Whalsay see off Loungers in netball league

Whalsay narrowly defeated Loungers in netball’s first division, while in the third division Scalloway Juniors were the victors over Burra. For full details and league tables, see this coming Friday’s The Shetland Times.

Division One

Whalsay 26, Loungers 20

The strength of defence on both sides was evident from the beginning with the opening goal coming after four minutes from the Loungers. However, this was the only time the Loungers held the lead throughout the hard fought match. Both teams showed determination and produced some excellent mid court play with Hazel Uren and Vicki Henderson for the Loungers linking up particularly well.

Whalsay extended their lead in the third quarter with outstanding shooting and rebounding from Vaila Kay. Despite valiant attempts by the Loungers to regain control of the match, Whalsay’s defence of Janet Johnson, Sarah Kay and Natalie Polson held strong and thwarted their attack. Whalsay’s centre, Victoria Duthie, successfully created opportunities for the attack ending the third quarter 20-12.

The Loungers dominated the final quarter to close the gap but could not reach Whalsay’s early lead the game ended 26-20. Players of the match were Vaila Kay for Whalsay and Louise Moar for Loungers.

Division Three

Scalloway Juniors 39, Burra 20

The game started off with both teams working well. An injury to Burra’s WD meant that the team had to reorganise their positions. The quarter ended 7-5 to the Scalloway Juniors.

Good defending from Erin Sandison (GK) and Kirsty Duerden (GD) for the Junior team meant that they could keep up well with Burra’s shooting duo of Bethany Laurenson (GA) and Heather Henry (GS) and the quarter ended with the Juniors increasing their lead to 16-8.

In the third quarter, the Juniors made some changes with Julie Brown moving from GS to GA, Laura McIntyre moving on to GS and Rowan Nicolson moving from GA to WA, giving Hannah Parkin a well deserved rest.

This worked well with the new attack linking well with the centre, Karen Bannister, and good shooting meaning after the third quarter the Juniors had increased their lead to 29-15.

Burra continued to work well as a team in the final quarter with good defending and mid-court play. However, Scalloway Juniors maintained their strong play and won the match 39-20.

Player of the match for Burra was Heather Henry for her accurate shooting, while Julie Brown was given this for the Juniors.