TNL WRAP: North West Flames flare up

The North West Flames flared up in the fourth round of the Telkom Netball League. Not only did the Elsunet du Plessis-led side collected its first points of the season, but they also doubled up the win.

The KwaZulu Natal Kingdom Stars were the first to feel the blaze suffering a 54-49 loss on Saturday night. Stars looked comfortable to take the match and led the game going into halftime however Flames came back in the third quarter and held on to earn their first two points of the season.

The three-times league winners, Free State Crinums were the second to be handed a defeat by the North West side. The Crinums narrowly lost 68-66 in a match that looked to potentially end in a draw. The Flames dominated from the first quarter and went into halftime leading by six goals. The Crinums tried to fight back in the third quarter and reduced the gap but it was not enough to get a win.

The victory over the Crinums was the second of the tournament and propelled them out of the bottom of the Division One table. Stars, who finished third last season, are now bottom of the log and are likely to miss out on this year’s semifinal spot.

Flames coach du Plessis is pleased with her side’s performance this weekend.

“In this game, we came in very hard. We decided to play it 15 minutes at a time and just make sure we keep the ball in hand, if you keep the ball in hand you have to score. You know both teams get the same amount of centre passes so if you keep your own, you can win and that’s what happened, we just stick to our game plan. I think yesterday’s win was a great motivator for today. We really prepared by focusing on our game. We had to make less mistakes and we had to take control of the game. That’s what we did in both games, so it went positive for us,” she says.

It took the 2016 silver medalists took six matches to register their first win and the former Spar Protea says several factors led to her team not gelling soon enough to start producing results.

“There are 12 players with different emotions and different stages in their lives, also, it’s a very young team. Just to get the importance of a team through to them that everybody plays a part in the team and not only the seven on the court but the five on the bench as well. Now we have to see where we went wrong in the two games and try to fix that. We need to build on the positives that we can win games and that they can be competitive. The positive is that they held composure and they played as a team,” she adds.

The Eastern Cape Comets also had a dream weekend with two victories to move to fourth place in the log. They first took the Kingdom Queens' scalp with a 43-36 win. When these two sides met in the first round, the match ended in a 38-38 draw but the Comets dominated this time around. Wendy Higson’s side wrapped up the weekend with an astounding 44-35 win over the Western Cape Tornados.

The Precious Mthembu led Queens were able to redeem themselves with a 39-36 win over the Northern Cape Diamonds. The two teams sit sixth and seventh respectively on the standings with Diamonds occupying the last spot having won only one match this season so far.

Second placed Mpumalanga Sunbirds were startled as they suffered back to back losses this weekend. The Limpopo Baobabs handed the Sunbirds their first loss of the weekend with a 38-36 win on Friday night and the Tornados further clipped their wings with a 49-45 on Saturday night. The Danlee Mathews led side is left with three tough matches in the group stages and will have to dig deep if they are to get into the top four as the season wraps up.s

The Eastern Cape Aloes have continued their dominance in the competition, they remain the only unbeaten team this year. They comfortably chopped down the Baobabs with a 61-35 win to register 18 points at the top of the Division Two table.

Meanwhile, the big upset was between the Gauteng rivals. The Jaguars handed high flying Golden Fireballs their first defeat of the season. The Gauteng north side took a 53-39 win, the Fireballs however kept their place at the top of Division One table. The defending champions are now left with three matches this season and have also secured a place in the semifinals in order to stand a chance to successfully defend their title. They will meet Stars, Stings and Flames in their last group games.