Coach Maggie Jackson is genuinely puzzled at times, about why her Hertfordshire Mavericks side can be slow to fire up in their FIAT Netball Superleague games. They’re not known for their fast finishing for nothing.
To start with Leeds Carnegie, in purple and green looked more comfortable on court than their hosts who were playing their second TV match of the season turned out in their purple and black. Jo Walker was on song for Leeds who scored from a turnover to take a two goal lead before the manoeuvre was reciprocated and improved on by Mavericks who ended the first quarter 15-12 up.
The second quarter was a bit messy. Leeds couldn’t process as much ball as they would have liked while Mavericks suffered from a bit of a communications shut-down. Passes were flying wild into empty court space, there were fumbles, bumbles and stumbles. It was kind of summed by captain and GS Louisa Brownfield who had one of those quarters; the ball looked like it was in, only to bounce out off the ring, or veer off the edge. Still, something was going right as by half time the home side were seven ahead.
It got even better for the home side in the third quarter when young Shaunagh Craig pulled on the purple bib… err the Mavericks purple GA bid. The teenager who’s in the thick of A-level exams at the moment, showed no sign of nerves and may even have helped steady the mood for her captain. Leeds struggled to feed their shooters enough ball, Mavericks had moved Layla Guscoth into GK, with Hazel Schofield coming on to GD and the changes upset the visitors attack. A storming 21-9 quarter win for the home side.
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Netball Superleague: Northern Thunder vs Surrey Storm
Netball: Leeds win Superleague match in Wales
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Vicklyn Joseph took on shooting responsibilities for the last 15 minutes and with the rest of her shooting colleagues wearing the Mavericks purple, banked an over 80% success rate. It was a quarter that saw the home side consolidate their advantage and chalk up their first win of the 2011 FIAT Netball Superleague season.
Hertfordshire Maviericks head coach Maggie Jackson: “All credit to Leeds for what they did at the beginning I think they did jolly well. We started to pull away and I still think we should have won by 35.”
Captain of the visitors Jo Davies: “We tried to use our speed against Mavericks which was really really good, so we need to keep on doing that and we need to use the versatility in our squad.”
Lisa Ferneyhough Leeds Carnegie’s co-coach was pleased with her team’s attitude and execution “There was some good sets of play from the girls and it goes to show we can compete with the big teams in this league. Just disappointing that small things let us down a bit.”
Mavericks captain Louisa Brownfield: “It was great to everyone out there today and playing in different formations and it’s also nice to see the combinations working. It just proves once again that Mavericks have a lot of depth and can swap and change and it still works.”
Hertfordshire Mavericks 60 – 40 Leeds Carnegie
Lisa O’Sullivan, Sportsister,
The Women’s Sports Magazine
