Live and learn' is the message

NERINE will 'live and learn' from the two defeats which their final double-header of the National Clubs netball League season brought. Twelve-goal defeats to Just Ahead and Roman Glass left the Guernsey club with a won three, lost three record in their first season in Division Seven and a mid-table finish.

'Both games were within our grasp, but it was a bad couple of days at the office,' said coach Gill Queripel.

'I am not too despondent though. The sickening thing is that we beat the two teams who are going to get promotion, but I suppose we should take heart from that.

'Perhaps we will be better off in Division Seven anyway because we are rebuilding next year. We lose three key personnel so we will have a new squad.'

There was obvious disappointment among the Nerine players that they missed out on a top two placing, but Queripel emphasised the disadvantage of being from Guernsey brings.

'We have learnt a lot from our first season, such as we cannot travel at 7am and play at 12 o'clock. The girls were too tired - they were not on the same planet for the first part of the game.

'We need to go every fortnight to play as well. We have gone over for three double-headers with a month between each one, so we are not being exposed to the pressure of this level continually and it showed. But that is down to the cost.

'But we have all learned from it. I know I made mistakes and I have learned a lot as a coach,' Queripel said.

Nerine have also learned that they will come up against different styles of teams, some of whom are particularly unpleasant.

With Taylor not able to play the following day due to injury, Queripel was forced into a reshuffle and she was pleased to be able to give Heather Niles a full match and Lois Batiste three-quarters.

'Sunday's was a hard game but a nice game. We should have won that but we left ourselves with too much to do - we were 17 goals down at one stage and 14 down after the first quarter. We won the rest of the game so we can take heart from that.

'We have won three and lost three so that should sit us in mid-table in no danger of relegation, which is respectable for our first season,' said Queripel.