Hinckley Ladies A dig deep to clinch last gasp victory

HINCKLEY Ladies A took to the courts for their first game of the season on Saturday, and boy was it a nail biter! After being in the lead by two goals at quarter time, by half time Hinckley had fallen behind and were losing by seven goals to a tough Henley opposition. After a tactical change in attack and a tireless defence, Hinckley secured a win in the last few seconds of the game 43-42. Player of the match was awarded to GS Holly Hemsley.

• With a new line up for this season and great versatility, Hinckley B got off to a great start. Carol Payne and Georgia Clarke had confidence and precision shooting and driving the passes and feeds into the shooters we had Lucy Marsden who was a constant support with accurate passes. The communication from Lynda Sanders and Karen Malkin saw a strong defence working tirelessly with Caron Ogden and Beth Thuraiajah in our centre court (Beth Thuraiajah earning POM). Bethany Willars had an awesome impact in defence coming on with fresh legs and ensuring Hinckley B secured a great first win 49-31.

• Hinckley C took on Harbury B with

a great start to the season in very wet conditions. Harbury fought well throughout despite only having 6 players and Hinckley utilised this in the attacking third. The game finished 45-28 to Hinckley, player of the match was GA Chloe Phillips.

• The D team had lots of friendly faces at their first match of the season, not only plenty of spectators but also the opposition - HLNC E team! It was great to be back on court today albeit a strange first fixture against club rivals. With the D team starting off slowly it ensured the first half was a very closely fought contest with some great passages of play from the E team from connections that had been worked on in friendlies and training.

The E team went into the third quarter with lots of confidence but at this point the D team had settled into their stronger positions and combinations and were able to capitalise on both forced and unforced errors from the E team to finish with a comfortable 33-16 win. POM for the D team was Anna Clayden at GD and Harriet Richley for the E’s (WA).

• Despite a soggy start for all,

Hinckley F team began their first match of the season strongly and this set the tone for the whole match.

Despite the team feeling like they were

tiring the lead remained solid throughout the whole match. Katie Talbot (POM) played solidly at GK

restricting Bedworth’s shooting

possibilities, and there were some great interceptions from other

defenders in Eboni Clarke and Donna

Edwards. With the consistent scoring

from shooters, Suzanne Barney and

Anita King, and Susie Jones commanding the centre court, Hinckley F were able to take the game 38-26.