Due to unforeseen circumstances, Loughborough-based Falcons Black only had a squad of 6 for their away game against Kent (31/03/13).
Even so, Falcons Black made a promising start against the home team. Their tactics were to slow the ball up for any of Kent’s centre passes and delay it getting to the circle edge, which proved very effective and allowed the team to match Kent goal for goal for most of the first quarter. In fact, it was just 4 turnovers from Kent which saw them take a slight advantage going into the first break, with a 12 - 8 lead. This year’s Regional U16 competition saw Charnwood Sapphires take to the court in a round robin tournament played on 10 and 24 March at the Sir David Wallace Sports Hall, Loughborough University. All matches were 4 quarters of 8 minutes played between the top 2 teams from each of the 5 East Midlands Counties.
Sapphires first opposition were Corby from Northants and they soon raced into a 15 – 6 half time lead. Corby fought back in the 3rd quarter to reduce the deficit to 5 goals. This spurred the Sapphires on and they ran out 27 – 16 winners. With the playoffs inevitable, Lincoln 2 decided to change it up for their match against Notts Knights. Defender Lizzie Saywell was out through injury and a recent call up for Vic Adams meant Jade Houlton was joined by Megan Samways in defence. Lincoln began the first quarter well with goals from Vicky Bayes and Laura Forsey, but the Knights soon stormed ahead, taking a 13 goal advantage as the quarter ended 7-20.
Lincoln made changes in the second quarter with defender Jade moving to goal shooter. 16 year old Carla Baker came on at goal keeper and Megan moved to goal defence. However the Knights again proved to be too strong and took a 12-37 lead into half-time. In the third quarter, attacker Vicky moved to goal defence alongside young Carla. Lincoln’s feeds into the attacking circle were stronger and became more frequent as Zoe Cooper moved to wing attack after a good half at centre. Her passes into Jade at shooter were perfectly timed as Lincoln’s best quarter finished 11-19. The score moving into the fourth quarter was 23-56. For the final 15 minutes, Beth Sullivan moved to goal keeper where, despite her lack of height, she worked hard in defence and supported well when attacking. After a terrific Knights performance, Lincoln were fortunate to gain a point from the game, the final score finished 34-68 to Knights. Woman of the match was awarded to Zoe Cooper for her good hussle at centre and a strong performance at wing attack. Her accurate and well-timed feeds into the shooting circle were particularly effective. Charnwood Sapphires went into Sunday's East Midlands Netball Regional League Division 2 fixture against top of the table, Falcons Yellow, knowing that only a win would guarantee them a playoff spot.
Charnwood Sapphire got off to a nervous start, quickly going 3 goals behind but they soon settled down and turned the score around, taking a 13-10 lead into the first quarter break. Sapphires continued to pile on the pressure in the second quarter and with accurate shooting from Lisa Griffiths (Goal Shooter, GS) and Sam Griffin (Goal Attack, GA) they increased their lead to 28-22. With the majority of the squad available, Loughborough-based Falcons Black aimed to build on their previous performance in an attempt to move away from the relegation playoff places in their latest England Netball Prem 2 game (3 March 2013).
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April 2013
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