Wheatcroft edged out 19-18 by SMC in Scarborough Netball League cracker

It was a warm night at Pindar’s inside court which made the fast-paced game uncomfortable for both teams.

SMC started the game with the first centre pass and proceeded to score the first goal with a precisive pass between SMC WA and GA to get the ball into the attacking D.

The first quarter was very regimental with both teams scoring from their own centre passes, however SMC secured rebounds from Wheatcroft’s missed attempts on goal, resulting in the first quarter ending 7-5 to SMC.

With such a small margin, both teams stepped up their defensive game in the second quarter, however, both teams experienced shooters secured goals from just inside the D, making these extremely hard to defend.

Both centres Jessica Pinder (Wheatcroft) and Ellie Rogers (SMC) made some excellent interceptions rotating the play into their favour.

This quarter ended 10-8 to SMC.

During the half-time interval, Wheatcroft made some changes to their team which saw four players rotate position.

Despite the good defensive work of Wheatcroft’s Goal Keeper Emily Cole and this quarters rotated Goal Defence, Karen Ryan, SMC were on a roll and proceeded to score nine further goals this quarter to Wheatcroft’s two.

Wheatcroft had a lot to do for the fourth quarter if they were to catch up to SMC’s strong performance.

The fourth quarter saw Wheatcroft nine goals behind SMC.

Luckily, it was Wheatcroft’s centre to start and with some fast passes into the attacking D between Pinder, and umpire’s player of the match Goal Attack Cherene Simmonds, Wheatcroft were able to narrow the margin and score a goal in the first minute.

Securing the first goal of the quarter gave Wheatcroft a confidence boost and proceeded to score quick goals with error-free passes into shooters Simmonds and Stacey Mancrief.

Wheatcroft found their fight and continued their streak to score eight further goals with the defence equally as determined – not allowing SMC to score any goals in the final quarter.

Despite the grit from Wheatcroft, they didn’t quite make the goals needed to draw and the score ended 19-18 in favour of SMC.

Lookout Sirens claimed a 39-26 Division One win against Pashby Powercats.

From the start it was an evenly-fought, end-to-end encounter, the scores locked at 7-7 by the end of the first quarter.

Pashby came out all guns blazing in the second quarter with their WD Cat Hegarty and Sirens’ WA Sharron Agar going head to head and with some well-timed passes from Centre Holly Andrews giving Pashby a half-time 17-14 lead.

Then the fightback began, Sirens, sponsored by The Lookout on the Pier, came out a revitalized team with some fabulous interceptions from centre Leanne Anderson and WD Bex Wilkinson enabling them to get level.

Amy Prince, at GA, (Player of the Match), teamed together with Jaine Bickerdike, getting some outstanding shots in the net and having a tussle with Hannah Jones (Player of the Match) and Caroline Sellers in defence for Pashby, Sirens going into the last quarter leading 27-24.

Sirens carried on where they left off in the third quarter, with the help of the defensive team of Rach Pashby and Emily Castleton fending off any attacks from Maxine Powell and Cat Fox enabling Sirens to give an all-out push for the 39-26 win.