DIAMONDS MATCH REPORT 20/10/24

The first quarter started strong with strategic positional play, and some great interceptions by Mary. The team managed to apply pressure to win possession of Ryland’s balls and then used them to gain advantage. Despite a lot of pushing from the opponents, Diamonds persevered.

In the second quarter, the opponents grew more feisty giving Edie and Georgina a fight to defend within the D, which they handled with conviction. In our attacking D, Chloe and Katie played the ball tactically between one another, as well as passing out to C and WA.

Within the third quarter, the shooters maintained accurate shots as well as always going for the rebound against some challenging defenders. Poppy M was consistently available for every pass in the centre court, and always stayed on the line for the attacking players to reposition themselves.

Finally, the last quarter showed how Diamonds have returned to usual form, with the whole team confident in playing their positions and working together. Poppy B worked seamlessly moving the ball up the court and passing in to the shooters, who showcased their talents with some excellent shots. Diamonds came away with a comfortable 45-24 win.

Well played everyone x

Written by Chiara – Player of the match

After a wet and windy start, the girls got off to an impressive lead. They soon warmed up whilst dominating the court against Ryland.
Leaping Lucy surely had the wind in her sails when flying in air like a gazelle. Someone definitely put the springs in her feet today.
She was greatly assisted by Antonia and Frankie, getting the feeds from the centre passes, followed strongly into the D. The awesome shooting was executed as sweet as a bag of haribo! Amy and her jelly arms kept some unlucky missed shots in our possession, which then turned into perfect goals. Frankie’s long shots boosted up the scoreboard and between her and Amy, we succeeded in a mighty win of 44-5.
Imogen was really good at being in the right place at the right time, offering the extra help when needed, which aided Stacey’s insane defending as always. Stacey’s player couldn’t keep up with her kick ass motivation to run the court!
Lucinda had some sexy dance moves trying to keep warm and on her toes ready to launch herself in the air to snatch that ball in.
And last but not least, Millie’s great versatility allowed her to booty bosh the three positions that she played! She was exactly where she needed to be, always offering that extra pass when needed.
The sharp passes and awesome play all round resulted in a great victory.
Shout out to Amy for getting players player!

Written by Gemma – player

Very proud to announce some awards from the Redditch Netball League AGM:
Lauren Goymer, captain of Team Hearts, was the most voted players player in division 1 during Winter 23/24 season and received a trophy.
Chiara Chambers from Team Diamonds was most voted players player in division 4 during Winter 23/24 season and also received a trophy
Team Aces were Winners of
division 3 in Summer 2024 season and were awarded £70.00
Team Diamonds were winners of division 4 in Summer 2024 season and chose to receive medals
Congratulations ladies 👌❤️🔷️

Hearts 55 – 42 Blazin Angels
Well done to Hearts who convincingly won against Blazin Angels today. A huge thanks to Isabel Fairchild for playing a second full match and Katie Brown for staying as our super sub. Thanks goodness she did!
A fiesty side lead to a couple of knocks on court for Pippa Kelly and Natalie Jayne, with Katie coming on court as a tactical change and playing a great GD/C especially through court.
Our defence were a force to be reckoned with today. Laura Mae leading from the back lead to plenty of turnovers from Pippa and Katia Cardin that we managed to capitalise on.
Shooting circle was on fire as always with an impressive performance from both Olivia Hunt and Molly Harrison who was awarded player (great job!). Some beautiful balls in from Izzy throughout the entire game!
Overall a really impressive performance, with strong ball placement and positional play throughout. We now need to focus on defensive backline passes and clearing out.
Well done all! Bring on Alvechurch Panthers 💪🏻

Written by Natalie – Co captain

Lovely interim game against Clubs today, competitive game but we all had fun and smiles on our faces 😆

41-47 to clubs. ♣️

We got off to a slow start, Clubs hit the ground hard first half giving them a lead. Katie and Mary doing their best in the defence circle for a turn over.

Second quarter we saw more dynamic play and stronger passes through court with great assistance from Grace C, Katie and Sarah brining it into the attacking third as we slowly gained on Clubs.

Third quarter picked up the pace and brought it back closing down the gap, focusing on possession rather than forcing play, everyone had good use of their arms, always marking the ball in that stage two defence, to force the play off our opposition.

Fourth quarter we saw a switch up between Gemma and Chloe. This allowed us to open up the circle more with Gemma clearing and Chloe being able to drive into the D.

Some amazing feeds into the D from Izzy. Sarah working the ball around and working the ball from defence to attack. Katie was on fire with her drive and movement today. Leah’s defence against Jeanette was great today always sticking with her player. Gemma had some amazing clean shots today. Grace Connolly with some great stage two defending.

Thank you to Mary for playing up today you were fab in defence with some amazing intercepts ✨

Players awarded to Me ( Chloe Evans ) 🫶🏼
Captains player awarded to positivity princess Izzy Fairchild ✨

Written by Chloe – player

So today was the big day for Alcester as it was our first inter club game of the season.

We started off strong in the first half, using the width of the court well, taking advantage of any interceptions and keeping the pace which meant we went into the second half comfortably ahead by 13!

Maybe we got too cocky or maybe stamina got the best of the us, I’m not sure but it was clear that our performance started to slip during the second half. Whilst our defence remained strong, we lost the strength in our passes and showed that we really need to work on quicker release of the ball! As a result, Aces did start to claw it back scoring 24 in the second half against our measly 17.

The performance from the first half of the game really got us the win. Shout out to hungover Jodie for winning player, and personal thanks to Jeanette for battling through her cold and still standing strong as our GS. Well done to the rest of the team for some brilliant play and of course to Aces – it was a pleasure to play against you this morning 💕

♣️ 47 – 41 Aces 👏🏼

Written by Ellie – Captain

Jodie Palmer awarded player of the match

06/10/24-
This morning Diamonds fought through a difficult match against a very slick Ryland team.

Starting with only 6 players, we pushed through with some great feeds and movement through the court. But, Ryland had a great start and took a strong lead.
Q2 saw us with a full team of players and we were able to put to use some of our set plays which aided our game. We also saw some great interceptions from defence and some fab work from both the centre court and attacking players. Despite this Ryland played relentlessly and managed to turn over some of our passes, assisting their score.

The game continued with a similar pattern and resulted in the score of 57-20 to Ryland, which unfortunately breaks our winning streak of 14 games in a row!!

We will continue the season with confidence and push through, hopefully gaining some more wins!
Well done Diamonds ♦️

Written by Chloe – Captain

The ankle curse continues to radiate through Queens as ankle injury #5 of the season tackles poor Frankie in q2 of Queens vs Redditch Opals 🥺

Running very thin on the ground, but thanks to our wonderful new players – Alicia, Katie, Millie and Lucy – Queens took to the court with less than half of our “core” team to take on Opals on a grey morning today.

Unfortunately, Opals took the win 30-11 in the end but not for lack of trying as our new ladies, plus Hayley and Imogen, fought on with just 6 players after Frankie’s injury. However, Queens leave with their heads held high as we didn’t let it dampen spirits and in true queens fashion, kept on till the very last second.

A huge shout out and thank you to everyone who came to help us out so that the match could still go ahead despite injuries and illness and massive well done to Lucy for getting the player of the match award! 🥰🖤👑

Soph xxx

Aces 43 – 40 BDR

An amazing “first” game back for Aces today, we managed to keep our cool and focus on ourselves rather than the opposition which helped get the win we deserved!

In the first quarter we hit the ground running, managing to get ahead 14-6. This head start helped us tremendously, giving us that little edge that kept us in the lead throughout. Our skilful interceptions and rebounds pushed us forward and raring to go for the second quarter.

Keeping positions the same we went into the second quarter which ended with a score of 24-21 to Aces. With BDR getting a lot more rebounds and successful shots in, it started getting quite close. Nevertheless our spectacular shooters Grace and Chloe continued working hard and keeping us in the lead.

In our third quarter we needed to make some changes to make sure we stayed ahead. Changing around positions and focussing more on bringing the ball up the court we started increasing the score gap again. Izzy, Rose, and Gemma beautifully worked the ball in the attacking third, running circles round the forceful defensive opposition.

Our last quarter was incredibly close with the final score of 43-40. Once again, keeping calm and focussing on positive game play definitely helped us against the not-so-positive opposition (to say the least!). We saw some amazing interceptions from Leah and Katie in the D who fought off the attackers with ease. Sarah came on with some fresh legs and gave us the extra little boost we needed to end the game.

An amazing first game with us for Rose who got captain’s player!
Having that head start from the get-go definitely allowed us to feel comfortable in our play and get us that win!

Written by Grace Connolly – Player

The game started off well with a strong start and us taking the lead. Unfortunately, Lorraine’s dodgy leg became too dodgy for her to continue to play. This was heartbreaking for both her and us so early into the game. With a slight rejig we set off again and luckily continued to take the lead.

Confidence got the better of us going into the second quarter and we all got the giggles finding our silly mistakes hilarious, which of course they were not… Lorraine on the sideline didn’t find it so funny. With a stern talking before going into the second half, we pulled ourselves together and found some structure again. Jodie stopped coming so far down the court and the rest of us moved out of each others way and, after closing the gap, we started to pull ahead again and worked really well. It must have been ok because Lorraine changed her tune and said we were a ‘dream to watch’ at the end of the game.

I won player of the match 💁🏼‍♀️ and the team did so well, it was a fun game, we all enjoyed ourselves (maybe too much as some point) and we got a great result. Well done everyone!

♣️ Clubs 56 – 42 Hotshots

Written by Ellie – Captain