Challengers stay ahead in netball’s division two
DIVISION two netball leaders Challengers remained on form last week, defeating Unst. Mishaps remained second after a hard-fought draw with Da Hooligans, while Wastside moved into third place with a win over McEwans.
Division Two
McEwans 19, Wastside 42
McEwans were missing a few key players and had a few new faces in their line-up. Wastside settled quickly with very strong attacking play and dominated from the start.
Da McEwans battled hard, with Alison Williamson and Emily Shearer playing particularly well and feeding good balls into their shooters, but Wastside were just too strong and were never going to be beaten.
Players of the match were Diane Irvine for McEwans and Kirsten Anderson for Wastside.
Unst 29, Challengers 38
Challengers settled quicker with some flowing passes through Heather Williamson, who assisted their play all over the court. Unst managed to stay in contention with a first quarter score of 8-5.
The second quarter saw Unst come out in a more determined spirit and start to get the better of the strong Challengers defence, with Claire Priest scoring freely from anywhere in the circle. The Challengers fought back and broke down the Unst passing to retain their three-goal lead at half time.
Challenger’s shooters Louise Johnson and Lynsey Pearson really found their form in the third quarter, despite some hard work from Unst defenders Martha Clark and Kathleen Johnson. Unst found it difficult to connect their passes, while the Challengers played sharp, short passes up the court seeming to instinctively know where each other were going to be. They extended the lead to 29-20.
The final quarter was more frantic than the rest, with Unst’s Alice Mullay feeding some great balls into the circle to get their shooters back in the game. But the Challengers capitalised on some good interceptions and scored as many as the opposition to maintain their nine-goal lead.
Unst have a versatile team with players ranging in age by 35 years. Their player of the match this time was Claire Priest. Challengers have quality players all over the court but Louise Johnson stood out with some great shooting.
Da Hooligans 25, Mishaps 25
An evenly-matched first quarter saw good shooting at both ends. Mishaps took the lead but Da Hooligans linked up well with Zoe Irvine and Vicky Irvine standing out to keep the score at 6-6.
In the second quarter both teams settled well, with strong defending from Mishaps’ Elaine Jamieson and Marie Moar. The score was still neck and neck at the end of the quarter at 12-12.
As the second half began Da Hooligans started to take the lead. Mishaps were still determined but Da Hooligans managed to hold off their attack and the quarter ended 21-16.
In the final quarter Mishaps seemed to find their stride with some confident attacking and superb shooting from Marie Manson. This led to an exciting last five minutes with the score ending level. Da Hooligans were extremely unfortunate when a last-minute shot was overtime.
Players of the match were Zoe Irvine and Vicky Irvine for Da Hooligans and Marie Manson for the Mishaps.
