On Monday 6th March a young Year 9 Team (plus 4 Year 8s) headed to Fivemiletown to take part in the Annual Year 9 Fermanagh Netball Blitz. They faced strong, not to mention very tall opposition!
Our girls drew Mount Lourdes (MLE) for the first game of the day. They played very well, but when faced with a stronger and more match-ready team, they were always on the back foot. The young Enniskillen Royal’s lost 7-0.
The next match was against St Comhgall’s, Lisnaskea (SCL). The girls again played strongly, with many more shots on goal, and a lot more possession. Unfortunately, our shots were not all on target, and we went down 6-1.
The third match against Devenish college (DC) saw our fortunes change. The team had settled somewhat, and I took this opportunity to play some of the Year 8s for the first half. There were some excellent passes with the girls being very spatially aware. The shots on goal were of excellent quality, all from almost the edge of the shooting circle. The team came away 4-2 winners in this match.
Match four was very disorganised. The team were beginning to flag and were neither making accurate passes nor handling the ball well. This was not their best performance with all these frequent errors. On saying this however, St Fancheas (SFE) were in a similar situation. The game was low scoring, 3-1 to SFE.
Match Five was against Erne Integrated(EIC) – a side that has really improved with each match. It was quite an even match, with opportunities missed on both sides. It has to be said that the GK from EIC played out of her socks, preventing our GA and GS from getting their shots into the net. Final result 2-0 to EIC.
The final match was against Fivemiletown college (FMT). This was one of the strongest performances of the day for our girls. Very physical, but excellent play from both sides. It was very unlucky for Enniskillen Royal to lose this by 1-0, as they deserved at least a draw.
Despite the Enniskillen Royal Team not coming away with any medals this year, they have had an opportunity to play and watch some excellent Netball, and I am very proud of them all. As one team member said, “We’ll get them next year after we’ve had our growth spurt”!
Team:- Erin McCullagh, Z.Neill, A.Carson, L.Bell, S. Irvine, A.McIntosh, E.McCartney, E.Moutray, R.Mullan, S.Williams
