Match Report

Storm duo leave on winning note

Back to the bread and butter of the Co-operative Netball Superleague after the international break with Surrey Storm's Geva Mentor and Sonia Mkoloma playing their final game before heading off to the ANZ. Six of the players in action in the south-east derby at the University of Hertfordshire’s Sports Village had been on-call for the exciting, if ultimately disappointing series again Australia. The early exchanges saw both sides struggling to adjust to the pace of the superleague after the frenzy of the battles with the World Number ones.

It was a good couple of minutes before the ball made it through the ring with Mavericks finally managing to convert the centre pass. there were plenty of fumbles and unforced errors from the teams but it was Storm who settled and took the lead 6-3. Naida Hutchinson, one of the England players not to make the matchday 12, started having an impact early on and with a couple of key turnovers and snatched possession helped the home side back into the match. It was levelled at 7-7 before another Storm surge took them three goals up and at the end of the quarter the visitors were leading 12-9.

Hertfordshire Mavericks came out for the second 15 minutes with a spring in their steps, Amanda Newton was positively tigger-like with her bouncing. Again there were handling errors on both sides but it was breaking down for Mavericks at the circle where mistakes are so often punished by the rangy defence of Mkoloma and Mentor. The passes into the Mavericks circle at first were rushed and unsympathetic but once the home-side’s attack started working the ball around the edge they were more successful and gave their shooters at least half a chance to get back in the game.

It had been four minutes of the quarter had been played before Mavericks moved off 9 goals to 10. Storm stretched their advantage to 8 goals (11-19) before Hutchinson and Newton started making their impact felt. Now Storm were struggling to feed their shooters and at the other end Wood and Brownfield had better ball and were landing their attempts. (15-20) Storm’s shooting duo both had a height advantage on the Mavericks keepers but they struggled to use it in the second quarter. Naida Hutchinson seems to have telescopic arms, while Newton is playing with the energy of a spring chicken. The table-toppers won the second quarter to lead by six at half time.

Karen Atkinson moved from centre to wing-attack at the start of the second half, with Laurelle Borck on in the middle. A great battle was developing between the Mavericks WD and Stormer Tamsin Greenway, with Camilla Buchanan frustrating the visiting wing-attack on the centre pass. Greenway was being singled out for special attention from the Mavericks, double-marked quite often and it was obvioulsy rankling with her. It looked like a bruising ten minutes or so. However maybe the tactic was working as the Hertfordshire side closed the gap to four goals 22-26. But Surrey got tough, the physicality in this match ramping up as the clock counted down and when the hooter ended the quarter Surrey Storm were eight goals up 23-31.

Both teams started the final 15 minutes of this match forced into working hard to get the ball up court. It had been a match that showcased the skills of the defending players from the off and there was a fair bit of rough and tumble coming into the game. Monique Wood was accidentally smacked in the nose in one skirmish as Mavericks looked to get the ball into the goal zone. As her nose refused to stop bleeding, walking wounded Wood was escorted to safety, with young Ella Clark marshalled into the front-line with her compatriots 10-goals behind 27-37

Naida Hutchinson continued her excellent partnership with Amanda Newton turning even 40-60 ball in their favour. Tight marking by the girls in Black forced Storm into long passes and long shots, the options were so reduced that Storm on occassion even hung onto the ball too long. However while Mavericks pulled back a couple of the attempts, it was h but at the end of the match the more successful shooting of the visitors made the difference and Surrey stay unbeaten in Superleague winners 39-31.

By Lisa O'Sullivan

Match Umpires

Gary Burgess, Judith Groves and Lucy Mitchell