Source: guardian.co.tt|By Rachael Thompson-King
T&T netballers got off to a good start at the Mission Foods World Netball Championships, stopping Wales, 51-48, yesterday in their opening match in Singapore. Led by 36 goals from 40 attempts by captain Janelle Barker, the “Calypso Girls” beat the 13th ranked team in the world. In the first quarter, both T&T and Wales put out a tough fight for the goal but it was the latter that held the advantage by a (13-12) goal. In this period, Barker, playing the goal-attack, teamed-up with goal-shooter Anastasia Wilson, who shot in the first half, scoring nine off 11. The teams exchanged goals throughout the next quarter with T&T earning 26-25 lead at the half after outscoring its opponent, 14-12. This was as a result of T&T taking it slowly with good decision making that included amazing rotations and work with the centre-court players Rhonda John-Davis (wing-attack) and Candice Guerero (centre).
The eighth-ranked T&T made use of the good ball handling skills of the players to minimise mistakes and put in goals instead. Credit goes to the good communication with shooters Barker, who was rotated to the goal-shooter position and goal-attack Joelisa Cooper, who replaced her, in the circle. Cooper was perfect in her shooting, scoring all of her six tries which helped the “Calypso Girls” stay ahead into the third, leading 38-34 entering the final period.
A strategic change of players, Cara Moseley (WA) and Sophie Morgan (C), brought Wales up as they worked together to bring the ball to the shooters. The timing of the fielders letting go of the ball, to the good positioning of the shooters gave Wales more chances at goals which helped them close the gap by the end of the last quarter but T&T’s performance was absolutely amazing and the Caribbean team was able to hold out for the victory despite Wales outshooting them (14-13) in that session.
results & fixtures
Jamaica 72 vs South Africa 45
Australia 81 vs Samoa 23
T&T 51 vs Wales 48
New Zealand 80 vs Fiji 25
Sri Lanka 56 vs Northern Ireland 65
England 65 vs Malawi 33
Barbados 62 vs Malaysia 40
Today’s matches
Fiji vs T&T
England vs Barbados
Samoa vs Sri Lanka
New Zealand vs Wales
Jamaica vs Botswana
Australia vs Northern Ireland
Singapore vs South Africa
Malawi vs Malaysia