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In the blink of an eye the summer is over and winter league starts this Sunday! It was a frustrating season which saw our first division team struggle for their regular players weekly. Their Captain sustained a nasty ankle injury which has left Shannon reluctant to return 😳. As a club, we were very fortunate to have players eager to step up to play for Hearts. The end result was a mid table finish. Likewise for our division two team, Aces, who have gelled really well this season and we anticipate high achievement in the winter. Team Clubs did well finishing in 3rd place in division 3 and we look forward to their promotion to division 2 for the winter. We amalgamated Teams Spades and Diamonds for the summer because of GCSE and A Levels. We named them Black Diamonds and although they finished closer to the bottom than the top, we were happy that they continued to play during their exams.

A tough start to the summer league first week with a draw for Team Clubs and three close losses for the other teams resulting in points on the board for all. Second week however saw some great netball and a few wins!

On Tuesday Hearts played Lodge Park in biblical conditions that would be more suited to aqua fit than netball.
The game was affected by the conditions with everyone making errors, quite understandably. The game was tight throughout with neither team able to really capitalise on turn overs and pull away. Hearts stuck in there throughout and managed to pull off a 34 all draw. A game to be endured rather than enjoyed for sure.

Wednesday, two teams, two wins! Aces against a young feisty Ryland team. It was pretty even until the second half when Aces showed their maturity and determination, using all of the court, and defence backing up the attack effectively. Final score 40-24. Our newly amalgamated team, Black Diamonds, were in action against another Alcester club, BDR. Our youth and agility shone through with a fabulous win 55-35.

Thursday another win for ATNC! Team Clubs played Blackhorse, a long established team in the Redditch League. I heard that after a few injured fingers and blackened toe nails they won 33-31

Sunday morning started with Team Clubs fighting it out for top spot of division 5, against Blossomfield Bees, and winning it 45-31 after some great netball. Well done ladies, division 5 winners!

Team Spades played Ryland Rockets. It was all to play for, and going into the match they needed a win to definitely secure winning division 4. The game was neck and neck throughout, and before going into the last quarter I had to speak to Ryland about their constant shouting, at times screeching, which was deafening for the umpires and players! They did tone it down slightly and Ryland were 5 in the lead going into the last few minutes of the game. Spades closed the gap to within 1 and were awarded a penalty shot in the closing seconds. They secured a draw at 43 all, giving them 3 points each on the table. Meanwhile, Jaguar, who were 2nd in the division, also finished on a draw so without a win they were unable to topple Spades off the top! So well done Spades, division 4 winners!

Team Diamonds were suppose to be playing Ryland Raptors today but Ryland conceded, thus giving Diamonds a 25-0 win and 5 points on the table. This now concludes the winter league and we look forward to some lovely summer weather for summer league 🤞☀️😁

A beautiful spring day for netball and
lovely games to umpire
Team ♠️:
Great warm up with Lorraine Bennett before the game so the team were straight into winning ways. Lovely movement with plenty of change of direction. The stats were:
Q1 18 goals
Q2 9 goals
Q3 14 goals
W4 18 goals
Score 59-24 against Panthers 3

Team ♦️:
It makes such a difference to play when you have all your team mates playing, putting into practice what you do at training, it showed a little today that some were missing and no subs.
The stats were:
Q1 13 goals
Q2 14 goals
Q3 11 goals
Q4 9 goals
The opposition turned over more in the last quarter, some unforced errors which we will put down to fatigue. Score 47-20 against Firefox Foxes

Well played everyone ♠️♦️

Team Aces were the only ATNC team playing today. With just 7 players at the last minute, it was going to be a tough game against top of the division, CBH. A great start saw some lovely movement up and down court, with a couple of overturns. CBH are a long established team with great perseverance. They go for every ball, at whatever cost, offside, contact, etc. Nevertheless, Aces swapped their team around showing great versatility. A few unforced errors, and slowness on releasing the ball, gave CBH that second chance at the ball resulting in a loss today 26-47. The score did not reflect the game though and I commend the defence for great work and well deserved player going to Leah Wood.

A great morning of netball, albeit cold to watch and rather frustrating when not umpiring! Two matches at 9.30am: Clubs v Firefox and Diamonds v Jaguar, which I flitted between the two. When Clubs first played Firefox the score was 53-37 and today it was 54-29. I felt that our players played a very unnecessary flustered match, making some great turnovers only to then give the ball away! Nevertheless a great result which sees Clubs maintain their place at the top of their division. Well done ladies. The play that I saw from Diamonds was excellent, some silly unforced errors resulted in Diamonds losing out on a win by just 3 goals, 31-34, two points on the table though by getting within 5! Spades played BDR Sweepers and had a convincing win 46-22. I felt that they used the first quarter as a warm up but once into the match the flow was a lot better. ♣️♦️♠️

Hearts played Alvechurch Panthers on Sunday and lost by just 4 goals, 51-55. Gaining 2 points but just missing out on the essential 5 points to potentially topple Panthers1 off the top spot! Nevertheless it was a closely contested game. It is very difficult to keep composure when infringements are not being called but well done to Hearts for keeping it together. ❤

A great morning of netball, 3 teams playing, 3 wins!!! ♠️♦️♣️. I umpired Spades whilst Diamonds were playing and they had a fabulous win 46-26.
Spades were very strong from the start, taking the lead with confidence. We knew it would be a tough match against joint top of the league Jaguars, but not joint any more, with Spades win today 44-35 they will take the lead! Great movement up and down court, fab shooting, and defence overturned lots of balls. In the Clubs game there was some great play up and down court, again with some fantastic overturns, but ball was given away sometimes by weak overheads. Nevertheless Clubs played well and had a convincing win against Ryland Rapidz 64-25.
Thanks everyone for a great morning of netball

Well what a fabulous morning of netball on sunday. It started off with Hearts v Blazin Angels. Hearts started off with just 6 players and had fallen 6 behind in the first quarter. Once all 7 were on court it was a little disjointed as some were playing out of position. Score at Q1 was 9-14. Into Q2, everyone back in their usual positions, score at half time 23-25. Hearts kept their composure and although there were a few unforced errors by end of Q3 the score was still within 2 at 35-37. A change in tactics, with the introduction of some zone marking, saw an increase in turnovers by our brilliant defence, and our attackers kept up the great ball work into the D, with some excellent shooting. The great turn around in Q4 resulted in a fabulous win 49-42! Aces played their first match against Ryland Rays with a fast pace, which their opponents struggled to compete with. Aces experience shone through with a well deserved win 45-25 then it was onto the next match against a very experienced and long established team, Blackbird Divas. Both teams having played a match already, the tiredness began to kick in on both sides by half time. End of Q1 Aces were trailing at 15-7. A couple of changes and by end of Q2 had turned it around to 20-19. Divas were not going to lay down though and came out of the blocks eager to regain their lead and by end if Q3 it was 25-33. Some fresh legs and excellent shooting by Rose, who played up from team Clubs, had to come off injured. By Q4 the tiredness showed with a closing score of 31-46. Nevertheless it was some of the best netball I have seen Aces play.