JERSEY U18 netballers stormed to an incredible silver medal in the last ever Alex Barlass inter-counties netball tournament at the weekend.

Though beaten 13-4 in the final by Lancashire, this was a fantastic result in a competition which featured the top 44 county teams – many of them boasting England players in their line-ups.

Coach Linda Andrews said: ‘We’ve never even been seeded before, and on the first day we said we’d just try and get seeded, because no Jersey U18 side had ever finished higher than 20th.’ In the first match they beat North Yorkshire 16-4, West Dorset 18-2 – then top seeds Nottinghamshire 12-6 and East Essex, also seeded, 15-4.

Their next game was against the Isle of Wight, whose coach had moved from Bedfordshire – a top county side – and had registered his former players in the island’s side, but Jersey beat them 8-7.

Jersey then overcame South Staffordshire 12-4, and then Greater Manchester, another top team who were in group who were in the group because of a organisational mix-up, 7-5 – and suddenly Jersey were in the play-offs.

The girls beat Tyne and Wear and West Devon, lost 10-9 to Lancashire, drew with Derby, and won 11-5 against Somerset to find themselves in the semi-final against a powerful Birmingham side.

Said Andrews: ‘It was so tough, and end-to-end play – and we beat them 9-8.

But in the final – I think the girls were just stunned – we lost 13-4 to Lancashire, which was very frustrating as they’d only beaten us by one goal in the play-offs.

But the atmosphere was incredible, there were hundreds of people cheering Jersey on.’ ‘Lauren Devine was sensational playing with Serena Guthrie, they kept us in the match so many times.

And Abbie Hazley and Sophie Holmes – Sophie was captain and an inspiration to the team.’ ‘We’ve stood on the sidelines for years, cheering the finalists in previous competitions, and suddenly it was us there.

It was fantastic, this was the U18s final competition in this age-group, and they won silver – and they thoroughly deserved their success.’