Luton Dunstable & District Netball League

Date: 6/11/11

This was a free week for divisions 2, 3 and 4 with some teams playing rearranged games.

Premiere Division:

Red Devils 28:30 Seven Up Green

Seven Up Green 31:31 Crawley Tornadoes Red

Arrows 44:41 Leighton Buzzard Jets

Red Devils 61:14 A-Line Flyers

A tough week for Seven Up GreenSeven who had to endure a week where they played two of the best teams in the Luton, Dunstable and District Netball League. It began with a match on Wednesday 2nd November against a team that were unbeaten in the Premier League last season. They also won the Cup.  Red Devils have been one of the top clubs for a number of years, frequently finishing in the top two. They went into the game with some of their top players missing either through pregnancy or injury. Seven Up also had missing players which gave the game an edge of uncertainty. Add to it the wind and rain and you have a game that could go either way.

It started with an end to end game with both sides scoring their goals but Red Devils ended the quarter in the lead. The following three quarters were much the same with nothing between the two teams. The rain finally stopped and the game began to pick up speed. Very few errors were made throughout the game and it was very even but Seven Up managed to take a 2 goal lead and keep it to the end, the game ending 28-30. Having only been promoted to the Premier League last season Seven Up had managed to do something that very few other teams had done, take the win.

Next came the Saturday game, against another well established premier league team, Crawley Red Tornadoes. Another side that, until last year, had been a regular top two team, narrowly being beaten into third last year by the newly promoted Seven Up.

This was always going to be a close game. Crawley Red have made some changes from last year and were now an unknown entity to Seven Up. The game started quickly and Crawley Red took a one goal advantage after the first quarter. The centre for Seven Up went off injured early in the second quarter and Crawley Red managed to take advantage of this by taking a 6 goal advantage.

A hard fought third quarter brought Seven Up closer to Crawley Reds score. The game was end to end in the fourth quarter and could have gone either way. Seven Up were just leading going into the dying seconds of the game. A mistake by Seven Up gave Crawley Red possession and a free pass was put straight into the circle and a goal scored. The end whistle went with the game ending in a 31-31 draw. The only justified scoreline in a hard fought game. 

First Division

Games postponed

Second Division:

Crawley Tornadoes Green 21:37 Seven Up Red

 Newly promoted 7-Up Red put out a strong team for the division 2 match versus Crawley Green Tornadoes. Crawley had struggled to field a team, were missing key defenders and had two shooters who had never played together. 7-Up won the first quarter 9-3 as Tornadoes struggled to get the shots in.  At half time 7-Up were ahead further 20-7. At half time Tornadoes swapped players around and started to pull back getting the ball into their half and the shots going in. Although Tornaodes were still down 28-14 to 7-Up they had pulled a few goals back.  The final quarter was very fast paced with both teams fighting for the ball with 7-Up finally winning 37-21.

Third Division:

Crawley Tornadoes Pink 19:40 Luton Colts

Although the score does not show it this was a well contested game. Luton Colts are an experienced team and their shooting was accurate whereas the younger Tornadoes team were not quite as accurate as they can be. Angela Beattie (Captain of Colts) said it had been a hugely enjoyable game and the young Tornadoes were lovely girls.