JERSEY OPEN TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Accies and Convent take Centre Stage.
At the end of an exciting and jam-packed weekend of fast, furious, back to back netball - at times a game of strength & stamina, at others - skill, wit and cunning; sometimes a walk over - and momentarily a game definitely not for girls!! It was Jersey teams who emerged victorious in both categories!
Of 18 teams, eleven travelled from the UK - three having two sides in the running, four with only one and incredibly the Prison Service made up of prison officers from across the UK. These ladies meet only twice or three times a year to train together, being either in uniformed or civilian posts from establishments stretching from Preston, North Doncaster, North Lincoln, Midlands, Birmingham, London, Dent & Exeter. They have a total of 20 to 25 players on the books and play fixtures against the Navy and Police, enter open tournaments, and arrange inter-prison and regional competition. But although bringing a team together proves difficult due to work demands, the Jersey Open is always a definite on their annual schedule - even though they all fly in at different times from different airports and never know who is on the team until they get here!
First round on Saturday morning saw teams compete in three groups, which would then position them in either The Trophy competition, for the top 9 teams or The Plate competition - for teams finishing in tenth to eighteenth.
Trophy competitors -
Abbey A
Barnes A
Convent
Red Arrows
SAS
SAS Red
Southwick
St Clement
St Lawrence
Plate Competitors -
Abbey B
Accies
Barnes B
Business Moves
Prison Service
Saints
St Brelade
St Ouen
Waterside
After strong competition, the play offs for the Plate were between teams - Waterside - 34 points facing Business Moves - 30 points; Accies - 32 points vs Abbey B - 33 points.
Each of these games ended in 14 to 12; with Accies and Waterside going through to the final.
Waterside opened with the first goal with Accies following hot on their heels. Waterside held it for the first two thirds of the eight minute section then Accies found their feet and bumped up to two ahead at half time. In the second 8 minutes they Waterside pulled back to seven all and from there on it was goal for goal, ending in a ten-all draw at full time. This took the game into extra time, where Accies simply blew Waterside away and clocked up three goals to their one. Romy Smith, GS, Rosie Toner GA and Millie Jones WA were displaying fantastic attack and shooting ability - Harriet Simon C and Cat Small WD keeping cool and sensible in the centre court and Laura Harris GD and Kathrin Moon GK intercepting and returning many of the oppositions’ balls. Brilliant game - great finish for Accies!
The Trophy proved an extremely hard competition with SAS showing as favourites on 40 points to Convent - 37, Abbey A 29, and St Lawrence 27. First plays fourth and second plays third - the outcome... Convent verses SAS in the final.
In the final the first 8 minutes saw an extremely close match. SAS are a strong, experienced side with great team connections and tremendous strength in defence... Convent were pushed to a physical high to match them but with SAS missing out on many scoring opportunities, Convent emerged two goals up at half time. Lindsey Pitman GS, Sophie Holmes GA and Jenna Murphy withstood the tough defence get clear in their circle - fed in from the ever moving Sarah Dodson C who in turn was backed solidly by Lisa Luce GD, playing some incredible interceptions and defence players Abbie Hazley WD and Josie Le Masurier GK. Going in to the second half, SAS still looked threatening until Convent’s Lindsey Pitman GS stepped up a gear and seemed to be everywhere, picking up everything, and getting every ball in the net - she helped Convent soar from seven goals to 13.. SAS lagging behind, not quite matching their previous form, had a little flurry in the last few minutes to bring them up from four to ten but with Sophie Holmes now adding to the score card, Convent were well ahead and unbeatable in the remaining minutes. A penalty to Convent in the circle as the final whistle blew and a cool drop by Sophie took Convent from a clear 17 to a lovely, and welcome 18 - 11 victory.
Just another brilliant weekend of great sport from the Jersey Netball Association annual program and if you missed this one - watch out for the 2010 Inter-insulars taking place at Fort Regent, weekend march 13th and 14th. Jersey hoping they can better their result of last year when they won all but one of the inter-Island games!!