sides of the Tasman and even Jamaica in action in our own backyard.”

Tickets to both day and evening sessions of the event are now available from the Queenstown Events Centre and Ticket Direct with the Steel’s showcase game against the Firebirds at 7.30pm on Friday, January 28, and the final scheduled for 1pm on Sunday. The Robyn Broughton-coached Steel team officially starts its 2011 ANZ Championship bid for trans-Tasman supremacy on February 14 against the Mystics in Auckland.

ENDS

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