Sapphires shine bright

TEAMS are feeling the benefit from playing on the resurfaced courts at Brune Park School in Gosport.
Debbie Lloyd is the GSDebbie Lloyd is the GS
Debbie Lloyd is the GS

In the Gosport & Fareham Netball Association the teams are nearing the end of the winter season.

One of the teams gaining from these new surfaces is Anna Templeton’s team, Sapphires.

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Playing in division four this season, they currently sit half way in the table.

Sapphires have been playing for several years now and captain Templeton has extended the teams by adding new nights in Fareham and Southampton leagues.

They are developing well and have already had promotion or are looking at it this season. They were gifted a 3-0 win by Fareham Hornets.

Templeton has netball in the blood with mum Jackie McMahon, formerluy of the GFNA league now making progress in walking netball.

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McMahon has worked hard alongside England Netball’s Debbie Laycock to get a new session in Gosport at the leisure centre on Wednesday lunchtimes.

Blighted with bad weather, like division four, division three has had problems getting games played.

Hotshots had to forfeit against Gosport Gators Black 30-0 last week, which was hard lines after their 48-33 win against Fareham Zodiacs.

But even after not playing Hotshots are still at the top of the division table and now unreachable so will most likely be promoted to division two next season.

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Trojans took no prisoners playing Nats beating them 35-27 and it leaves Trojans just beneath Nats but only on goal difference and with a game in hand.

Positions most of the way down are so close that big changes are still possible.

Division two team, Devils beat Gosport Gators Gold 32-16 in their last game of the season, even seeing manager Helen Keet back on court for the occasion.

She said ‘It was great fun to be on the court with the girls, we’ve had trouble with finding players this season which has been a shame but with the likes of Anna Wilton, Elinor McNulty and Jo Woodham defending the circle for us, life has been difficult for the oppositions shooters.

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‘We’ve also had Eleanor Beames return after a short break and has been fantastic in centre court.’

The previous week Devils also beat Jokers 43-36 with superb shooting from Hannah Norbury and Megan Wallace.

Inovolt beat Gosport Gators Gold 44-37.

Chelsea Smee partnered with Zoe Norbury showed how diverse they could be with Smee coming right out of the circle for some passes and allowing space for Norbury to drive in and shoot while Smee returned to tip any rebounds with her height advantage.

Demons pushed hard under captain Andrea Davis’ advice and just pipped Antonio’s to the post with a hard-fought 46-45 win.

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