Nuts & Bolts win cup

The National Sports

By JACK AMI
TAIKONE Nuts & Bolts men’s and KilaKila Kupis women’s are the undisputed kings and queens of the  fourth Moresby-South Easter JT Cup grand final played at the Kila Kila Cricket oval on Easter Monday.
Nuts & Bolts upset Mix Mates 3-0 and Kupis beat Huva Naura 3-1 for the top honours.
Top quality action was on display, with current and former Papua New Guinea elite volleyballers executing powerful drives to the amazement of their vocal supporters.
These were upset wins for Nuts & Bolts and Kupis, who received the K5000 cash prize and the Justin Tkatchenko Cup for their efforts.
Vabukori Mix Mates and Huva Naura settled for K3000 each.
Both sides had players from established volley ball teams from Vabukori and National Capital District with big hitters to dominate the proceedings of the day but in the end the better side came away victors.
Senior player and PNG international Opa Mea said the team showed that Taikone volleyball was alive and well since its dethroning by Vabukori some 12 years ago.
Taikone were led by Junior Memehere, 2015 Pacific Games beach volleyball gold medallist Moha Opa Mea, Larson Morris and ably assisted by rising international Simon Tua Jr and Heni Peter Botiba. Heni and Botiba are members of the Scorpions Volleyball Club, who recently took part in a tournament in Brisbane, Australia.
Others who stood out for Taikone were young guns Asiri and Joe  Kake, Titi Heni, Kila Joe Harry, John Back and Joe Savoa.
Theirs was a formidable combination in attack and defence, that shut down Junior Taera Momo’s elite team 3-0 in front of a capacity crowd.
The Taikone outfit was never shaken by the vicious spikes delivered by Momo and took control of the game from the start of the first set to win 25-22.
Realising that they were in troubled-waters, Mix Mates got their act together and came back strongly in the second set to have the scores neck-and-neck but Taikone had their cool and penetrated the defence with added firepower from Tua, Mea, Morris, Botiba, Memehere and Kake to lead in the sets and never looked back from the start to pile on vital points to win the second set 25-23 and the third 25-22.
Nuts & Bolts not only dethroned Mix Mates but also proved a class above the Huva team led by Ravu Mahuru in the earlier qualifying games 2-1 to earn the right to meet Mix  Mates in the grand final.