Champions' main threat comes from their B side

AWESOME defence by Amy Wright and Gemma Loveridge has helped keep Nerine A on course for another league title. The champions breezed past their D team 37-19 in Praxis Division One, largely thanks to their two island defenders, during a week in which results went to form.

Title challengers Nerine B also enjoyed a convincing win as Tessa Hinshaw and Hannah Dunnell found the net with ease against Sarnians Two.

The top two from Nerine meet in a heavyweight clash next month.

There was a ding-dong battle in the other top-flight match as Richmond Masters showed all their guile and experience to keep Sarnians One on the back foot.

The game went goal for goal as the Masters shooters did not waste any shots while their Sarnian counterparts were finding it hard to break down the defence.

But Sarnians upped the pace in the final quarter and pulled away from their tiring opponents to run out 38-31 winners.

Division Two is hotting up, with all to play for.

If Nerine E could have pulled off a win against Heritage Hawks, they would have extended the gap at the top.

But this was a 'six-pointer' with Hawks desperate for victory before the split so that they were in contention for the title.

Hawks went out hard from the first whistle with shooters Ali Guillou and Verienne Belcher in good form, taking their opportunities at goal throughout the match.

Nerine E were missing their tall shooter, Lisa Davey, meaning Kim Le Lacheur and Roxanne Wylie were up against the lofty defence of Sue Fallaize and Vicki Gallienne, who made scoring difficult, and so Nerine were always playing catch-up.

Hawks eventually ran out 31-22 winners.

Meanwhile, PwC kept their title hopes firmly on track with a comfortable 37-17 win over Nerine F, but P&J One's match with Nerine G went down to the wire.

P&J edged it 25-24 thanks to a timely interception in the dying moments by Jane Giubileo, who fed her shooters to pinch the game.

The top two in Division Three both pulled off an impressive win.

Leaders P&J Two overcame Autumn Gold 32-13 while Nerine H took Marlborough apart 53-8.

Sarnians Three, who defeated Nerine J, are also showing good form going into the Christmas break with Jo Pugh and Sophie Griffiths combining well in the shooting circle, ably backed up by Emma Casby and Sarah Butler in centre court.

The other dark horses are HSBC Honeys, who beat Sarnians Four 46-6 while having only six players.

Division Four saw second-place team Sarnians Five almost drop four points, when they were pushed all the way in a tight game by the ever-improving junior side of Nerine M.

Under the leadership of coach Liz Coquelin, the youngsters are starting to play some good netball and it was a shame not to see them at least get a draw from this game.

But Sarnians can smell the title and need to keep winning if their dream is to be realised. They took the game 20-19.

Da Silva Ferns, who have a very busy January to catch up on their games as they were late entering the league, posted a 31-15 win against KPMG.

The final game in this division was a walkover to Nerine K as Heritage Two were unable to field a team.

This division, like Division Two, is going to go to the end with four or five teams fighting for the split.