They played four High Performance squads – the U17/19 Wales squad; the North West, the North East and the South West (Bath) in the U18 HP event organised by Bath University as a training event for these talented girls and to give them the opportunity to experience netball at high standards – and lost two, drew one and won one.
Against teams which included England U17 and U19 players, the Jersey girls, although not having the training opportunities of the English girls, were unfazed by the level of play, and they competed well.
They finished the weekend on a real high after beating Wales by 47 goals to 33, undeterred by the six-foot tall GK! Their first game was against North West, with five England players on court.
The Jersey girls were quickly made aware how hard they must work to keep possession and were 17-9 down at the end of the first quarter but came back to score nine goals to their opponents’ seven in the second.
They continued their battle, and although they lost overall 36-21, ex-England captain Marian Lofthouse, now a high performance selector, said she was pleasantly surprised by the high standards of the Jersey players of our girls and commented: ‘You made me play all my England players for the whole match!’ The South West was a force to be reckoned with, but the Jersey girls pulled out all the stops to win the first two quarters and lead 16-12 at half-time.
However, the South West girls pulled back and the match finished in a 27-27 draw.
In the match against the North East, Jersey lost 49-35.
‘It was an incredible weekend of highly competitive netball by all the squad players.
We were competing against experienced England players and we matched them,’ coach Linda Andrews said.
‘It was a great weekend for the girls and I as all the teams were coached by England coaches and they were very happy to pass on their knowledge.
‘My notepad is full of new ideas and structures for the girls to work on!’ Sophie Holmes was awarded Jersey’s Player of the Games after nomination from the England coaches.
Squad: Abigail Hazley, Abigail Poole, Carla Plater, Georgia Hickey, Sophie Holmes (all U16); Ashley Le Feuvre, Lara Crenan, Lauren Devine (all U15); Lynsey Pitman, Serena Guthrie (U14)
