Teenagers earn praise from top despite defeat

XL 56, Guernsey 36

DESPITE a 20-goal South Region League defeat, the reports on an inexperienced Guernsey side were all positive. With five of the first-team squad unavailable, it was left to the juniors plus veteran campaigner Denise Bourgaize to take to the court and the loss of Cassie Le Page the night before the team were due to travel was another blow.

It meant that young Roxanne Wylie stepped up for her first trip away in the big league.

'To say nerves were jangling was probably an understatement,' said coach Gill Queripel.

'The girls found the all-court zone defence of XL extremely difficult to break down as many of them had not come across this style of defence before.

'They took time to settle.'

Bourgaize, as on-court coach, made changes at the quarter-time, moving her daughter, Zola, to centre, herself back to keeper, Lyndsey Bougourd to GA and Kerri Brown to shooter.

Donna Brehaut came on for her South Region debut at WA, meaning GD Amy Wright was the only player not to change position.

'The girls seemed to settle better in this format and were holding their own, trading goal for goal with the opposition and only going down by two in that quarter,' Queripel said.

Unfortunately, the damage had been done in the first half.

However, Queripel took it as a huge positive that many of the players grew in stature as the match progressed and considers this type of competition crucial to their development.

That point was emphasised in the way she referred to Brown as a 'seasoned campaigner' at this level due to the amount of games she has played, despite being only 17.

The match also marked the first away umpiring duty for Guernsey for Nigel Stafford-Gill.

He had a mentor for the weekend in Jenny Poore, one of the senior testers for the south region.

'She was full of praise for our young male umpire and has told Nigel that after a couple more games, he can put in for his assessment for B award umpire status,' said Queripel.

'Jenny also commented on our young players, saying what a super team we have in the making and that the skill level is very high for such a young team. Praise indeed from someone who has umpired at top level all over the country.

'This is thanks to the help of the PWC School of Excellence, where a lot of this work is done.'

Guernsey's next South Region League fixture is against Eagles at Beau Sejour on Sunday 3 December, with a 12.30pm start.