Barbados’ comprehensive 3-0 victory over visitors St. Vincent and the Grenadines might just be the confidence boost needed as they depart later this month to face much tougher opponents at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
During their final encounter contested last night at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex, the Bajan Gems defeated St. Vincent and the Grenadines 55-46 as they came from behind to control the Vincy ladies.12-13, 31-23, 41-38 after the first three periods
The Gems, led by co-captains Latonia Blackman and Shonette Azore-Bruce, registered 48-32 and 57-44 victories in the first two games of the Netball Invitational Mini-Series called Catch the Spirit hosted by the Barbados Netball Association.
Head coach of the Barbados team Margaret Cutting spoke about the team’s overall performance and said she was firstly happy with the results and would work towards strengthening other aspects as they go forward.
Cutting also expressed gratitude to the president, management staff, and players of the St. Vincent team for coming to Barbados and contesting those three matches before the Bajan Gems depart the island next week Friday, July 22, for the Commonwealth Games.
“People may say it is not Jamaica but it is good that we can have some games. Going into the Commonwealth Games you know that we are going through a rebuilding process. We also had the CANOC Games (Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees) and we lost our young players with injuries; one of them being Kiara Chase who we were hoping to give that exposure,” Cutting explained.
The other injured player is Vivica Adamson who got injured in Guadeloupe at the Inaugural Caribbean Games where the Barbados Under-23 netball team led by Captain Brianna Holder won a silver medal.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines goal-shooter Mary-Ann Fredericks played well as she scored another past Barbados goalkeeper and co-captain Shonette Azore- Bruce.
Despite those setbacks, coach Cutting spoke about some of the positives that the Bajan Gems took away from the series against the Vincentians and what she expects from her squad going into the Commonwealth Games.
Taking into consideration that Barbados is currently ranked 12th in the world, they are drawn in Pool A with fellow world leaders Australia at number one, Jamaica Sunshine Girls ranked fourth, South Africa in fifth while Scotland at position number eight, and Wales ninth are all powerhouses in the group.
“We want to go there and showcase the best netball, target the two teams that we want to target in our zone when we go up against Australia, Jamaica, and South Africa. When we go up against them, we want to improve significantly from when we played them at the last Commonwealth Games but most importantly to showcase good netball,” Cutting told Barbados TODAY.
Goal-shooter Shonica Wharton netted an impressive 26 goals from 30 attempts for Barbados while this country’s most capped player with over a hundred games to her name, Latonia Blackman, scored 15 goals from 17 attempts. Faye Sealy accounted for 13 goals from 16 attempts and Brianna Holder one of two.
The exceptional St. Vincent and the Grenadines goal-shooter Mary-Ann Frederick accounted for 40 of her 47 attempts at goal while goal-attack Kimesha Antoine put away six of her seven attempts.
It was a keenly contested encounter between the two countries bearing in mind that in February of this year Barbados travelled to the Commonwealth of Dominica for the 2022 OECS/ECCB International Netball Series where they ended unbeaten.
While the Bajan Gems were unmatched against the five countries – Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines – they did not compete for the coveted Gloria Ballantyne Championship Trophy because Barbados is not part of the OECS.
However, what is interesting to note is that Barbados in their final match of the OECS competition came from 11 goals down in the final quarter to emerge victorious by six goals
against St. Vincent who would have had that in the back of their minds coming into this invitational.
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
