On Saturday Sidmouth Netball club entered the second round of the Exeter and East Devon Junior Netball League, played at the new education campus at Cranbrook, writes Louise Hastie.

The league has expanded again this term to include three divisions in the U14 age group.

Teams were placed on their finishing positions before Christmas so Sidmouth Netball had Eagles in the Division One and Kestrels in Division Three.

With netball really taking off locally and the club numbers growing significantly, the club have sufficient numbers to enter a third team in the U14 section and that team was named as Ospreys who joined Kestrels in Division Three.

The most experienced of the Sidmouth teams were the Eagles and they were first into action with a game against Axminster Velocity first team who were an unknown quantity as they are part of another new and rapidly expanding club.

Missing a number of regulars, Eagles began nervously and there was just a goal between the teams at the end of the first quarter. However, Eagles grew into the contest and, with Siona John shining in the goal attack role, they won the match 14-9.

Their second match was against the Teignbridge Saxons who are the Teigns second team. Eagles were forced to shuffle their pack owing to an injury, but clearly the switching all worked as they quickly settled into a new formation.

There was some excellent supportive movement from the centre court players Hannah Darlami, Alice Welland and Molly Parry who always provided options in the centre court. Performance of the match has to go to Millie Parry though, who probably had the hardest task in the contest trying to contain the Axminster goal attack. However, she did the job well and, at the other end, the Eagles shooters did their job as the final whistle blew to leave Eagles 10-8 winners.

The Sidmouth Kestrels Under-14s are still finding their feet and all are new to the world of competitive netball.

Their first match paired them with in-house club mates the Ospreys. The match was well contested close encounter with both tams recording a high number of turnovers. Ospreys won the game by a single goal.

Both Kestrels and Ospreys had to face Dart Blizzards for their second matches.

Ospreys, who have a number of girls that are playing one, and two years up, were a little overwhelmed by the bigger and older dart players, but they fought hard. Throughout.

Anna Welland and Enya Nair worked tirelessly in defence, but the Dart team proved too strong. Girl of the game has to go to Enya Nair who has shown excellent progression since starting at the club in September.

Ospreys were up against Exmouth next and this contest was even at the halfway mark. Hollie Howe, Lucy Tanner and Carly Renshaw all worked hard in centre court, but Exmouth’s shooting and movement in the D proved too much, with Ospreys finishing the day with a 7-2 defeat. Ospreys are showing some excellent improvement in play and these matches are providing them with invaluable experience for future fixtures.

The final U14 match saw Kestrels up against Honiton Jets. With some positional changes there was good control of the centre court with Amy Cozens showing promise, but excellent shooting by Grace Cousins provided them with a 7-2 win.