Sporting stars confirm team
By Kate Buchanan
From Stuff, February 16, 2002

Southern Sting netball captain Bernice Mene and New Zealand cricketer Dion Nash have decided to form their own team. The pair, who have been partners for about two years, became engaged on Valentine's Day. Mene's manager Glenda Hughes yesterday confirmed the engagement but said the couple would not be making any statements.

"Neither of them has discussed their private life to date and that won't change, because they are very private about their personal life," Hughes said.

She had discussed the engagement with the couple on Thursday but said she did not know if Bernice had a ring yet or whether they had set a date to be married.

"But they are very happy," she said. Bernice's parents, Sally and Mene, were delighted about the engagement.

"It probably was going to happen some time but it was still a lovely surprise...he's (Dion) a real romantic," Mrs Mene said last night. "It will be a lovely romance." Bernice told Dion after he popped the question to talk to the "chief" – adding "anyway, Dad never says no," Mrs Mene said.

Mr Mene said last night he was "over the moon." He managed to catch up with his talented daughter in Auckland yesterday. He was chuffed to receive the phone call from his future son-in-law.

"I was yacking away there about the cricket and he said 'I've asked Bernice to marry me'.

"I said `What? – what did she say?' and Dion said: 'To ask you first'. "I asked him if he was on bended knee right then."

Despite the Mene family's well-known love of sport, Mr Mene confessed to brushing up on his cricket when Dion came on the scene. "I wasn't a cricket fan until Dion came along...I thoroughly enjoy it now, even if Dion's not playing," he said.

Any fatherly advice on marriage secrets? "Knowing both of them, they're great – they don't need much advice those two." Bernice, 26, hails from Canterbury and works in Auckland but has captained the Sting team since 1998.

She announced her retirement as Silver Ferns player and captain last month, although she will lead the Sting in its quest for a fourth title this year. Dion, 30, made his test debut for New Zealand in 1992.

The right-handed batsman and medium-pace bowler's career has been blighted by injury and earlier this month he left the pitch after bowling one over in the first final of the tri-series one-dayer against South Africa.

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