England crush hopes of Euro glory
NORTHERN Ireland’s dream of being crowned European netball champions for the first time ended with a heavy 75-44 defeat by England in Cardiff last night.
Powerful full-timers England generally win the annual European Championships all too comfortably, but came to this tournament with a relatively experimental panel.
They were pushed harder than usual in their opening game against Scotland before winning 61-48, while Northern Ireland had overcome hosts Wales 47-46 in their first fixture.
The Scots probably benefited from catching the hot favourites cold as England looked much Tough time: Kyla Bowman battled up front for NI
closer to their formidable best against the girls in green.
England led 17-9 after a disappointing first quarter, but Elaine Rice’s side battled to keep the half-time score to 33-22, although the English were up 5033 going into the last period.
With this morning’s Test against Fiji (10.30am) starting just 13 hours after the England game ended, the coach took off a couple of top players for the last quarter.
Captain Caroline O’Hanlon made way for her Larkfield club colleague Neamh Woods at centre, while star shooter Lisa Bowman was also withdrawn with Noleen Lennon moving up front alongside Kyla Bowman.
England put the reshuffled side to the sword in that last 15 minutes, netting a further 25 goals to take their eventual victory margin to a commanding 29.
Fiji are in Cardiff for Tests against each of the home nations alongside the European Championships and have been ranked seventh in the world. THE penultimate rounds of the Irish and Ulster short circuit championships take place today at St Angelo Airfield near Enniskillen.
The premier Superbike series sees Ballycastle ex-motocross rider Charles Stuart lead the way with a 36-point lead over Mark Glasgow with 100 still available.
If Stuart was to repeat last weekend’s second place finishes at Mondello he would comfortably clinch both the Irish and Ulster titles.
In the Supersport class defending champion Jason Lynn has 39 points in hand over Ross Patterson in the Irish series, but the Ulster championship has Home straight: Charles Stuart can win Irish and Ulster titles
seen eight different winners with all still to race for with Lynn leading joint-second Korie McGreevy and Christian Elkin by 17 points with Patterson a further 15 points back in fourth.
Another title still up for grabs is the Supertwin series currently led by ‘rookie’ Simon Reid, who scored his maiden win at Bishopscourt and has a slender ninepoint lead over Marty Lennon.
Darryl Sharkey, who clinched the Masters Pre Injection title last weekend, and Johnny Irwin are the favourites to share Irish and Ulster honours. Irwin is over 30 points ahead of his rival in the Ulster and Sharkey leading the Irish by 15 points.
The 18-race programme at St Angelo starts at 11.30am.
Meanwhile at Canada Heights in Kent, the 2017 Quad Open championship defending champion Mark McLernon, from Hillsborough and Paul Holmes go head-to-head for the title tomorrow with McLernon taking a single point advantage into the final three races tomorrow.