IN the Stafford and District Netball League, good defend- ing helped Diamonds to a 23- 13 win over Junior Saints in Division One
A well contested first quar- ter, saw Diamonds managing to convert chances take a good lead.
Saints battled hard to close the gap but with strong defending by Marie Dodson and Diamonds’ star player Sarah Gregg, the shooters were forced to take edge of the circle shots to score goals. In the final half of the match Saints continued to battle with great individual play by Sarah Lakin and player of the match Kathy Dyer, but Dia- monds were too strong.
In their match with Blue- belles A, Stafford Ladies started well using every opportunity to their advan- tage. Bluebelles, the young guns of the league, worked tirelessly to keep the goal dif- ference to a minimum with a
strong performance from Emily Banks (GS), who earned the player of the match award.
Ladies kept up the pace with individual effort by centre and player of the match Sue Law- ton. The Ladies finished the match in triumphant style, with a scoreline of Stafford Ladies 54 Bluebelles A 24
Kingfisher Gems and Sap- phires fought out a tightly- contested game, with Gems running out 29-24 winners.
Gems started to pull away from their in the second quar- teropposition, but Sapphires continued to fight with good shooting from player of the match Emily Jackson who helped to pull the score almost level at half time.
The final two quarters saw Sapphires taking the lead but Gems’ defence led by star player Adele Sarginson kept the circle tight turning over the ball quickly and making every point count and Gems finally won by five points.
