Blaze at the double after top-flight split

In a Grammar School double-bill where Blaze A beat T&T Purple 47-36 and avoided a potential banana skin in their title push, their youth B team claimed their first win of the season in style, defeating Resolution IT Black 42-37.

Following the division’s split into top and bottom halves, the lower-four have had their points reset for a very brief Plate series.

Blaze B’s surprise scalp against the previous form side has shown that this could be anyone’s game.

Meanwhile, Blaze A were always due a ‘big three’ match, but an 11th hour fixture revision brought third-placed T&T rather than leaders Rezzers Green, who they now face on Monday 10 May in a fitting finale.

Why the Monday matches? That is to work around certain players’ commitments to helping out at the Youth Games.

Youth rose to the fore for Blaze A as U18 Lillie Cochrane produced a player-of-the-match performance at WA, strengthening a solid centre-court where WD Hannah Blondel also proved pivotal with her intercepts.

The title contenders converted their first few centre passes and some welcome turnovers to quickly open a five-goal lead.

But the Purples soon found their feet and great interplay in attack, feeding sharp shooting from GA Steph Batiste and GS Donna Brehaut, helped them end the quarter nicely, trailing just 11-9.

Blaze soon turned up the heat and hit a lengthy scoring run.

They moved the ball smoothly through court and dominated both circles, be it GK Ella Staples’ numerous rebounds or the effective new shooting duo of GA Abbie Greening and GS Zola Saunders.

Despite T&T’s best efforts, Blaze netted 16 goals for nine before half-time, then made it 38-24 at three-quarters.

T&T nevertheless entered the final quarter newly composed and willing to make that second pass, winning those 12 minutes as consolation.

GK Mhairi McGill sealed off a worthy ‘POM’ performance in a game in which centre Charlotte Hill also impressed on attack and defence.

While Blaze captain Nena Copperwaite appreciated the win, she admitted it didn’t come easy.

‘We just had to grind it out – a bit tired and sluggish this Monday night,’ she said while praising Cochrane, who missed only the last quarter.

‘We were pleased to get the win, but it did feel like hard work.’

Opposing captain Brehaut said: ‘All credit to Blaze, as they were very strong and flowed down court really well.

‘First quarter and last quarter we played really well, but we lost our way a little bit in the middle of the game.

‘The score crept too far away from us and we couldn’t really pull it back.’

Beforehand, Blaze B had claimed a notable scalp in what has otherwise been a very testing campaign.

That tough start barely matters after the reset and the youngsters, for whom centre Emily Mourant and GS Vicky Yabsley shared ‘POM’, shot out of the blocks against some experienced rivals.

Rezzers did not have full availability and this forced changes in their shooting circle, where Claire Green and later Liz Mills performed creditably in replacing Anna Trump’s usual partner, Keeleigh Le Tissier, who is busy with work.

This did not detract from Blaze’s sterling team effort, where they led 27-18 at half-time and 37-27 at three-quarters.

However, Rezzers found a second wind in the final quarter, which they edged 10-5 as WA Savannah Goddard earned their ‘POM’ nomination.