This Is Guernsey

Sonia Grant-Yendell made a comeback as part of the Nerine A squad.

WITH the Praxis Winter League drawing to a close and all the divisions having been won there is only one trophy to play for –  the plate in Division One.

That should be settled next week with Nerine and Richmond Masters due to clash next Tuesday at 7pm.

The BPP handicap tournament has now completed the quarter-final stage, with Nerine C having a tough match against the young Sarnians Three side.

Sarnians started with a 45-goal start so Nerine had to get their skates on from the first whistle.

But it took some minutes for the first goal to be scored and initially it was Sarnians that increased their lead.

This seemed to spur on Nerine on who, having got into their stride, had pulled back to 47-61 at half-time.

The third quarter was the best for Sarnians, who put a brake on Nerine’s scoring while managing  a few of their own.

But the final quarter was all Nerine and needing only two goals to catch up they soon went ahead, with Shelley de Lisle and Denise Bourgaize scoring at will.

Ultimately, the Sarnians juniors found the pace too fast for them and Nerine ran out winners 87-72.

TCCI  took on the might of Nerine A, with Sonia Grant- Yendell making her come back and combining well with Zola Bourgaize.

The league champions were always in control of this game and had pulled the handicap back by part-way through the second quarter and from then it was just a case of TCCI keeping the scoring rate down.

This was the last match for TCCI who are disbanding at the end of this season and a regretful GNA hopes to see some of the girls playing for other teams within the association next season.

Nerine E had a walkover from P & J One who could not raise a team due to players being cup tied and in the other quarter-final, P & J 2 attempted to defend a 42-point start against Nerine B.

It should have been enough to have seen them P & J  through but Nerine had other ideas and they came out flying from the first whistle with no intention of coming second.

The speed through the midcourt was, at times, awesome and left P & J standing wondering how the ball had gone from defence to attack so quickly.

In the first quarter, Nerine scored 21 to P & J’s six and by half time the deficit had been pulled back even further with Nerine having added 22 more and conceded another seven.

Going into the third quarter  Nerine needed 12 to draw level and P & J managed to score a further five. But Nerine helped themselves to 20, taking them into a lead of three,  and in the final quarter they stretched away to win 90-73.

The results have produced an all-Nerine semi-final line-up with A taking on C and B  playing E.