JERSEY’S under-16 and under-18 netball girls had an ‘excellent’ weekend at the Alex Barlass inter-county tournament in Bournemouth, said coach Linda Andrews this morning.

The U16s were seeded this year along with eventual winners Lancashire but were third in their group after Saturday’s matches when they played eight games and lost twice – to the Lancastrians and to a strong Birmingham side who finished third overall.

Then yesterday they played five games in their section and won them all to go through to a play-off when they beat Middlesex to finish 13th out of the 48 teams.

The Under-18s had a difficult group, said Andrews.

On Saturday they won two of their seven games, drawing one and losing four which left them sixth in their group of eight.

Then, on Sunday, they won four of their five games to finish the tournament 26th out of the 48 sides.

Said Andrews: ‘Both sides did really well.

It was an excellent weekend and showed we’re still up there with the best.

The girls worked very hard for this and they did themselves proud.’ Andrews picked out defender Lauren Devine and shooter Jennie Harrop as the stars for the Under-16s with shooter Sophie Holmes and centre Abigail Hazley her choice from the Under-18s.

And she added: ‘Considering we don’t play regular competitions and the teams we were playing against do, we did exceptionally well.

The Under-16s were unlucky that Birmingham were so strong this year and the Under-18s had a very hard draw that included Bedfordshire, Birmingham and Sussex.’