‘Grande climb atop Secondary School n-ball

EAST ZONE champions Sangre Grande Educational Institute have climbed to the top of Group “B” in the British Gas Secondary Schools Netball League.

This they did with a comprehensive 37-11 victory over San Fernando Junior Secondary at the Arima Enclosure courts yesterday. The Grande girls led 9-2 at the end of the first session and turned up the defensive pressure in the second, scoring 11 goals and completely blanking the Sando lasses for a 20-2 half-time interval lead. But Sando, the South East runners-up were not going down without a fight, and they actually matched Grande 8-8 in the third quarter before folding badly in the final session when they were outscored 9-1. Murlin Paul scored 22 of 38 attempts and Avianne Archie 15 of 31 for Grande, while Nika Fiddler had ten goals and Danielle Malver one for Sando. Toco Composite ensured a clean slate for East Zone schools when they edged Cedros Composite 15-13 in a hard-fought Group “A” match at the same venue. In a very low-scoring fixture, the Toco girls defence held off a determined final quarter rally by Cedros to prevail.

Only three goals were scored in the entire ten-minute first quarter with Toco ahead 2-1, and at the half-time interval they increased this lead 9-2, scoring seven more goals while limiting the South West Zone runners-up to one. The Cedros girls redoubled their effort in the third period and outscored Toco 5-4, but still found themselves trailing 13-7. Then came the final stanza, and Cedros battled tenaciously, again outscoring Toco 6-2 this time, but came up just short. Both Tracey Courtney and Zola Modeste scored seven goals each from 15 attempts, while Ronalda Lovelace got one from her two attempts. Goal-shoot Karen Phillip netted eight of 15 attempts and Giselle Noel got five of ten for Cedros. There will be four matches on today when action switches back to the Jean Pierre Complex mucurapo from 1 pm.

Group A: Success/Laventille (North) vs Pleasantville (South East); Mucurapo Jr Sec (North) vs Cedros (South West). Group B: Mucurapo Snr (North)  vs Fyzabad Comp (South West); Diego Martin Jr (North) vs San Fernando East Jr (South East).