England Fives stormed to victory in Auckland, New Zealand, earlier today as they saw off Australia’s Fast5 Diamonds and South Africa’s SPAR Proteas on the first day of Fast5 Netball World Series action.
Fast5 is a variation of netball featuring shortened games and goals worth multiple points, and England certainly made the most of the points on offer, defeating the Fast5 Diamonds 29-27 before going on to dominate SPAR Proteas 41-27 later on in the evening.
Although the Diamonds took a half-time lead of 9-8, they paid for their disappointing power play when England hit back and took more from their own power play quarter.
A six-pointer from Jo Harten together with a couple of two-pointer rebounds from Rachel Dunn helped England build a more comfortable lead.
England were 22-15 with a quarter to play, and although Australia did attempt a comeback it was too little too late.
Victory came easy once more for England a few hours later as they won their second match by 14 points.
Although SPAR Proteas managed to gain a 21-9 lead by the halfway point following their power play quarter, England again made the most of the points on offer when it was their power play, and a strong final quarter saw them leave the court with another win in the bag.
The Fast5 format sees six teams of five play for goals worth one, two and three points, depending from where the shots are attempted, with values doubled in a power-play quarter.
Although similar to the Fastnet format which has been played for the past few years and features seven players per team, the 2012 Fast5 Netball World Series marks the first time professional netball has been played in this five-a-side format. So although New Zealand and Australia typically dominate the traditional game the new format leaves this three-day competition wide open.
The opening day action also saw Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls fall 25-34 to SPAR Proteas and draw 38-38 with New Zealand’s Fast5 Ferns, whilst the Malawi Queens recorded a 33-15 victory over the Diamonds before losing 31-32 to the Sunshine Girls. The day’s final match saw the Ferns see off the Diamonds 31-23, proving the competition really is anyone’s to play for.
Tomorrow will see England take on the Sunshine Girls before they face the Malawi Queens and then the Ferns.
Jessica Whittington, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
