Camperdown beat St Hugh's in netball thriller

Gaynstead High and Camperdown High were crowned new champions in the urban area, while defending champions Denbigh High and Holmwood Technical retained their rural titles in the finals of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association netball competition at the Leila Robinson Courts yesterday.

The match of the day was the urban senior finals between Camperdown and last year's beaten finalists, St Hugh's High, where the large crowd in attendance was treated to a thriller. The game went into overtime, and Camperdown emerged 45-41 winners.

Both teams were meeting for the second time this season, and Camperdown maintained their dominance over their rivals. In the first game, they won by four goals, and yesterday's game was no different.

It was Camperdown who came out of the blocks the quicker of the two as they raced to a 5-2 lead. St Hugh's rallied to level at 6-6 before Camperdown took a 9-8 lead after the first quarter.

For most of the second quarter, only one or two goals separated the teams before St Hugh's jumped into a 19-15 lead at half time.

Exciting affair

Camperdown drew level twice in the third quarter, but St Hugh's maintained their lead going into the final quarter 27-24.

It was an exciting and thrilling affair in the final quarter, as at one stage, Camperdown went up by four goals at 29-25, before St Hugh's rallied to even the score before the team traded goals. At full time, both teams were tied at 34-34.

With several of the St Hugh's players showing fatigue and making several errors, Camperdown took charge in extra time to pull off a four-goal victory.

Goal shooter Kadie-Ann Dehaney top scored for St Hugh's with 36 goals from 60 attempts. Camperdown's goal attack, Ramone Lawrence, had 30 from 37 and goal shooter Idora McCarthy, 15 from 24.

Winning coach Wayne Stewart was very elated after his team's victory.

"Both teams came out and played hard, as St Hugh's are a good team, but I like the way my girls played this evening. They have been fantastic all season, and it was one of the best finals I have seen.

"We had beaten them before, and we were very confident that we would have won again. When we took the four-goal lead in the first minute of overtime, I knew then that it was over," said Stewart.

DOMINANT HOLMWOOD

In the rural junior finals, Denbigh got the better of Knox 28-22, while in a one-sided senior finals, Holmwood picked up their 11th title after crushing first-times finalists Titchfield 49-25. Goal shooter Tracy Ann Francis was in fine form for the champions, scoring 48 goals from 54 attempts.

Gaynstead created history in the urban junior finals, as the Dalton Hinds-coached team defeated many-time champions the Queen's School 25-21. Goal shooter Kelsey James top scored for Gaynstead with 18 from 22 attempts.