B Div Netball: RGS and Clementi Town fail to make semi-finals

By Justin Teh/crossroadsports.net

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 — Raffles Girls’ School and Clementi Town Secondary found themselves squeezed out after Round 2 of the National B Division Netball Championship.

Nan Hua High qualified for the national semi-finals for the first time while Nanyang Girls’ High made a return to the semis. They were joined in the top four by Singapore Sports School and CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh).

All four teams from the West Zone, two from South Zone and two from North Zone made it into Round 2 to compete for a place in the final four. All the East Zone teams were eliminated in the preliminary round.

Group X proved to be most exciting with CHIJ, RGS, Nan Hua High and Bukit Panjang Government High battling it out for a place in the semi-finals. The opening matches saw CHIJ with a close 38-36 win over RGS after having lost the South Zone to them.

Nan Hua High continued their dominance over Bukit Panjang with a five-point win to set up a crucial game against RGS.

Nan Hua, the West Zone champions, held a miniscule lead over RGS, the South Zone champions, for three quarters. However, Nan Hua opened a six-point lead in the fourth quarter and even though RGS managed to close the gap, time was not on their side, and they lost 31-34.

In Group Y, Nanyang Girls’ High, Clementi Town, Singapore Sports School and CHIJ St Joseph’s Convent were the other four teams in contention for a semi-final spot.

Both Sports School and Nanyang opened the round with wins over St Joseph’s Convent (34-9) and Clementi Town (34-26) respectively.

Clementi Town could not take the speed and accuracy of Nanyang despite their physical superiority in terms of size and height across the court.

Both Nanyang and Sports School continued to dominate in their next games. Nanyang beat St Joseph’s Convent 34-18 while Sports School powered past Clementi Town with the same score.

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