Loughborough Lightning Development v Northern Thunder Development 4th May 2007

The Lightning development squad played an outstanding game of netball last Friday 4th May against a tough Northern Thunder side, hosting U21 England player Darcie Worsedale, who were fighting for revenge since the earlier defeat in February at home. However when Lightening took the court they showed how far the team had come from the start of the season by using fantastic patterns of play and amazing team spirit both off and on the court.

The determination and pace of the Lightening attack proved problems for the Thunder defence, who found it difficult to turn over the ball with Katie Flaherty (WA) and captain Rachel Whitmore (C) combining speed and agility to give quick passes into the circle to shooters Leah Connolly (GS) and Nina Warren (GA), who both showed shooter rotations to perfection. In the Lightening defence the first quarter saw a new combination of Becky Gentle (GK) and Sara Parkinson (GD) with Kate Murphy as WD, who managed as a unit to dominate Thunders attack, turning over numerous balls applying pressure on the two Thunder shooters giving them little opportunity to take a shot under the post. This saw Lightening take the lead in the first quarter 15 - 7

In the second quarter Lightening only made one change swapping Rachel Whitmore and Kate Flaherty around in order to capitalise on Katie’s speed down the whole court. Lightening began the quarter slowly as the agile Thunder defence began to prove problems for our rotating shooters and allowing Thunder to crawl back into the game to 15-19 (making Lightning’s lead fall to just 4 goals). However the Lightening shooters battled on again backed up by strong defensive work as a unit down the court, stopping the Thunder attack using the middle channel, resulting in the score reaching 9 - 9 ( 24 -16) at the end of the second quarter.

The third quarter saw one change of Lauren Doyle replacing Leah Connolly at GS to make her first appearance this season for Lightening development due to a long-term injury. This change only excelled the amount of goals scored by accurate shooting causing problems for the Thunder defence once again. This quarter ended 13 - 6 (37 - 22)

In the final quarter Lightening brought on some fresh legs with Kay Sparkes going on at WD and Rachel Sharrod at GS. These changes proved no problems showing how versatile the squad has become over the season making coach Bev Burnham’s job even harder to select a squad for each match 14 - 5 (51 - 27)

The key to Lightening developments victory over the fast and agile Northern Thunder side was the combination of short quick passing, releasing the ball into space as well as the accurate timing of drives from defence to attack. The Lightening defence had an outstanding game turning over numerous balls as a unit which the attack capitalised converting turnovers into goals. This final victory was a great way for the lightening development squad to end the season showing how much they had progressed from their very first match.

Squad: Leah Connolly, Nina Warren, Katie Flaherty, Rachel Whitmore (captain), Kate Murphy, Sara Parkinson, Becky Gentle, Lauren Doyle, Rachel Sharrod, Joy Davis, Kay Sparkes, Jess Hartland

Player of the Match: Sara Parkinson

Report by: Sara Parkinson

Shooting Stats:

Leah Connolly 14 / 16 (86%)

Nina Warren 19 / 29 (66%)

Lauren Doyle 8 / 8 (100%)