Results

Monday night’s game saw the welcome return of Iona Smith to the team who has been out from injury since the beginning of the season, Iona settled back in well starting at GA and then moving to WD. NOA had some good spells of play throughout the game and utilised the movement training to good effect to drive the ball into the attacking circle, especially in the 2nd half of the game. Brize Norton however were fast, efficient and well rehearsed in their set plays and rarely missed shooting opportunities, albeit some excellence interceptions and defending by NOA. NOA’s defence displayed their versatility with the many changes to positions during the game but unfortunately Brize Norton’s attack was just having a better night. A good hard fought game played by all of which we all walked away looking positively on with our developments to work on for the next couple of weeks.

Kelly Boswell

First quarter we started off enthusiastically picking up a 5 goal lead but the Vale shooters got back on track by the 2nd quarter pulling even. The 3rd quarter Vale where leading by 5 but after some excellent centre court play by Emma, fantastic shooting by Di and a brilliant defence the just kept on going we managed to pull it back to be only 2 goals behind at the final whistle. A very good game played by everyone and especially thanks to Alex who was recruited last minute to scrape together a team. We are all keen to beat them next half of the season!

We started the game very well and it was very close most of the way through. The shooters were in good form with some great feeds in from Sue. Unfortunately our defence was weakened at half time with Rachael having to go off poorly. Abingdon’s shooters took advantage of this and started to pull away. We did start to catch up but their attack was just a bit too strong. The score didn’t really reflect the game, it felt much closer!

A well played game by everyone against Oxford Royals this evening, culminating in a 51 – 25 win for NOA A. It was an all round excellant performance by everyone, and a big thank you goes to the B team players who help cement this win, Lisa Darnell, Sue Doke, Rachael Smith and Hallane Hill. Despite having two cripples playing GS and GA, they played very well. Mid court was excellent with Laura Anderson winning player of the match. Defense was good, against a tough old attack, but an excellent team performance ensured a good win for NOA A taking them up to 5th in the league.

It was a very close and highly competitive game. Everyone fought brilliantly throughout. Both teams shot well and there was some great feeding into the circle, particularly by Kirsty. Our defence was excellent and Rachael defended superbly, preventing an equally tall shooter from scoring. Brilliant defensive pressure. Fantastic teamwork, another great win! Well done everyone.

The game started off very competitively with a tight first quarter, but in the second some great interceptions by our defence and some great play round our circle allowed us to build a 7 goal lead by half time.

The third quarter saw NOA extend their lead with some excellent play. The JR shooters were consistently scoring from the edge of the circle, so great credit to our defence who prevented them from seeing much of the ball. Our attack came under increasing pressure from the JR defence, but some excellent and patient play round the circle, and some great shooting from Pippa ensured we finished the third quarter significantly ahead. The fourth quarter saw NOA start to tire and some slightly more wild passes creep into our game However, we maintained our lead and achieved a great win against a team we have previously struggled against.

This was a battle of a match. Blues took the lead early on and NOA worked hard throughout the court to keep the deficit to a minimum. Unfortunately in the 3rd 1/4, a few loose balls and frantic passess allowed the Blues to grow the gap to 10. We went on the last 1/4 with a positive attitude and fought to close the gap but only managed to bring it down by 3. Our first loss of the season but we played well as a team and will learn from this for next week. Well done girls!!

Becky

This was our second game of the season and our first game was a good win for us but we knew this time would be harder as David LLoyd are a good team that have been playing for ages.

The game started off well but soon we were not playing as well as we should of been. Getting into space was our biggest problem as we were all in the same place or not coming forward enough to get the next pass.
A good team talk from our team manager Cat made us think and move a bit more freely and hold our own space. The game was pretty neck and neck throughout. Defence was in good form with Laura and Becky playing well together. Centre court began to slow down and find there own space but still everyone was doing overhead passes and David LLoyd gained points by mistakes made on court. A win non the less 19-17. A training session on chest passes should help us with our next game. Heres to a win then, and hey two games won and we r still getting to know each other in our new team. Come on D team!!

Susannah

It was a really close match throughout with one goal between the two teams up to the last quarter. In the last quarter Vale managed to break a few of our centres and maintained a small lead.

It was a well fought match throughout, with some brilliant shooting by both teams. There were some awesome interception by our team, and the energy was great. As our first match in our new team it worked well despite narrowly loosing. Well done to all and to Dianna for getting player of the match.