With third place in the regular season of the Co-operative Netball Superleague up for grabs at the Hertfordshire Sports Village, the clash between Mavericks and Northern Thunder was a game that in an ideal world both teams would be meticulously prepared for. Unfortunately we do not live in an ideal world.
While the visitors were without top shot Karen Grieg, four of the home side's first choice squad were either in hospital, just leaving hospital, recovering from surgery or sitting at an airport 1314 miles away waiting to a cloud of volcanic ash to clear and allow airtravel to resume. The fifth key unavailable player for Mavericks, Karen Atkinson had a knee niggle and was in management mode on the bench.
Thunder took advantage early on after an early turnover after having first centre to go into a 3-1 lead, but Mavericks picked up the pace and got back on terms with 11 minutes played. Thunder pinned down the home sides mid-court leaving them few options for passing and by shutting down the first choice route were able to close out the quarter 14-10.
Quarter two and a renewed sense of purpose for Mavericks saw three goals fly in before a time out to treat Rose Morgan-Smith slowed their momentum. Thunder made their Bayman-Clarke switch at the break with the players swapping bibs, and it took a few moments of adjustment before normal service was resumed. And it was a cracking quarter of netball with battle was resumed with fervour, Clark versus Almond, Morgan-Smith against Clarke Wilson versus Stenhouse - action and interceptions in all thirds of the court.With both defensive outfits playing well, the ball had to be hard won in the interceptions and tips. But Thunder did best and extended their lead. It was 21-27 at half-time.
Thunder upped the pace in the third quarter, where the ball was failing to drop right for the home side. The ball was travelling well though the court for Thunder who were rewarded with an ever alert Anastascia Wilson in the circle. She took high passes, roll passes, fast passes, low passes, bad passes and plenty of good ones to boot. Charley Beenham was having a good match too and and between them the girls were rolling Thunder into an impressive match winning lead, twenty goals up going into the last 15 minutes is a comfortable cushion for most teams.
And it was another strong showing in the final quarter by the visitors who swapped Krystal Gayle on for Rachel Henry at WA. Unforced errors did start creeping into the match on Thunder’s side but Mavericks also stepped up the work rate - which sort of cancelled out on both sides.
A big win for Thunder against a Mavericks side hit hard by injury. Sophia Candappa will be out for a few months after midweek operation on her elbow, dislocated in the Mavericks game against England last Tuesday. Naida Hutchinson celebrated her birthday today by coming out of hospital after knee surgery but at least Louisa Brownfield was able to watch the game - and take a few shots at goal as the sides cooled down.
The play-off in Bury could well be a very different story.
Hertfordshire Mavericks Head Coach Maggie Jackson, "There were people missing but I'd rather reflect on some of the good stuff done on court today except for the third quarter.""I feel that we've got some depth now at Hertfordshire Mavericks and Northern Thunder took it away completely and they won the game but some of our players haven't had some of the court time and we had brand new combinations working for the whole 60 minutes."Northern Thunder's Sara Bayman said after the game: "To be honest we had one really decent quarter which killed the game and we're happy with the result."
She added "it would have been disappointing for us to lose today as they had key players missing and I don't think you can take anything from this into the playoffs."
By Lisa O’Sullivan
Match Umpires
Tracey Smith and Dawn Heron with Gary Burgess
