World netball championships in Rarotonga

Things are certainly busy here at the moment.
The World Youth Netball Championships are being hosted by the Cook Islands this year.
Twenty teams of under-21 netballers from around the world are in Rarotonga for the ten-day tournament which started last Monday (10 August).
The weather was lovely for the first few days but it’s turned cold and windy now (that’s by Rarotonga standards when anything under 20C feels a bit chilly).
The Cook Islands team is comprised mainly of New Zealand and Australia based players but they are still obviously the local favourites and they have done well so far winning all three of their matches. Today they face England who are the top seeds in our group. We should finish second in the group and go on to fight it out for the top eight places.
All the other teams have local supporters thanks to an adopt-a-county scheme for the schools on Rarotonga. Each school has one or more teams to support (depending on the size of the school) and the kids go along to their matches with flags, banners, pom poms and loud voices. All good fun.
More details and photos of the tournament are on the Pacific Mini Games 2009 website – yes the games will be the next international sporting event coming up in September. Check it out here at http://www.2009pacificgames.co.ck/
(This video of the opening ceremony and another of the first game are already on the site.)