Northern Thunder 66-36 Celtic Dragons

NORTHERN THUNDER 66-36 CELTIC DRAGONS

Date:  1600, 19^th December, 2009.

Venue: Castle Leisure Centre, Bury

Umpires: Anne Abraitis, Judith Groves (reserve unknown)

QUARTER SCORES:

Q1: 14-7

Q2: 28-21 (14-14)

Q3: 45-29 (17-8)

Q4: 66-36 (21-7)

Snow may have been covering the ground in Bury, and that may have kept some fans at home, but inside the Castle Leisure Centre the temperature was up for this Co-operative Netball Superleague encounter.  It turned out to be an old fashioned battle of wills contested from the top to the bottom of the court.

Celtic Dragons’ preparations for the game were not helped by a faulty bus, that meant a lot of hanging around and a trip back to the depot to get a new one.  After the slow start in their last outing the Dragons needed to come out breathing fire in this their third match of the season, but it was the home side that stole a march and made the most of the first quarter to take a seven-goal lead.

It is clear that the Dragons’ are building a promising Superleague and National side and newly-18 Emma Thomas is a superb example of the talent in the squad – rarely can a shooter boast a 100% hit rate, but she did not miss in the match. If the Celtic Dragons can feed the 5’9” teenager more ball surely they will find the winning formula that is eluding them.  At half-time Thunder still led by seven after drawing the quarter 14-14.

Unforced errors did not help the Welsh side in the third quarter but it was the dominance of Thunder’s centre court that really made the difference in this match.  In the third quarter a swap of bibs and Sara Bayman moved to WD with Jade Clarke going to C and the Dragons had no answer and little possession, squandering some of what they had by giving away penalty passes.  The England pair a classy act whose versatility is proving an effective weapon for coach Mike Greenwood.

Damage done in that quarter Thunder consolidated their position in the last 15 minutes to record their first win of the season.  After the Northern Thunder captain Karen Greig reflected on a job well done, “Celtic Dragons came out determined especially in the first half. There was very tight man-to-man marking and it disrupted our flow.”  She paid tribute to the way her players stepped up  “We dug deep in a bid to put a big margin between us and the Dragons and with consistency and a drop in error rate I am proud we won by 30.” 

SHOOTING STATS:

THUNDER SHOOT: 67 FROM 84 = 80%

GREIG:47 FROM 56=84%

TURNER:13 FROM 15=87% 

BEENHAM 7 FROM 13 = 54%

DRAGONS SHOOT: 36 FROM 49= 73%

THOMAS 15 FROM 15 100%

MOSELEY 18 FROM 29 = 62%

NEATE 4 FROM 9 = 44%