THE Moore Stephens Jersey netball team beat Tyne and Wear in the English County League Division IV match in Birmingham yesterday - but still missed out on promotion.
However, although Jersey’s second match of the weekend, against Suffolk, was abandoned, it was really Wiltshire’s victory over leaders Sussex that ended the Island team’s promotion hopes.
Jersey will probably finish third in the league - a tremendous achievement in their first season.Jersey’s match was abandoned after their flight to Birmingham was diverted due to the gale-force crosswinds in the UK.Travelling with the team were Island coach Linda Andrews and her assistant Jackie Nelson.Nelson said: ‘We flew to Birmingham on Saturday morning and should have played Tyne and Wear in the afternoon.
But as we approached Birmingham airport the pilot made the decision to divert because of the crosswinds.
We ended up at East Midlands Airport, and although we managed to contact the coach company to pick us up from there, there had been so many flights diverted to East Midlands that we had to sit for more than two hours on the plane before they could bring us any steps so we could disembark.’As a result the team arrived too late to play Tyne and Wear and that match was held over until Sunday.’We were very confident about beating them from the start,’ Andrews said.
‘In the first quarter we pulled away from them very easily and led 18-5 at the first break.
Sophie (Holmes) and Abigail (Hazley) gained their senior caps when they came on in the second quarter.
They took a little while to settle but their confidence grew and they played very well.
They only played one quarter because we wanted them to have a taste of the standard in tis division.’Jersey were 26-15 ahead at half-time and could afford to make a few other team adjustments in the third and fourth quarters, and ran out easy winners 53-31.’The team played very well.
With the experience from the previous matches in this league, they can now go straight into a game prepared, because they know what to expect.
They were decisive and their speed was good,’ Andrews said.With time running out, the Suffolk match was abandoned, but the result, had it been played, would have been immaterial to Jersey.They had been on course to finish second in Division IV, but Wiltshire beat Sussex by one goal on Saturday to top the table, with Sussex second.
Jersey should finish third overall, an excellent result for their first season in this division.Andrews said they were little disappointed that the Suffolk match was cancelled.’I think we could have beaten them, we’ve beaten all but Sussex and Avon this season.
Nevertheless we’ve done exceptionally well this year and now we are gearing ourselves up for the inter-insulars next weekend.’
Article posted on 22nd March, 2004 - 12.00am
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