TeamBath 47 Loughborough Lightning 49
Team Northumbria 68 Leeds Carnegie 41
Leeds Carnegie 22 Mavericks 77
League table as at 10 February 2008
| 07/08 Season | ||||||||||
| Pos | Team | P | W | L | D | + | - | +|- | +/- | Pts |
| 1 | Loughborough Lightning | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 596 | 383 | 213 | 1.556 | 20 |
| 2 | Team Northumbria | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 535 | 383 | 152 | 1.397 | 19 |
| 3 | Mavericks | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 492 | 373 | 119 | 1.319 | 14 |
| 4 | Team Bath | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 498 | 397 | 101 | 1.254 | 12 |
| 5 | Brunel Hurricanes | 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 421 | 393 | 28 | 1.071 | 9 |
| 6 | Leeds Carnegie | 11 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 433 | 555 | -122 | 0.78 | 8 |
| 7 | Celtic Dragons | 10 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 344 | 538 | -194 | 0.639 | 2 |
| 8 | Northern Thunder | 11 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 353 | 650 | -297 | 0.543 | 2 |
Loughborough Lightning remains on top of the Co-operative Netball Superleague with only three rounds of fixtures remaining before the play offs. But they were made to fight all the way by a spirited performance by reigning champions TeamBath before finally triumphing 49-47. Lightning led 29-20 at the half time interval, but a superb fightback by the champions in the third period, with England internationals Sara Bayman and Jo Binns tireless in the midcourt, allowed Bath to take the third period 17-8, levelling the scores at 37 all with 15 minutes to play. However, Loughborough’s own international stars, Jade Clarke in centre court and young shooter Jo Harten, steadied the ship in the final period, with Harten top scoring for her side with 24 goals to keep Lightning on top of the table.
Team Northumbria kept up the pressure on Lightning with a 68-41 win over Leeds Carnegie to leave the Tynesiders only one point behind the Loughborough side. In a hotly contested, physical match, Northumbria’s Lara McLeod withstood some intense pressure from Leeds’ Parmiter and Davies to net 39 of her side’s goals. Meanwhile, missing their inspirational shooter Tracey Neville, Leeds gave court time to a number of their younger shooters, with England U21 Alex Kirk, in particular, impressing in the first half.
Mavericks, last season’s defeated Grand Finallists netted another impressive win to secure third place with a 77-22 win over bottom side Northern Thunder. The young Thunder side had no match for Mavericks pace and power, and without inspirational captain Lisa Ferneyhough, missing through illness, could not combat the ferocity of the Mavericks attack, and shooters Louisa Brownfield and Monique Wood took full advantage.
Brunel Hurricanes will be looking to revive their own play off ambitions when they travel to Cardiff on Monday evening to face Celtic Dragons. Catch all the action on Thursday on Sky Sports Xtra at 5.00pm, together with highlights and news from the rest of the weekend’s Co-operative Netball Superleague matches.
