Loughborough Lightening v Mavericks

The visiting Mavericks team looked strong. Their international defence of Amanda Newton (good to see her back on court after a long lay off through injury,) Janet Colbourne and Naomi Stenhouse were all available and they played! Lightning turned out an experienced squad although Ama Agbeze, Rebecca James and Jo Munnion - all regulars this season - were not to be seen.

The game started at a frenetic pace, with ball and players moving end to end. Scoring was slow to start - 4 minutes gone and only 2 goals on the board - to Loughborough. Interceptions ruled those early moments. The pace was such that when Janet Colbourne took a knock and was ready to resume immediately, her captain told her to take a time-out break for the benefit of the rest of the team. At the end of the first quarter Loughborough trailed 7-9.

The second quarter saw Loughborough dominate with a 14-8 scoreline, leaving them 21-17 in front.

Mavericks made some changes, with Heather Clarke coming on for a sickly Lynsey Armitage at GS. They fought back to take the quarter by 3, to leave them trailing by only 1.

The last quarter was set to be a nail biter. Mavericks kept the pressure on and took the lead. The clock had been turned off and we were in the last minute. There were seconds to go and the score stood at 38 all. The ball came down to Alex Astle and she shot for the net. Missed. The timekeeper was on her feet. Margaret Deighton blew- penalty/pass.

Alex shot and the ball went in. The whistle blew. Loughborough Lightning had won 39-38.

Starting sevens

• Loughborough Lightning
  • Alex Astle - GS
  • Lisa Stephenson - GS
  • Karen Atkinson - WA
  • Olivia Murphy - C
  • Jade Clarke - WD
  • Laura Brown - GD
  • Hannah Reid -GK
• Mavericks
  • Lynsey Armitage - GS
  • Louisa Brownfield - GA
  • Ann Marie Muller - WA
  • Deb Jones - C
  • Naomi Stenhouse - WD
  • Amanda Newton - GD
  • Janet Colbourne - GK

As always, more netball pictures are available at Countdavid’s wonderful site.

An official review of netball rules will be held by the IFNA Rules Board in 2007. The IFNA will look at the rules and at the proposals for rule changes submitted by interested parties. If appropriate, the changed rule will be subject to a trial period in which its suitability will be put to the test.

We’ve a thread in our forum on the subject of rules. Why not come and discuss the rules you hate (or love!)?

England Netball are offering a chance to have your voice heard. Go and fill in the proposal form, and have your say!

TeamBath, current leaders of the netball superleague, bounced back from last week’s gripping defeat to arch-rivals Loughborough, to record a 55-31 away win against Bedford Mavericks.

Geva Mentor, the team-bath goal-keeper, had a stunning game turning over a number of balls in defence.

TeamBath were 30-15 up by half-time, but the Mavericks launched a counter-attack in the third quarter and scored nine goals for no reply in their best spell of the match. TeamBath regained their composure and took the win 55-31 to stay at the top of the Figleaves.com netball super league.

TeamBath Starting Seven:

GS: Rachel Dunn; GA: Pamela Cookey WA: Tamsin Greenway C: Sonja Crowe WD: Clare Elsley; GD: Billy Bowers; GK: Geva Mentor

Quarter scores (TeamBath first): 15-7, 15-8, 11-11, 14-5

Fresh from a series defeat in Jamaica, England have named the England squad for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The team includes a few suprises, and a few younger players, in the form of Louisa Brownfield, Pamela Cookey and Geva Mentor. All three helped England win a Silver last summer in the World Youth Netball Championships. Rather predictably, many of the squad come from either TeamBath (3 players) or Loughborough Lightning (4 players). All players are drawn from 4 Figleaves Teams.

The full squad is as follows:

England’s first game is against Malawi on the 17th March 2006. Full fixtures can be found on our pages dedicated to Netball at Melbourne 2006.

Another excellent report from our man on the ground, CountDavid. Thanks again!

The Netball Hall at Loughborough University - home of Loughborough Lightning - hosted a capacity plus crowd - to witness their first return fixture in the Netball Super League.

Having lost a winnable match at Bath University at the beginning of the season, Lightning had a point to prove in front of their home crowd. Team Bath had an unbeaten record to protect and both teams were at full strength with international players returned from the recent Jamaican tour.

The first quarter saw Bath start strongly and soon had an advantage showing on the score board. A rally brought Lightning back into contention but still behind at the whistle (11-12).

Play resumed at a slightly increased pace. England and Loughborough captain, Olivia Murphy, was effectively playing well forward as a a second WA. Linking effectively with Karen Atkinson - the official WA - the two formed a very effective feed to the shooting circle. Alex Astle was on target, avoiding the defences of Geva Mentor and Billy Bowers, helping take the second quarter 14-12, to bring Lightning ahead at 25-24 at half time.

Team Bath lost their way in the 3rd quarter and looked washed out. Changes by coach Crabtree were not effective. The pace of play rose considerable in the final quarter with electric 1-2 passes between Olivia Murphy and Karen Atkinson geting the ball into the circle for Alex Astle and Lisa Stephenson to convert.

Meanwhile at the back of the court, Ama Agbeze and Laura Brown contained the Bath assault. Jade Clark worked relentlessly and intercepted well.

The full time whistle left a score of 54-43 on the board - the home crowd were well pleased with a magnificent display of attacking netball. Lightning had struck and Bath had lost their unbeaten record.

TeamBath Starting Seven:
GS: Rachel Dunn; GA: Pamela Cookey WA: Tamsin Greenway C: Jo Binns WD: Clare Elsley; GD: Billy Bowers; GK: Geva Mentor

Substitutes: Half time: Bianca Modeste at WD for Elsley; Three-quarter \r\ntime: Asha Tett for Cookey at GA; Jess Garland for Binns at C.

Quarter scores (TeamBath first): 12-11, 24-25, 32-37, 43-51

You can see more photos from this match at the excellent www.fotoccompli.com.

This excellent report just in of a close Netball Superleague match from CountDavid, our man at the match.

Just one point separated Brunel and Loughborough in the league table before the match started, so a win was important for both teams: Loughborough wanted to maintain their position and Brunel wanting to gain 2nd place. The scene is set for a great match.

Both teams started off cautiously with the score balancing evenly for the first 7 or 8 minutes. Loughborough then powered away to take the first quarter 14-7.

Brunel?s coach Denise Holland made a change putting Katie Nicols on as Centre. That, together with a team chat made the difference to Brunel who worked hard to recover. A 12-7 quarter to Brunel brought them back to within 2 at half time.

(21-19)

Strong defensive work co-ordinated by Sonia Mkoloma and athletic work by Chioma Ezeogu at WA were the highlights. Chioma?s high takes of ball and great interceptions spurred the Brunel team on.

Brunel took the 3rd quarter 8-14 to pull in front to 33-29.

Both teams came out firing on all cylinders for the final quarter, with Loughborough recovering to bring the score level at 38 all with about 3 minutes to go. However they could not hold on and again great mid court work by Chioma kept Brunel in the game and they pulled forward to take the game 44-39

It was difficult to select a player of the match as so many were terrific. The mid court was particularly active and fast for both sides, but for me it was probably Chioma.

You can see more photos from the match at www.fotoccompli.com.

There’s now a new section of the site devoted to Netball at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006 - check it out.

Currently the section contains just the essentials for every Netball fan - the teams, the fixtures and the venues. We’re going to keep adding detail and more features to this part of the site, and if you want to stay on top of our updates, why not Sign up for our newsletter?

There’s a wealth of essential netball and commonwealth games related information there, so why not check it out? When you’ve made your appraisal, jump to our forums and tell us what you think. Enjoy!

Well the news tips articles have been up for some time now, so this announcement is a bit overdue. Anyway, we’ve put up articles on improving your pivot step, perfecting your shoulder pass, and mastering your bounce passing techniques.

As always, if you like these particular netball articles, tell us. If you think they’re useless and can’t stand them, then we’d like to know about that as well. You should know by now how to contact us.

Thanks, and enjoy!

The ladies in the England Netball team have good reason to be pleased with themselves. Not only have they convincingly beaten South Africa over a three-game series, but they also demonstrated that England are one of the favourites going into the Commonwealth games next year.

The second game of the series, played on 26 November 2005 in Cape Town, resulted in an easy win, 65-40, against the Boks. The start of the game was delayed by more than three hours as officials looked for sections of the floor that had apparently been “misplaced”. This is a sure entry into the “Unbelievable reasons for delaying a Netball Match” book which we plan to release soon (contact us for details).

While the indispensable Rachel Dunn had an excellent game once again, Karen Atkinson was named player of the match.

The third and final match (30th November 2005), and the last between the sides before the Commonwealths, saw England storm to a comfortable 58-38 win. The score line even more emphatic than in previous matches, and Marg Caldow (Coach) was handsomely rewarded for some successful decisions regarding the starting line-up.

The players really shone, with many sections of the game seeing complete dominance by England in all areas of the court. Deserving special mention, though, is the previously injured Amanda Newton, who clearly enjoyed being back on the international scene, her play showing that her 22 month recovery has done nothing but sharpen her netball skills.

English netball has seen a bit of a surge in popularity lately; the National Super League’s semi-well-publicised opening and more TV coverage having a lot to do with this.

England’s first game in a three-test series against the Boks was played at Johannesburg, South Africa on Wednesday.

The game was very close up until the fourth quarter when Rachel Dunn and the omnipotent Olivia Murphy helped the English team to pull away and win in impressive fashion.

The series of test matches leading up to the Commonwealth were always going to be very important for team confidence, and winning this first match in style certainly gives the England netball team the start they needed.