After an impassioned plea by its members to the Caribbean Netball Association and the Americas Federation of Netball Association, Guyana is finally getting some much needed assistance to get their program back on track. Annette Becket, veteran Barbadian netball administrator, is on her way back from a trip to Guyana in an effort to assess the state of affairs in that country re netball. Speaking with the Barbados Advocate, she said the month long trip allowed her to realize certain key deficiencies within the program and ways and means of getting the program back on the right track. In a quote from her:

“The sport was, at that point, in a fledgling stage, so while starting from scratch was not necessary, items like the GNAs constitution and their strategic plan needed to be reworked.”

As next steps Ms. Beckett stated that apart from those fundamental changes in organization, the GNA will attempt to organize tours of other Caribbean territories so as to gain greatly needed competition-level experience.

After going down 59-49 to New Zealand, the Sunshine girls of Jamaica put on an impressive showing to win the bronze. Up against a strong English contingent, the Sunshine girls led all the way to eventually win 53-52. Read more about them here.

The hopes of the Jamaicans to secure gold at the World Netball Championships were dashed when they went down 59-49 to the New Zealand Silver Ferns. Although putting up a valiant fight the  girls will now have to play for third place against England who went down to Australia 33-51. Read more about it here.

England won a tight 46-45 victory over Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls to win the best of three series 2-0. Jamaica who were beaten 52-32 in the opener made key tactical changes and fought tooth and nail to see a victory but had to settle for second best. The teams are using the series as preparation for the World Championships to be held in Auckland, New Zealand in November. Read more about the series here.

The world number 4 netball team, England, trounced the world number 3, Jamaica in the opener of their best of three series at the National Indoor Sports Center in Jamaica. The Jamaicans were handed a 20 point loss 52-32 by their English counterparts, the first time in about a year. Coach Francis expects that this will necessitate a change in the starting lineup as well as an analysis of how the team plays the fundamentals. Get more details about the game here.

A ding dong battle ended with the Jamaican Sunshine girls coming out the worse for wear. The girls lost 66-62 to Australia in their opening game of their two test series yesterday in Melbourne. Australia, ranked number 2 in the world, led for the most part during the match:
11-3 first quarter
35-35 half time
52-49 third quarter

Top scorers were Sharelle McMahon and Catherine Cox for the Aussies with 33 and Romelda Aiken for the Jamaicans with 38. Game 2 will be played on Sunday in Sydney.

The girls are using the tour as preparation for the World Championships to be held in New Zealand later this year in November.