Author: Steve Wilks

Essex Open U14 blues won our netball match against Woodford Warriors on February 21st. win. The start of the match was tense in the first quarter with each team taking turns scoring but soon after essex open focused and started to get a good lead after they began their second quarter. The team succeeded because we worked together well and chased for loose balls while our shooters achieved high accuracy.

The third quarter emerged as the most difficult period for Essex Open because we swapped up the team and tried new combinations. Woodford Warriors slightly reduced the score difference during this period, which represented the most difficult quarter for us because we needed to work hard to protect our lead.

The final quarter of the game demonstrated both defensive and attacking strengths from Essex Open. We successfully restricted our opponents’ goal-scoring opportunities by allowing only one goal. The impressive defensive performance, which continued scoring throughout the game, enabled Essex Open to achieve a 28-13 victory, which we celebrated at the end of the match.

Player of the match is Holly

Q1: The Blues started well with two quick goals but Brentwood did well in the middle of the court and soon got a goal back. Lots of good tussles across the court and the teams exchanged goals with a very close quarter ending 10-8

Q2: Good defending prevented a few opportunities for Brentwood to score. Both teams moved the ball quickly end-to-end through the court.  Quick goals took the score to 6-6. The Blues started to find some space and with a number of up and over passes got the ball to the shooters. Some great shooting took us to 11-9 by half time.

Q3: The Blues really found their rhythm and started to pull away.  Even with the wind making shooting difficult they scored 5 goals and only conceded 1 – ending the quarter on 16-9.

Q4: Unfortunately Brentwood lost a player to illness in the final quarter.  The Blues took advantage of the extra player and found space across the court.  The movement of the ball was fluid and they ended the match on 24-9.

Overall a solid team performance with good movement of the ball, strong defending and on point shooting. Well done girls.

OPOM: Rose and Eden
CPOM: Anika

We approached the ENG league with all the respect it deserved. Essex Open U12M in 8th place, playing Turnford in 6th place, then AP Saints in 3rd place, we were cautiously hopeful.

The matches did not disappoint the spectators.
Essex Open started strong against Turnford, matching them goal for goal in Q1 and then Q2. Going into the break with a well fought 6-6 score line having been 3 goals behind. We were buoyed by our performance and the family support really helped lift the team as our 8th player.

Turnford were relentless with their attacking combinations, their GA securing multiple goals from zone 2 and our defence having no solutions to counteract them. Essex Open fought hard, however, legs were tired and with an inability to string together successful passing through court and into the shooters, it was inevitable that we’d let Turnford get the lead and once that happened, we chased the game and ultimately, did not have time to claw anything back.
Well done Turnford – a great game.
Good luck with the rest of the season!

ENG POM – Edie

We approached the AP Saints game with a different tactic, opting to start Elisha at GS allowing her more room in the circle to move and use the split landing to turn to goal; we also saw this as an opportunity for Skye to link with the midcourt and bring the ball down to Elisha.

However, we realised that this combination would be tough to sustain as we quickly went down to a 3 goal deficit and couldn’t get the ball into the circle.

Into the second quarter, we started the game with full intent and a game plan and solution to take the ball to circle edge and feed our GS. We planned for Anya to hold strong, Elisha to use the triangle or send the ball early if the triangle wasn’t an option. This was working and we scored 5-6 goals in a row. We had AP saints worried and they quickly changed their defensive unit. Anya played well catching all the balls, landing strongly and shooting successfully; it was a pleasure to watch. Ending Q2, we were within reach and finished one goal down. We were excited and anticipated a tight game through to finish.

Similar to the Turnford match into Q3, we consistently lost the ball in the attacking third, specifically around the circle edge. Our attacking unit and connections were broken and as I tried to show the players areas of the court to exploit, the players were unable to convert. We got incredibly tired, then the unforced errors began to creep up. Once players start making mistakes, not due to defensive pressure, it becomes really hard to win the game.

Well done AP Saints – a great game.
Good luck with the rest of the season!

ENG POM – Ava

We had a tough chat in the changing rooms after the match. Players were reminded again of the standards and efforts required for performance netball and why and if they want to stay in the ENG league. They were asked to recommit themselves again to the cause. Genuinely commit themselves, not just at training, but to all the other areas, shooting, ball skills and fitness. Do it when the coaches aren’t there, do it when they are not looking or asking. Do it because you know you need to do it and you want to get better, not because you’re looking for credit from the coaches. I’ve played my netball, it’s now your turn!

We played another Woodford warriors team this Saturday, after being narrowly defeated last time out. Because of the bad weather, we were able to play indoors, giving us a big advantage.

We started strong in defence, turning over their centre pass, bringing it straight to goal. We started ahead by a lot, our shooters on form, with good movement in the D and accurate shooting. Mid court won a lot of ball. And we went into the second quarter with a strong lead having only conceded 1.

In the second quarter we kept our dominance despite Woodford changing around their team, to try something new. Our mid court were very strong, with fast passes down the court, and with our shooters continuing to score, we had secured that this game was ours.

In the third , we were able to change our team around, and rest some of our players ready for ENG tomorrow. We were able to use our fitness and skills to keep a strong lead, making it easier to make turnovers and goals.

The last quarter was when we were able to take advantage of the other teams tiredness, and win the match with them only scoring 6 goals overall, and our shooters getting lots of confidence from a very good match!

OPOM Elisha
CPOM Edie

Credit: Edie

Essex Open put in a determined and competitive performance across a challenging set of fixtures, showing resilience, teamwork, and strong defensive effort throughout the day.

In their opening match against Magic, Essex Open worked hard against a well-structured side, with Magic taking the win 18–11. Essex Open grew into the game and created good passages of play through the court.

The second match versus Eagles was extremely close. Both teams were evenly matched, and the score remained tight from start to finish. Eagles narrowly secured the result 9–8 in a hard-fought contest.

Game three against 5 Ways was another thriller. Essex Open applied strong pressure and moved the ball well, but 5 Ways edged the match 13–12 in the final stages.

In their final fixture against Poole, Essex Open faced a fast attacking team. Poole converted their chances to win 21–15, but Essex Open maintained their intensity and effort right to the final whistle.

Player of the Match (POM) was awarded to Shyanne for her outstanding defensive performance across all games. She made key interceptions, applied constant pressure, and showed excellent positioning, making a big impact for Essex Open throughout the tournament.

Overall, Essex Open showed great spirit and continuous improvement, with many positives to take into future matches.

Match report against AP Saints:

On our first centre pass, we successfully travelled the ball to goal without any intercepts and interruptions this was because we had greats runs and strong changes of direction within our attack. Our feed into the circle was very clear and strong. When we got back onside and prepared for their centre pass they easily managed to bring the ball to goal. Our next centre passes didn’t go so well as their GK and GD were very tall and had great leans over Elisha and Sky’s shots, easily converting them into turnovers and scoring from them. In defence we managed to intercept and gain a few sidelines but gave many of them away due to foot faults on the line. In our second and third quarter we managed to slow the game down with our defence, making much stronger and smarter decisions whether to fly for the ball or let our attackers get the ball and do stage 2 and 3 defence. We all sticked tighter on our players and when we got the ball down to our shooting circle we gave good feeds into Anya and saw amazing movement from Elisha, who got a lot of great shots in even when she was under pressure from the GD and GK’s leans. They were very tall players across all positions so we had to make better decisions on our ball placement and passes, they were very quick to get any loose balls and their reactions were very swift and speedy. In the final quarter we were all very tired and worn out, we still worked as hard as we all could but gave away lots of balls due to many unforced errors and ball placement. As a team we need to work on backing up when hitting on the ball from the sidelines, keeping possession when we have a turnover and not giving away any unforced errors. Overall it was a very tough match, we played well, dug deep and walked away with lots of learnings ready to face AP again at ENG next weekend.

Solid performance today by the Blues all around with a 34-1 victory. First quarter ended 10-0 to Essex Open with some stellar shooting.
The team continued to gel together for the next two quarters showcasing their skills throughout the court: shooting, defending and attacking. The final quarter put another whopping 11 goals on the scoreboard! Essex Open Blues were on fire today.

OPOM: Anami
CPOM: Rose

Credit Narinder Hare.