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CSSC London Beamers Netball Club |
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Welcome to the website of the London Beamers Netball Club |
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CSSC Games |
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CSSC London Beamers attended the CSSC Games for the first time this year and what an experience it was. Both our A and B teams took part in the competition.
The first day of the competition was a bit daunting as we had to play against all the teams in our group and our first match was against Land Registry (competition winners for the last 2 years). We knew we had no chance of beating them but we gave it our best shot and the final score was 21:4 to Land Registry. This was not a bad reflection on us as a team but instead showed the calibre of play we were up against. With that game out of the way we went on to produce results as follows:
I can honestly say that Day 1 totally separated the women from the girls. We were quite happy when the day’s play was over as it meant we could concentrate on playing Day 2 against teams of our own calibre.
Day 2 started with all the teams being put into groups competing for the Shield, the Plate and the Vase. Beamers A were in the Vase competition, with the following results
Beamers A had a much better result on Day 2 but although we won all our games, there were times when we should have played much better than we did.
That being said, it was a lovely experience and Beamers A came home on a high after winning the Vase Competition and for that, we are very proud and looking forward to competing again next year. |
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CSSC Games – Loughborough 18 – 20 April 2007 |
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Rosanne Savury |
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We arrived in Loughborough the day before competition started so had a little time to acquaint ourselves with the campus, and to get some training in before the following days matches.The day of competition arrived and although we knew we would have a very big day of play ahead of us we were still excited to get started. We begun play and lost our first game 5-22 to The Swans. We finally got a taste of high level competition and fully realised what we would be up against. Disaster struck in our second game. Our centre, Tanith Goodwin, had sprained her ankle very badly and was forced to retire from the rest of the competition. Luckily we were able to get a willing replacement to help out for the rest of the day, as we had no substitutes. I want to say a big “Thank you” to Raslin Freeman for her help. Our next match was against Hassra NE, but we lost 1-25. Tanith was seen by Emergency First Aid and eventually taken to hospital, where she was x-rayed etc and strapped up. As she was unable to play for the Beamers B Team for both days of competition, we had to carry on the rest of the day without her.Unfortunately we lost the rest of our games 1-22 to Hassra SE, 3-25 to RCSL Raiders (one of the National HMRC Teams), 1-17 to Hassra Fylde, 3-10 to Dundee and finally 3-24 to Hassra SW. Although these scores made for very depressing reading, we were able to console ourselves with the thought that our game playing improved as the day went on. All we could do at this point was hope for better fortune on the second days play, went we would be sorted into our groups (to play for the Trophy/Plate/Vase).
Second Day Raslin Freeman stood in for us once again, and in a turn of the tide not only did we play much better, we also won our first game of the competition against York AA, 8-3. Disaster again, we finally won a match but could not claim the points. This was because we had broken rules by having a player on our team who was in this competition representing another team. We were then left with only six players and we had no subs. We were not allowed to borrow any players for the rest of the tournament. We were told if we borrowed anyone then any points from that game would have to be forfeited. This was shocking news as we had borrowed for most of the first day, with no problem. However, after much complaining and soul searching we decided; 1) That we would play with a team of seven in the games we knew we had no chance of winning, and would borrow a willing player, and forfeit the points (Thanks to Marilyn who was with us all day) 2) That we would play with six players where we felt we stood a chance of scoring points.
We were disappointed that we didn’t have a hope of winning the Vase, but all we could do was carry on, do our best and make the best of the competition. We played with 6 players against Dundee but lost 4-9. We played with 7 players against Sharp Shooters and lost 3-16. We played with 6 against Laurels and lost (sorry didn’t write down score). We were then about to play with 6 players against Rent Services, but noticed that most of their team had been replaced by 4 members of the Hassra NE team (who had beaten us the day before). It was decided that Rent Services had forfeited the points for this game. One of the competition officials came on to make the team up to seven and we got on with the game. The whole team upped their game and played as a unit. The result was a very satisfying 5-5 draw. We lost our last game to Beamers A Team (12-17), who were the eventual winners of the Vase. We found ourselves second from the bottom after all the results were collated. The Cherry on the cake though was being awarded medals for being the “Team of the Games”. This is an award given out every year to any team the officials feel deserves it. They said we were made Team of the Games because of the character we displayed by digging in and getting on with the competition after we found out we would have to play with six players. It was lovely to note that our perseverance and hard work had been noticed. So ended the tournament, with us all leaving Loughborough to go home after the presentation had ended. We learned a lot and will work on developing our game so that we can put in a much improved performance in our next competition. |
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Marie Williams Beamers B Captain |
