Police n-ballers win US$3,000

CASTRIES: Trinidad and Tobago Police did adequate “background check” on their opponents Sir Viv All Stars to emerge winners of the inaugural Helen of the West netball championship final at the Vigie Multi-Purpose Sports Complex on Saturday night.

The police officers from the twin island republic surprised the previously unbeaten Antiguans to pull off an impressive 45-35 win and capture the US $3,000 first prize. The match was close in the first three quarters 8-8, 18-17, 30-27, but the Trinidadians, who never trailed at any of the quarters, dominated the final segment. Elise Charles finished with 22 goals from 30 attempts, Allison Matthews 15/18 and Beverley Hernandes 8/11 for the winners. All Stars captain Karen Joseph was again in the forefront of her team’s efforts with 26 goals from 38 attempts. Simone Parks shot three of six and Shenelle Samuel, six of 11 attempts. Manager of TT Police, Sharon Clarke told CMC Sport that her squad did a proper analysis of the All Stars team and that took them to victory. “We looked at the (All Stars) players, saw their shortcomings and capitalised on that. We lost the first match to them in the preliminaries by two goals and noticed (also) that our own mistakes were in the shooting circle. “We gave that some attention and it paid off,” she said.

In the other match played on Saturday night, local team Elite Strikers picked up third spot when they won a close encounter against Trac of St Vincent and the Grenadines, 58-56. Trac were ahead at the first quarter 14-12, but Elite went to lead the next two 30-28, 46-44. Deidra Mathurin scored 37 of 38 attempts, Glatta Gabriel 18 from 19 and Beverly Francis 3/4. For Trac, Gailene Gordon scored 45 of 51 attempts and Leanna Lewis 11/12. The other match scheduled for the evening between local teams Shamrock and Soufriere to decide sixth position did not take place as Soufriere were unable to field a team for the scheduled start.

Final placings:
1 T&T Police; 2 Sir Viv All Stars; 3 Elite Strikers; 4 Trac; 5 Sandals Negril; 6 Shamrock; 7 Soufriere.