Fungayi Munyoro-Chingaira

SPORTS EDITOR

MUTARE-Tenax Queens a Mutare- based  netball side got the ball rolling on a positive note when they defeated new girls Mthala and Jinjika in their season openers in the Rainbow Amateur Netball League (RANL) which got underway on Saturday. Tenax Queens started their campaign at home taking on  Chitungwiza  new girls Jinjika and beating them 56-18.

In their second encounter, Tenax dismissed another new side Mthala 54-26.

Coach Edzai Nkosana said the Prisons and Correctional Girls are eying a top three finish.  Nkosana said there are no new changes to the 2022 team. 

“We have  started  our season very well. The girls played well. Last year we finished on  fourth position. This year we are geared up and we are aiming a top three finish. We are working very hard and we will be meeting Correctional Services on February 18. We hope to put up a good show,” she said.

The league resumed with a total of 18 teams and the league’s secretary general Moses Gukurume said they are happy to welcome new promoted teams to the league.

“Our league  resumed it’s games on Saturday. We are happy to say we retained all the teams we finished with last season. We have also new teams coming in-Jinjika from Chitungwiza, Belvedere Teachers College, Delta Transport and Mthala from Bulawayo. We are really excited about having 18 teams and we have prepared enough. We are looking forward to an exciting season,” he said.

“Generally the 2022 season was good since we managed to finish our program on time. However, we were disappointed that some teams who had shown potential at the beginning of the season failed to last in the race. Some failed to fulfill their games including home games. This disappointed our fans as well. We also faced administrative challenges and we failed to provide licenses for players. Players switched clubs at will. We promise to do better this season since we have started working on players’ licenses, coaches and managers. This will help in easily identifying a player by her team. Otherwise we are geared up for the 2023 season,” said Gukurume.