Netball Update

A quick update for all of you that are eagerly following the progress of our netball teams.

Saturday 9th
After the excitement of the previous weeks televised shield match Angela’s team then went on to play one of the lowest ranked teams in their league. Through a combination of injuries and other factors they were struggling to round up 7 players to start the match. They eventually got 7 on court, but things didn’t go their way. They managed to injure another shooter – the forth in 4 weeks – and eventually lost 20-22. I don’t need to explain how disappointed Angela and the rest of the team were in the result, and now they are officially bottom of their grade. Later that day the shield match was the clash between the 2 top teams – the holders SMOGA and the challengers SCOPA. SCOPA were too strong and took the shield quite easily. That result means that Angela’s game next week against SCOPA will also be another shield match, and another appearance on TV. I don’t think they were very excited by this news!

Meanwhile, the men’s team had to take on the unbeaten Marist team. This was our big match and everyone was fired up for it. It was a tough, hard fought match, but we won 41-37. This called for a celebration and we ended up having a few beers while we re-lived our glory, and the girls dissected their result. Angela and I ended up leaving fairly early (8.00ish) because we were heading away for the long weekend, but apparently the rest of them were still going at 1.00am!!

Saturday 16th
The Men’s team was first up and confident after last weeks win. We were playing NUS, currently bottom of the league and winless. I think that most of the boys had spent half the night watching Olympics and the All Blacks beating South Africa, because with 5 minutes to start there were only 5 of us there! We managed to get 7 players by start time, but we weren’t very settled. Fortunately NUS are fairly weak and we easily won 39-23. That was the last game in the first round, and we ended up tied at the top of the table. There were 3 teams (Us, Marist and SCOPA) with 4 wins and 1 loss. The top team after the first round is awarded the shield, and as with the girls league the shield is on the line each time that team plays for the rest of the season. Unfortunately on the count back system they use (number of goals scored) we were third, with the shield being awarded to SCOPA – the only team to beat us. Now we go into a second round of games, so somewhere along the line we should get the chance to challenge for the shield.

Next up it was time for Angela’s team to face the TV cameras again as they challenged SCOPA for the shield. They certainly weren’t full of confidence as they went into the game. They all played hard, and for the first time this season got through the game without injuring their shooter, but ended up going down 64-15.
As this marked the end of the first round and the halfway point of the season it was decided that a BBQ, curry and a few beers were in order. Even if some of the on-court results haven’t been that great, off-court we certainly are a great club. All three teams turned up and were still partying when us old farts decided to call it a night at around 11.30.

This afternoon Angela has been watching the game on TV trying to see what they can work on because next week they have to play SCOPA again! She is becoming a TV star!