Storm Netball Club | Cornwall Junior Sports Club of the Year 2010

Hurricanes Make It Two Out Of Two In First Home Regional Game!
Story: 20th November, 2011 | Words: Storm NC | Photos: Andrew Trenoweth

Storm Hurricanes continued where they left off in the University of Gloucestershire U16 Regional League when they comfortably beat Somerset qualifiers, Chilcompton at a noisy Carn Brea.

Martha Hilliard takes one of numerous interceptions in mid court against Chilcompton

Playing their first home game of the campaign, Storm allowed the visitors the first goal then never looked back as they powered to a 65-25 win in front of some passionate home support.

Storm started with the same line up that performed so well in their opening win against Saints.

Beth Thomas captained the side after recovering from an illness that's kept her sidelined since the opening game.

Despite the slow start when Storm failed to score for the first 90 seconds, the home team held a comfortable 15-6 lead at the first quarter break.

Thomas was replaced by Hollie Coles in the second quarter as Storm looked to build on their lead.

Martha Hilliard at centre was having a superb game and reached numerous high balls to turnover possession allowing Storm to keep the pressure on the visitors.

Storm added a further 16 goals in the second quarter to lead 31-13 at half time.

Beth Thomas was back to Captain the team after missing two weeks through illness

Coles was replaced by Laura Budd at Wing Attack and Evie-Mai Hagger switched to Goal Defence with Becky Pearse moving to Goal Keeper.

With the wonderfully, noisy crowd right behind them Storm surged forward and took the next quarter 17-6 after some great defensive work from Hagger, Pearse and Holly Filkins at Wing Defence.

Thomas came back on in the final quarter and with Hilliard now running the centre court Storm added a further 17 goals as shooters Rebecca Hocking and Laura Butler rounded off a wonderful team performance.

It means Storm have made the perfect start to the season recording two wins out of their opening two games.

Defender Rebecca Pearse recognised the good performance that the attack put in; "It was all attack, our attack played fantastic and Martha and Holly had the midcourt covered."

Team captain Beth Thomas said it was a wonderful team performance; "It was amazing, it was such a good game and we all worked really, really well especially after the high spirits of two weeks ago, it was really good."

Carn Brea once again had the court set out in an arena style and Thomas said the passionate crowd gives the players a boost on court; "The cheering really helps us and encourages us a lot. Sometimes at first it was quite pressurised when we first got a lot of supporters but now we've settled into it, it's really good for us and it spurs us on even when we're not doing that well."

Head Coach David White was delighted with the overall performance; "I thought once we got into the game after a slightly nervous start we really played well. We talked about particular parts of the game we wanted to focus on beforehand and to their credit the girls took everything on board and really nailed what we were talking about.

"I also thought Martha was outstanding at centre today, quite possibly the best game I've seen her play. She's been playing in the first team recently and that experience really showed today she was terrific."

Storm's next U16 Regional League game is against Exeter on Sunday, 4th December. The match takes place at Carn Brea Leisure Centre with a 1:30pm start.