GRASSHOPPER GETS HALF WAY AGAIN

Grasshopper Netball Club had a shaky start to the first quarter of this week’s East Midlands Netball Regional League Division 2 game against Lincolnshire’s Brigg and District (23/10/12). Three of Grasshopper’s centres were turned over, whilst Brigg & District showed some very solid shooting to lead 7-20 at the end of the quarter.

Grasshopper’s coach, Anne Melling then made some changes for the second quarter. She moved Steph Hiom to Goal Defence (GC), Fran Barney to Goal Keeper (GK) and brought on Becs Smith as Wing Defence (WD). This ensured that the second quarter was much more tightly contested. Grasshopper Netball Club put on a superb display at either end of the court and only lost this quarter by one goal (8-9), meaning that the half time score was 15-29.

The third quarter saw Grasshopper’s Laura Harbour taken off and Karmen Askew moved to Centre, with Claire Fielding come on as Wing Attack (WA). The match continued to be fiercely contested, with Grasshopper matching Brigg & District's scoring. Once again Grasshopper lost the quarter by a single goal though (11-12), resulting in a 26-41 score line.

However, the final quarter saw Brigg and District's shooters convert goal after goal, whilst Grasshopper's final passes started to go astray. Grasshopper lost the fourth quarter, 7-16, with the final score being 33-57 in Brigg & District’s favour.

Despite the loss, the whole team competed well and gave 100% effort. In particular, Grasshopper’s Fran Barney had a very good game in defence and was awarded Grasshopper’s Player of the Match.