Surrey Storm Top The Table

The final match of their first season in the Co-operative Netball Superleague ended in another big win for table topping Surrey Storm at Loughborough Lightning.

Shooter Rachel Dunn climbed over seven hundred goals for the season. Lightning were lively at the start of the game and took the lead with three and a half minutes played after a turnover in the Storm circle to go 4-3 ahead.

Their only lead in the match was short lived as Janet Coulbourne grabbed a rebound in the home side’s circle to send the ball back the other way. After that exchange Storm began to build a lead albeit with some unforced errors, especially af flood of over-ambitious high balls that flew in and past the shooters.

Lightning found their passing options increasingly meagre, especially mid-court and fell foul of the three second rule more than once, but when the ball was played down the court the shooters found the net. Still the home side kept tabs on their opponents and by the end of the first quarter the four-goal lead that Storm had established just about held.

A good chat from captain Tamsin Greenway at the break seemed to galvanise Storm who stepped up their pace in the early part of the second quarter' fast ball was flying furiously into the attacking end - but errors were still there, especially on the way into the shooting D where the final pass was not finding its way into the right place. Loughborough snuck a few of the stray ones into their end and their net.

This was nippy game with the ball zipping around the court, both teams feeling the exertion in during this fifteen minutes and although Storm were 11-ahead at one stage, Lightning pulled them back into the match. The mis-placed passes and missed shots meant when half-time arrived Lightning trailed by ten.

The third quarter wasn’t the best, for either side. There were some flashes of good play in the third quarter. Lightning’s best came when they lived up to their name and got the ball in the circle nice and quick. But the flashes were just that, bright but brief.

Storm were still making mistakes but because they were also zoning Loughborough out of the game, and turning the ball back their way it didn't show to much as they won the quarter 20-8. There was a noisy and enthusiastic young crowd in at the Netball Centre and by the way they greeted Becky James I suspect they may have been her students.

The boys were leading the 'We love you Becky' cheering and it created an excellent atmosphere in the hall. By the fourth and final quarter Storm had pretty much secured the win and with Rachel Dunn finding more rhythm in the last fifteen minutes it was more about how big the winning margin would be.

Loughborough kept working hard to the end of their penultimate match of the season, but were outclassed in the end by the team that finished their fixtures as they started life in the Superleague, with a win.

It should be home advantage to Storm in the playoffs, TeamBath would need to score more than two goals a minute in their final game of the season (without conceding) to overhaul the table-toppers' goal average.

By Lisa O’Sullivan