Tipped by Royal Navy’s coach Artie Shaw to go on and win the league, Jersey now lie in a strong position at the top of the table after winning their three opening matches in style.
With a new structure to the netball league this year, Jersey were placed in the South Sub-Regional League but Ally Meredith, now part of Jersey’s coaching team, says that with four matches remaining: ‘The chances of promotion are pretty high if we remain in line with ECS Predators.’ Cornwall team ECS Predators are equal on points with Jersey but, with a inferior goal difference, remain in second place in the battle for promotion into the South-West Premier League.
Promotion would be a huge step up for Jersey and their coaching team confirmed that it would be a difficult league to adapt to with a lot more games to play at a tougher level.
However, Jersey’s performance at Langford on Saturday suggests they are more than ready to step up to the next level.
In what was their only match on home ground, over 100 spectators watched Jersey start the match against the Navy quickly, thanks to coach Meredith’s newly-implemented warm-up ideas.
Meredith revealed: ‘I completely re-shuffled the warm-up to ensure the team were better prepared for the start of the match.
By working them until about two minutes before the match, instead of them warming up and then standing around, it prepared the team better and gave them an advantage in the first quarter.’ The shooting combination of Jackie Norman and Laura Beeston were unstoppable from the start, and the Navy’s defence struggled to keep up with their accurate shooting skills.
