Sisters Nadine and Laura Newman- Dempster, 20 and 18 years old respectively, have been selected to travel to Queensland in July as members of the New Zealand development team. Other team members are Steven Watson , Nicky Schrafft, James Marshall, Dwayne Mckay, Savannah Church and Darryl Mouat.
 Both girls were members of the winning NZ Under 21 team to play at the HOY against the NSW Under 21 side in March with Nadine taking out Best No 1 at this weekend and Laura Best No 2 player in the ensuing tests over the next weekend. Both girls played in the sponsors carnival at Taupo in March, against NZ’s best and a visiting representative side from NSW.

Laura is also a keen equestrian eventer and is currently ranked 5th on the NZ Intermediate Leaderboard and 4th  as Young Rider. Her horses play at elite level across both sports which is very demanding on both horses and rider.
Nadine and Laura both breed and train their own horses and Nadine is especially pleased with her first competitive season horse, Shania, a 6yr old thoroughbred mare, taking out best number 1 on this mare at the NZ under 21 championships and again at the Rockwood tournament in April.

 Nadine is currently in her 3rd year at university in Auckland studying a Bachelor of Communication majoring in journalism and Laura is in her 1st year of a Bachelor of Engineering degree on a Sir Edmund Hillary scholarship and Engineering scholarship at Waikato. This will be Nadine’s second excursion across the ditch representing her country. In May she is representing NZ as the winning senior finalist at the Trans Tasman Country music awards held on Norfolk Island.