Surrey Storm Netball

Hosting yet another sell out crowd, Greenway’s troops were fired up and looking for another victory to make it 4 wins in 4 games.

There was only 1 change in Storm’s starting line-up from last week’s victory over Team Bath, with Bello joining Holland and Reid in defence and taking the WD bib. Jets opted for Australian shooter Holly Pearce to join Shaw in their shooting circle in the absence of Jo Walker. Despite a roaring home crowd and centre pass advantage, it was Jets who took an early lead before a Cookey interception of a Jets centre pass saw Storm pull level at 4-4.

In a slightly sloppy few minutes with missed shots and wasted possession, Storm had their chances but despite a flying intercept from Reid and some classy rebounding from Holland, they failed to put any ground between themselves and the visitors early on. With Shaw finding space in attack and the Jets’ defence picking up on the cross-court passes from Storm, at the mid-way point of the quarter the scores were level at 7-7.

However, with the defensive unit starting to gel and the ball finding its way through the court more smoothly, Greenway and Trippick were able to move the ball with more speed in attack. Despite a number of spoils from Bello and some sharp shooting from Cookey who netted 8 from 8 in the quarter, Jets continued to battle and going into the break Storm could only stretch the lead to 3, leading 14-11.

Storm got the second quarter underway with some very patient attacking play to find Dunn under the post. With a great defensive shut down forcing Jets into a held ball off their own centre pass and another spectacular fly from Reid, Storm quickly netted 3 to pull out to 17-11 and looked threatening. However, with more sloppy play from Storm and an uncharacteristic amount of missed attempts from Dunn, Jets plugged the lead back to just 4, trailing 21-17.

Storm’s defence continued to turn the ball over with Bello seemingly everywhere and Holland and Reid punishing every missed shot from the Jets shooting duo. Storm were not short of possession, but despite moments of magic, were struggling to find real consistency in their attacking play as the Jets’ defence were tight on the body and making themselves felt on every pass. An injury timeout called by Jets’ WD Rachel Forbes saw her and GD Jo McKinney switch. Jets also took the opportunity to mix up their shooting circle putting Shaw back to GS and moving Pearce out. Storm seized the opportunity to gain some momentum and although still far from perfect, they eventually began to stretch the lead and pulled out to a 28-19 goal lead at the half time break.

Greenway opted for a change around in the centre court for the second half, with Ainsworth coming on at C and Seaton replacing Bello at WD. Jets moved Shaw back out onto court at GA and introduced a heavily strapped Jo Walker at GS. Storm again failed to settle early with the first 2 feeds into Dunn snapped up by Potter. However Seaton, Holland and Reid maintained the supply of ball to their attacking unit and with Ainsworth and Greenway controlling the edge of the circle and protecting the ball from the Jets defence, Storm again produced some outstanding passages of play at times.

Surrey had numerous chances to finally go 10 up but missed shots and 2 contact calls on Dunn in quick succession allowed Jets to stay in the game and go goal for goal for the majority of the quarter. Holland and Reid’s tireless work in the circle and Seaton’s timely back-up and support through the court began to link more consistently with Greenway, and with Cookey having the game of the season so far, Storm broke the deadlock going 11 up and taking them into the final 15 minutes with a 41-30 lead.

The final quarter saw Dunn give way to McHale for her first appearance this season and she arrived with a bang bringing composure and great timing, netting 5 goals on the trot to take Storm out to 46-30 with just 3 minutes played. Jets called 2 injury timeouts in quick succession, the second of which saw Walker hobble off and Pearce reintroduced at GS. The Storm attack continued to feel the pressure of a physical Jets defence and at times needed to toughen up but the stop / start quarter prevented them from finding any real flow in attack. However the good bits were fantastic with Greenway’s vision into Gidden Place Player of the Match Cookey and the quickly developing relationship between her and Ainsworth fast becoming a partnership to watch out for. As the final seconds ticked down, McHale netted a long bomb from range to bring home Storms fourth win in four games against a spirited and promising Jets performance, the final score at 57-38.

Player Coach Tamsin Greenway highlighted her side’s missed opportunities. She said, “We had 77 attempts tonight. Defensively we were great and they are doing everything I asked of them but we’re still making silly errors. We are not clinical enough and we need to recognise when teams play on the body how to place ball and take it. To put up 77 shots and make that many errors is an exciting stat for me as a coach and as always this season there were patches of brilliance, but we’ve got a long way to go. It’s great to make it four from four and take another home win in front of our fantastic support.”

Surrey Storm’s next fixture see them go head-to-head with league leaders Northern Thunder away on Monday 20th. With both teams unbeaten so far this season, someone’s unbeaten record will fall.

This weekend sees Surrey Storm Talent take on Team Bath Netball in the Netball Talent League (NTL) at Surrey Sports Park on Saturday, 12.45pm. Entry is free, so come and support the future stars of Surrey Storm!

Match Shooting Stats

Surrey Storm

Rachel Dunnn: 23/34 68%
Pamela Cookey: 26/30 87%
Rhianne McHale: 8/13 62%

Yorkshire Jets

Holly Pearce: 13/21 62%
Rachel Shaw: 19/28 68%
Jo Walker: 7/10 70%

Line-ups

Surrey Storm
Rachel Dunn GS
Pamela Cookey GA
Tamsin Greenway WA
Becky Trippick C
Stef Bello WD
Katy Holland GD
Hannah Reid GK

Subs
Natalie Seaton
Adele Modeste
Lorraine Betsy
Kat Ainsworth
Rhianne McHale

Yorkshire Jets
Holly Pearce GS
Rachel Shaw GA
Nat Panagarry WA
Jacqui Russell C
Rachel Forbes WD
Jo McKinney GD
Lauren Potter GK

Subs
Nat Haythornwaite
Jo Walker
Kylie Paynter
Gemma McDermott
Sam Thomas

Pictures: Gary Barker