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On Sunday May 10, the Poly A squad played off for a place in the LSE Regional League for the coming season.
Despite an excellent fast start against Surrey County Champions, Tiffin, Poly took their foot off the accelerator, allowing the opposition an opportunity to get back in the game. Some unusual cross court attacking passes were intercepted and by the final whistle, the first game of the play offs was lost.
Next up were Queens, playing to stay in the Regional league. They had an impressive line up with some ex superleague players. A steady start saw Poly in the game right from the beginning. However a patchy period of play got Queens more than back in the running. A 7 or 8 goal lead was theirs. A half time talk saw the Poly team steady in their resolve and the fightback began. Ball after ball was intercepted by the centre court and defence, which were then converted by the attack. The result (after a bit of TPP!) was a 2 goal victory. Poly were back in the running.
The final game was the most important of all. The Kent representatives, Lionhearts, were ready to play for their lives. The game went goal for goal, until there were some impressive turnovers by Poly. We were then a couple of goals ahead until the umpires made the biggest mistake of all. They messed up the centre passes (sorry umpires). Timed was called, which upset the flow of play for Poly, the outcome was 3 consecutive centre passes for Lionhearts! Whilst Poly were distracted, Lionshearts took the opportunity and gave their shooters the ball which they gladly converted into goals. The second half saw Poly fighting to catch up the 3 goal deficit. Some sharp shooting and excellent possession saw the game end in a draw!
All games were impressively close. Poly held on to finish 2nd in the round robin! A LSE Regional place in the 2009/10 season was won.
Well done to all the squad and bench for all their hard work, both on and off the court all season.
The game began in a slightly frustrating style with Poly going down by 3 goals within the first few minutes. Following this the team quickly settled into their game and picked back the deficit but the game remained tight until the 3rd quarter when Poly gained a 4 goal advantage. The tight defence of Lesley and Gilly made lots of interceptions which prevented Palmers getting too many shooting attempts and ultimately proved that as a coach once told me "defence is the springboard for attack." This springboard saw the ball being worked well down the court, although sometimes a little erratically. The attack worked the ball into the shooters but breezy conditions made long range shots hard, Iona and Kathy fought hard to pick up rebounds and convert as many opportunities as possible.
Final score Poly B win 32 -27.
Squad - Kathy, Iona, Marie, Natalie, Jess, Claire, Lesley and Gilly.
Player of the Match - Iona
The game got off to a somewhat scrappy start, with both teams struggling to adjust to the slippy conditions. Most of the play was in the centre court thanks to tight marking by both teams. Poly were able to convert all their opportunities in the first quarter, to lead 10-5. Poly started strongly in the second quarter, connecting well in attack, and built a 9 goal lead off the back of some excellent interceptions and rebounds from Jessica Jones and Melonae Thomas. However, Academy began to fight back, puuting pressure on the attack and centre court. Half time score 20-14 to Poly.
Academy made some key changes in the third quarter and their game began to flow well. Poly panicked somewhat, the ball hardly reaching the shooters for a good 5 minute patch. They saw their comfortable lead whittled down to a 2 goal deficit at the end of the third quarter which was very frustrating. The final quarter saw some much calmer play, which was matched by Academy who gained another goal lead. The 2 goal deficit remained for much of the quarter- a gap that Poly could just not seem to close despite ice cold precision shooting from Alex Taylor who's shooting stats were close to 100% throughout. Each conversion was matched by Academy. Though the Poly defence created many chances to win the game, Academy worked hard and opportunities were squandered before Poly could get the ball to Alex Taylor who would surely have scored. A couple of key errors gave Poly the chance to make one last gasp and shortly before the final whistle they equalised, with a long shot from Jayne Lea just crawling into the goal. But it didn't end there! A penalty was awarded to Academy right on the final whistle- not a comfortable place for a shooter to be when the scores are level! Luckily for Poly the goal was not converted. Final score 38 all.
Lauren completed the Great North Run in an amazing 2 hours 20 minutes. Apparently she enjoyed it! Well done Lauren.
NLNL C v Weston Park
We started strong in the first quarter and were leading 10-5 going into the second. We then increased our lead further by only conceding 3 goals in the 2nd quarter (score of 18-8 at the end of the 2nd quarter). By the end of the 3rd quarter we were ahead by 14 goals (28-14). In the 4th quarter our heads dipped slightly and we actually drew with out opposition, we both scored and conceded 4 goals. However, our significant lead through the first 3 quarters meant a final score of 32-18.
The team played really well together and there were some good combinations. Lauren and Rachel provided a solid defence and despite not regularly playing together, Alison and Hayley did a brilliant job as shooters. Mid court was also really strong with Sophie, Sheena and Abbey moving well to bring the ball down the court and continuing to provide defence when the other team did manage to turnover.
Squad
Jenny Clements
Jayne Lea (C)
Marnie Wills
Melanie Catchpole
Helena Sedgwick
Lucy Botham
Jessica Jones
Letitia Biddulph
Poly started strongly, marking tightly through the centrecourt, creating many opportunities for the defence to turn over the Bennett’s attacking play. Though Bennetts were forced to work very hard and patiently in the centrecourt, the shooters converted their opportunities despite being under intense pressure from the Poly defence. Poly were far less methodical and squandered much of the turnover by playing wildly, but managed to scramble a 5 goal lead at half time. Poly had to step up a level in terms of control to be sure of victory. The third quarter saw some much steadier play and after a series of classy interceptions from GK Tish Biddulph, they were able to build the lead to 10 goals at the end of the third quarter. Poly were much more consistent in the final quarter, eventually overwhelming Bennetts and took the game 52-32.
It seems that all of Gordon’s training drills are paying off, the Bs produced a match full of interceptions to win 30-17. Lesley’s have too as the team worked the ball up the court beautifully! Despite the difficult conditions and constant risk of doing the splits on slippy ground a good game was had by all.
Woman of the match – Kathy (2 games already this season – the rest of us have some work to do)!
The last session before Christmas will be Tuesday 9 December. Shall we go to the pub afterwards?
The first session after Christmas is Tuesday 6 January.
As beat Old Fincs A, 43-29
The game was a banker right from the first whistle, although Mel didn’t count on the over zealous Old Fincs defence. Sharp shooting from Jenny and Jess.
Bs beat Sapphires. 37-17
Claire to forward a couple of words…
Cs beat Western Park, 32-18
A great result from a straight 7, in a game that was heavily influenced by the umpires!
Bs v Sparks @ 11:35
As v Minchenden B @ 12:55
Cs v Brittania B @ 14:15
As a club we have a 100% record in this league so far this season! Good luck to all who are playing/umpiring on behalf of the club this weekend.
A great turnout. Keep it up ladies as it will continue improve our match play no end if we continue to train in squads
I coached a training session for school girls in Oxford with no less than Karen Atkinson just days before Karen was due to fly off for the test series down under. The session saw us coach year groups in The Manor Prep School in Abingdon. Over lunch Karen had some time to chat and outlined her training routine – after coaching and being on her feet all day, she was off to a 2 hour Mavericks training session. Some days saw her weight training for 2 hours in the gym and then going on to do a 1 hour speed session later in the day! Karen was really interested to hear that Poly is the oldest netball club in the world. She said ‘It sounds like a really good club’. I did ask her to let me know if she was ever available to play to let me know – watch this space! (2/9/08
Good luck to Lauren who is to take on the Great North Run on Sunday. Fingers crossed about the weather.
The As soundly beat Cumberland in a thrilling final ¼. As usual it was a heavily contested game, but the accuracy and steeliness of the As saw through. The Bs missed out on a win, although at half time they were only 2 goals down. In the 3rd quarter Old Fincs managed to convert each of their opportunities and went ahead to win the game in the last quarter. Everyone on court gave maximum effort and there is much to build on
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