RHUL Netball 2nds 25 - 27 Kings College 3rds

Yet another close encounter for the RHUL Seconds, on an extremely cold night in October. The Seconds played their first home game of the season faced with the quick and tireless efforts of Kings College 3rds. The Seconds started off the stronger team, feeding the ball tidily down the court to Emma Gray and Siobhan Gardiner in attack, and edged into an early lead after the first quarter. However they could not overcome the determination of Kings to stay in the game, and the score line remained very close at half time, with RHUL Seconds in the lead by only two goals. ‘Player of the Match’ Laura Bibby acted as playmaker in her position as WA, feeding the ball nicely into the circle as well as providing a nice transition from defense to attack. Tensions grew in the second half of the game with both sides struggling to stamp their authority on the game. Catie Barnes and Mel Brown worked tirelessly in defense and made some vital interceptions, however the strong ability of Kings’ shooters to score from anywhere in the circle made it difficult to turn the game around. Heading into the final quarter Kings had the slight edge, however a confident team talk from Emma Gray left us believing we could pull the game back in our favour. Unfortunately Kings were able to convert our first centre which saw them increase their lead, however not one member of RHUL Seconds let their efforts drop. Mary Smallwood, although out of position as WD, kept a tight defense on her opponent to keep the pressure on Kings in sustaining their lead. However it was perhaps early-season nerves that led to the defeat - with a few panicky passes in the centre and a couple of near miss shots in the attacking circle. The final score ended at 25-27, which was a difficult defeat to swallow. However this made the Seconds even more determined to get back on the training ground, as only a few small areas needed working on to make the team more confident and convert narrow losses into solid victories!

Steph Bissell, Secretary

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RHUL Netball 1sts 28 - 17 LSE 2nds

We arrived at the pitch-black court in Berrylands, the 1sts were not expecting the conditions to be as terrible as they were, and it was so cold that it initially hurt to catch the ball. After an extensive warm up the 1sts were ready to take on London School of Economics, however due to an unexpected last minute injury from Katherine Hall we were for the second time down to our bare seven players, but since we’d managed to play incredibly well with the minimum amount of netballers before - we felt confident that it could be done again. Hopes were high as the 1sts started the first quarter, with the captain Cassie Goodfellow winning the toss for the first centre pass. A promising first quarter combined with some excellent shooting from Ashleigh Barber and Issy Neal-Hooke meant that the 1sts had a decent lead against LSE, and this lead continued all the way through the match. But complacency set in, and the 1sts became continually irritated with their performance as they were playing far too flippantly and could’ve easily had a 20+ goal lead against LSE. Although heads were held high and the defence Cassie Goodfellow and Chloe Nkomo stayed strong in the circle, preventing the opposition from narrowing their loss. A few thoughtless passes in the center third meant that the opposition turned over a few balls; however it was not enough for them to take a lead against the RHUL 1sts. Although the 1sts won the match, it wasn’t as satisfactory as it could’ve been as our overall performance, although good, was not at its highest possible standard. Once again Chloe Nkomo deservedly got player of the match, her defensive play is consistently of a high standard. Yet again an excellent performance from the 1sts, let’s hope we can turn this first win into one of many!

Holly Casley, Vice Captain

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