Jamaica's goal shoot Jodi-Ann Ffrench (left) collects a pass ahead of Antigua & Barbuda's goal keeper Charlie Knight during the Caribbean Under-16 Netball match at the Leila Robinson Courts yesterday. Jamaica won 50-8. - Dennis CokeBy Fitzroy Prendergast,
Staff Reporter
HOSTS Jamaica got off to a rollicking start at the Caribbean Under-16 Netball Championship at the Leila Robinson Courts yesterday trouncing Antigua and Barbuda 50-8 in a one-sided affair.
Goal shoot Jodi-Ann Ffrench led Jamaica's scoring, netting 27 goals from 41 attempts and Goal attack Tiffany Wolfe got 23 goals from 27 attempts to set up the impressive win.
"I expected this sort of victory," said a happy Joan Cargill, coach of the Jamaica team, after the game.
"The first quarter was basically to have a good look at them. After we had done that we made the necesary adjustments, improved on each aspect of our game quarter by quarter and got what turned out to be a very comfortable win," she added.
Antigua and Barbuda's coach Shenette Samuels said her young team just could not deal with the experience of the local girls.
"We knew that it was going to be a tough match," she said.
"We were hoping that the girls would come out and play a good game and possibly give Jamaica a whipping but it did not happen. The Jamaican team is very experienced, my girls are quite inexperienced and that was the difference," she added.
Jamaica had a brisk start to the game, opening up a a 5-0 lead after only two minutes but faltered a bit in the middle of the quarter, with Ffrench failing to find her range but held on to lead 7-2 at the end of the first quarter. Ffrench improved her shooting in the second quarter, as the Jamaicans rushed into a 19-6 at the half time.
The combination of captain Ffrench, goal attack Tiffany Wolfe, who was consistent thoughout the game, played with a lot more purpose in the third with a lot of snappy, accurate passes and getting quickly to the goal area in an effort to mount the pressure on their opponents.
For their efforts the local girls scored 17 goals in the ten minute quarter--their highest quarterly score of the game, to grab a 36-8 lead at the end of the third quarter before completing the rout in the fourth stanza scoring 14 unanswered goals.
In the second game, Trinidad and Tobago cruised past the Cayman Islands 36-11. The twin island republic recovered from a close first quarter where both teams ere locked at 5-5 to lead 16-8 at the half-time break and 23-11 at the end of the third quarter.
Goal attack Patrice Edwards led the scoring for Trinidad scoring 28 goals from 328 attempts while goal shoot Rachel Russell netted eight from 12 attempts.
Randeen Young with six goals from eight attempts led the Cayman Island effort with support from goal attack Julletta fagon who scored five goals from eight attempts.
The third and final game, saw defending champions St. Vincent and the Grenadines surviving a scare before pipping Grenada 26-23.
