Singapore win second in a row at 5 Nations

NETBALL

5 Nations Netball Cup
Singapore vs Northern Ireland
Tuesday, 4 September 2007 at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall

Story and pictures by Leslie Tan. © Red Sports/soulbreath pictures

Singapore came from behind to beat Northern Ireland 46-39 last night for their second straight win at the 5 Nations Netball Cup.

Vanessa Lee of Singapore outjumps Lisa Bowman of Northern Ireland for the ball. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports

Northern Ireland jumped out to a 3-1 lead before Singapore found their rhythm to take the lead at 8-7 as the first quarter moved along. With nothing much separating both sides, the two teams walked off the court tied 11-11 at the end of the first.

Jean Ng of Singapore wheels away with the ball from Lisa McKeown. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports

In the second quarter, Northern Ireland, with accurate shooting from 1.88m Lisa Bowman, pulled away to lead 16-11 with 10:53 left on the clock, at which point Pearline Chan of Singapore went down with a knee injury and had to be tended to. Pearline was strong enough to continue and by the end of the second quarter, Singapore were trailing by just three at 19-22.

Zhang Tingjun of Singapore passes the ball out to a teammate. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports

In the third quarter, Singapore’s put together a string of attacks to haul themselves level at 23-23 with 11:08 on the clock. Both teams were evenly matched for the next six minutes of the game and the score was 30-30 with 3:17 to go. However, Singapore found a bit of an edge as the quarter ended and walked off leading by four at 35-31.

At the 9:08 mark in the fourth quarter, Singapore, with Chen Huifen shooting well, established an eight-point lead at 41-33 but Northern Ireland didn’t lie down and die. Northern Ireland fought back to outscore Singapore for the next few minutes and with 2:35 left, were trailing only by four at 39-43. But they could not summon up a final hurrah and Singapore held them off to win 46-39.

Said co-captain Pearline Chan after the game: "That was another really hard match but we pulled it all together in the end. We are really trying to work on getting a solid start to our matches but Northern Ireland were tough and unknown opposition tonight so we took time to settle into our own game. I am really pleased with the result and we will be ready to go out hard and give it our best shot against Trinidad and Tobago in our next game."

The Singapore netballers will play formidable Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday, 6 September 2007, 8.00 pm at Toa Payoh Sports Hall.