Oldham focus on national dream

OLDHAM Netball Club’s under-16s finished fifth in the National Championships. Pictured are: Amy Needham (back, left), Charlotte Preston, Ellie Wild, Kirsty Bloomfield, Ashley Stansfield, Shannon Westwood. Harriet Gill (front, left), Khadija Pemberton, Rachel Bolton, Ashleigh Cruse.

NETBALL: OLDHAM Netball Club’s under-14s are setting their sights on the National Championships at the Sugden Centre, Manchester.

They booked their place in the two-day event on the weekend of May 8-9 after impressing in the Greater Manchester and north-west qualifiers.

Oldham swept aside Tameside 56-20 at the Leigh Sports Village in the north-west event.

Meanwhile, the club were out of luck in the under-16s National Championships, also held at the Sugden Sports Centre, finishing fifth out of the 18 competing teams.

Oldham, the holders, qualified as the north-west region runners-up and placed in a group alongside the winners of the east section, Turnford, and Huccelcote, champions of the north-west.

The local side got off to a great start in the first game against Turnford and were leading by 18-11 at half-time.

Turnford recovered in the fourth quarter, but Oldham kept their cool to win 30-28.

And their fine form continued with a 35-30 victory over Huccelcote.

However, two games in quick succession took its toll on a tired Oldham side, who had no answer to Parkside, the winners of the West Midlands region.

The Oldham players, many of whom are a year younger, stuck to their task up until the final quarter when unforced errors saw them slip to a 27-19 defeat.

Parkside went on to clinch the national title.

Oldham’s hopes of playing for third place were also dashed as they went down 36-27 to Cobham.

But they at least finished the tournament on a high after recording a 35-15 victory over Telstars, from Kent.