Champs Fire, Defence Force into Prem K/O final

DAYS after completing its defence of the Premiership Division league title, Fire Services moved within one match of retaining the Courts All Sectors Netball League Premiership Division Knock-out title, after the club, along with Defence Force won their semifinal matches, on Tuesday.

They will meet in the final today from 6 pm at the Eastern Regional Indoor Sports Arena, Tacarigua, the same venue as Tuesday’s matches.

At the Eastern Regional Indoor Sports Arena, Fire was required to play just one match to advance to the final as the club and Police were given byes in the first round.

Fire moved on with a resounding 34-21 victory over its nearest rival in the recently concluded league competition – Police Youth Club (PYC) – after leading by only two points at the half. Ronald Phipps, one of Fire’s stand-out players this season, was in near perfect form, scoring 28 goals from 32 attempts, while Simone Morgan was just as clinical, scoring six of her seven throws.

For PYC, goal-attack Daniel Hagley led with 16/22, followed by Tahira Hollingsworth, who scored 5/10.

PYC advanced to their semifinal, following a 23-22 victory over Las Lomas Academy.

Meanwhile, the other finalist, Defence Force got past their rivals in the protective services, Police, 38-25, in the club’s second match of the day, despite a match-leading effort of 24/28 from Steve McSween.

Defence Force’s highest scorer was Kerry McMillan, who scored 21/26 and Afeisha Noel, who aided with 10/16.

They advanced to the semifinal earlier in the day, following a 30-17 victory over UTC in which McMillan and Noel were also the leading scorer with 23/41 and 7/12, respectively.

Aquila Blugh led for UTC with 13/18.

Today’s Divisional Knock-out final will bring an end to competition in the Courts All Sectors Netball League. The league will formally close with an awards ceremony on Saturday, from 3pm.