Naldi claim INSPORTS crown

Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

Favourites Naldi won the inaugural Institute of Sports (INSPORTS)/St James Under-19 netball league last weekend, as in another clinical display of good offensive and defensive play they defeated the Charles Stephenson-coached Pacers 19-16 in the championship game at the Montego Bay Cricket Club Courts.

"Our opponents played well, as you can see by the final score, but we were clearly the better team," said Naldi's captain Carlalee Tinglin. "In a competition, the main objective is to win so we have achieved our objective, so all credit to the members of the team."

In the presentation and awards ceremony which followed the final, the Naldi girls were again the stars, walking away with five of the nine awards that were handed out to outstanding individual performers and teams.

The game started with Naldi calling the shots with the trio of Tinglin, Princess Brown and Allisa Dawkins running hard at the Pacers team, and had it not been for Keja Christie, who was a tower of strength in defence for Pacers, they would have won the quarter by a much wider margin than 6-4.

Ding-dong battle

The second quarter was a ding-dong battle with good end-to-end netball. However, with both teams defending stoutly to significantly reduce the number of shots on goal, as they scored even at 3-3, which saw Naldi up 9-7 at the half-time break.

In the third quarter, Naldi took charge as with coach Omroy Kerr skilfully rotating Tinlin, Brown and Dawkins, they finally began to get the measure of Christie and the other defensive players for Pacers, to take the quarter by a big 8-1 margin.

Interestingly, while the Pacers defence was breaking down, Shamera Sterling was rock solid for Naldi at the opposite end.

With a comfortable 16-8 lead going into the final quarter, Naldi dropped their momentum and allowed Pacers more space to attack. In the end, Pacers won the quarter 5-3, but that was not enough to prevent Naldi's comfortable margin of victory.

Tinglin, with 12 goals from 16 tries, Princess Brown five from eight, and Allisa Dawkins, two from six, got the goals for Naldi. For Pacers, the usually fluent Roxanne Haynes, the tournament's leading goal shooter, could only manage three goals from five attempts. Romian Smith was dismal with seven goals from 21 attempts, while national under-21 invitee, Shanice Rhodes, could only manage three from eight.

In the presentation ceremony which followed the final, the awards were as follows: Leading Goalscorer - Roxanne Haynes (166 goals) of Pacers; Most Valuable Player - Carlalee Tinglin (Naldi); Most Disciplined Team - Angelets; Best Attacking Team - Naldi; Best Defensive Team - Naldi; fourth place - Blazers (trophy); third place - Starlight (trophy and bronze medals); second place - Pacers (trophy and silver medals); and champions - Naldi (championship trophy and gold medals).

In addressing the award ceremony, Jerry Reid, the INSPORTS officer for St James, praised the coaches, managers and players for the dedication and discipline showed during the season and encouraged the players to stay committed to the game.