Hurricanes Back On Form With Win In Final Home Game!
Story: 22 January, 2012 | Words: Storm NC | Photos: Andrew Trenoweth

Storm Hurricanes continued to keep pressure on the top two in the South West U16 Regional League with a 48-30 victory at home to West Exeter.

With the Bridgwater game rearranged for the 5th February from earlier this month, this is the first time the team has been on court since the defeat to Exeter back in December.

With Rebecca Hocking fit enough to take her place in the team, Hurricanes started with the same seven that started against Exeter.

Both sides scored early as the play switched from one end to the other until a turnover gave Storm a chance to slip a couple of goals in front.

It was enough to give the home team a 12-9 quarter break lead but the players came off knowing they could play better.

The team found its rhythm in the second quarter and powered to a 14-2 quarter win to lead 26-11 at half time.

With Storm in control Head Coach David White made some changes as Stacey Bradley replaced Evie-Mai Hagger at Goal Defence and Hollie Coles took over at Wing Attack from Beth Thomas.

The third quarter was tighter as West Exeter looked to get back into the game but Storm took a close period 11-10.

Thomas replaced Martha Hilliard at Centre for the final quarter, Bradley moved to Wing Defence replacing Holly Filkins, Hagger came back on at Goal Defence and Laura Budd took over at Wing Attack.

Storm took the final quarter 11-9 to round off a good win and to stay in touch at the top of the table.

White was pleased with the outcome; "I thought overall it was a pretty good performance and some of our play through court was very good.

"It was a little disappointing we weren't brave enough to try a couple of things we'd worked on in the previous training session but they'll come I'm sure with a little more practice."

This season has been the first one the club has played at its new home at Carn Brea Leisure Centre and the new partnership between the Centre and the club has been very special. "Our Sunday afternoon games have been brilliant simply because the Leisure Centre have given us the facility to make the match exciting," said White.

"The way the hall is laid out with the tiered seating and 'arena' setting has meant spectators can watch in relative comfort compared to standing in a sports hall and it's enabled us to approach the game in a professional manner with use of the Lounge before and after matches.

"The players and I have found it very beneficial and I must say the spectators who've come along have been superb .. wonderfully noisy and they've created a great atmosphere! I'm actually quite sad our Sunday home games are over now!!"

With the top two qualifying for the Regional Finals Storm know they must win their remaining two away games to stand a chance of getting through.

"We've got two road trips coming up and those games will now decide our season," said White. "Today we looked much more like the team we can be, defensively we were much better than in our last game and our attack put some great plays together so overall we can be pleased with what we've achieved so far but we know we've got two tough away games coming up."

The first of those away games is on Sunday 5th February when Storm go to Bridgwater with a 1:30pm start at Taunton Vale Sports Centre.