Worthing College Netball 2nds V Chichester College

Worthing College 2^nd Netball Team travelled away for the first time this season to Chichester College.

We arrived at Chichester College in good spirits and ready to play, after being delayed by a training session in the hall we started the match 20 minutes late, and the first thing we noticed was the quite large amount of support that the Chichester girls had in the hall. But we certainly were not ready for this kind of support.

The first quarter went well with the Worthing College girls demonstrating good passing, defence and using the whole court. Also some very good shooting from the two Emma’s. We led 17 – 4.

With no changes for the 2^nd quarter we started well, and so did the Chichester girls they started to up their game and that was a bit of a shock for us, and then the support from the side lines started, but it was unlike any support we had ever heard. It was not cheering, it was jeering! On several occasions they were asked to be quiet by their teachers but this was not happening. Also they did not seem to understand that the court was for the players and not for their feet! But despite this the Worthing College girls continued to play good Netball and tried to block out the inappropriate behaviour from the side lines.

We ended this quarter on 27 – 11.

At half time the talk was psychological more than anything, the girls needed to block out the noise (not support) that was coming from the side lines, they needed to just concentrate on the game and listen to the whistle. With a change of centre at half time, we went back on court with a determination to win. The girls started to go for every ball, they worked hard to keep the game going in their favour. This quarter ended on 40 – 20 to Worthing College, and demonstrated that the noise from the sideline did not effect their game plan.

In the last quarter we had one more change, the hall was hot, the noise was still inappropriate but the girls had to work hard for just 15 more minutes and win the game. The girls were told to go for every ball, defend every pass from them and make Chichester work hard and use the whole court. The Worthing girls did this, but Chichester also had the same game plan, in this quarter Chichester scored 3 more goals than us.

The game ended on 46 – 29 to Worthing College.

On a additional note the Worthing College 2^nd Netball Team acted so professionally throughout the whole match, they were up against almost hostile behaviour from Chichester College but they rose above this and played their game and proved that even with inappropriate support and comments coming from Chichester College they would not allow this to get to them.

Chichester College spectators also did not understand that an umpire (me) needs to walk along the court to as the play goes along, tripping over their feet, standing on their feet and them actually standing in the way throughout the game is inappropriate and rude.

So…congratulations Worthing College 2^nd Netball Team you represented the College to the highest standard and you did me, the college and yourselves proud.

Congratulations Emma Mountford who was awarded Players Player for the match