Nerine A retain their Division One crown
Nerine Trust A 46, Sarnians One 21 NERINE TRUST A have retained their crown as Guernsey champions.
Nerine Trust A 46, Sarnians One 21
NERINE TRUST A have retained their crown as Guernsey champions. Gill Queripel's team overcame a tricky start to overwhelm nearest rivals Sarnians and ensure that they cannot be caught at the top of the Division One, with their final game being tonight against Barclays Masters.
But their perfectionist of a coach would not let them celebrate their achievement until their league programme was complete and she has noted some aspects she wants to improve.
'I want nice, fluent centre-court play - quick-pass balls going down court. We are guilty at times of being over-elaborate,' Queripel said.
But when they are on song, no team in the island can live with this Nerine side and to prevent Sarnians from getting the point awarded for getting more than half a winning team's goals emphasises that.
For the first 10 minutes it seemed as though it would be an extremely tight encounter as up to then the teams were tied at 4-4 and the greens had looked the neater side by keeping things simple while the red-and-blacks tried to force their passes.
But a couple of minutes and a few quick attacks later, the champions were 8-4 ahead and they never looked back.
They started to pull away, allowing their opponents just three goals to their 12 in the second quarter and for one 16-minute period Sarnians failed to score and hardly even had a shot with Lorna Brown breaking up attacks almost before they began.
Meanwhile, Nerine shooters Sonia Grant-Yendell and Kerrie Hussey, supplied by the tireless Lois Batiste and Nena Bourgaize, found their range more as the game progressed and the margin continued to grow despite the efforts of Liz Stonebridge and Sarnians' player-of-the-match Andi Pettitt.
Sarnians were given more shooting opportunities in the final quarter, which Zoe Batiste and Bridget Yabsley were grateful for, but the game had been wrapped up by then.
'We were very guilty in the first quarter of having nothing in the centre court and credit to Sarnians who kept us back and did not let us rest,' said Queripel.
'But we started to motor a bit and when we are not in a hurry to get to goal and not relying on Kerrie's height, we play quite well.'
Sarnians coach Tracie Hards said: 'The first quarter was quite close but we lost it a bit and Nerine got on a run. They picked up a lot of loose balls while we struggled to get the ball into the circle.'