Misfiring champions under pressure from old rivals

TWO of netball's oldest rivals meet tonight in what is basically a title decider at Beau Sejour. Champions Nerine Trust A can virtually assure themselves of another Division One title by beating Sarnians One with just one fixture, against Barclays Masters, remaining.

But their nearest challengers are in excellent form at present and a win for the green-and-yellows would probably set up a play-off for the title as long as Nerine get a point and the rest of the league programme goes as expected.

'I am never confident until the final whistle is blown and I always give every team the respect they deserve,' said Nerine coach Gill Queripel, who has not been pleased with her side's form of recent weeks.

'We have got a lot of things to sort out and we have not had anything that testing recently, but tomorrow will definitely be a test.

'Sarnians have been playing very well and they have got nothing to lose.

'They have been playing together for an awful long time while we have got a bit of a new line-up with Kerrie Hussey shifting from defence to up front.

'It is a different style of game that we have been playing at National Clubs level.'

GUERNSEY have the clear objective of two victories on their final double-header trip of their current English Counties League campaign in 11 days' time.

And Tracie Hards' team will have to do it without captain Andi Pettitt and inflential centre-court player Claire Queripel.

The Sarnians will face divisional leaders Cornwall and then West Devon having won three of their four matches so far after suffering a disappointing defeat to East Dorset on their most recent visit to England.

They responded well with a win over the Royal Navy just a couple of hours later but, admittedly, that was a match they were expected to win.

'We just could not really get it together in the first game - we almost panicked a little bit and threw it away. To be honest, we have only got ourselves to blame,' said the Guernsey coach of the 41-36 defeat.

'East Dorset were good. They were well-controlled, very fluent and their shooters hardly missed but it was disappointing for us.

'The Navy game we were probably always going to win although it was not as high-scoring as I would have liked.' It finished 43-20.