Team Thunder - Match Report 3.3.19

Team Thunder started strongly against Taunton side Vivary. Having lost to them before Xmas by 29 goals, we knew we were in for a tough ride.  The shooting duo of Lorraine Cleverdon Brend & Louise Lathwell started brightly with 12 out of 14 attempts for the first quarter. It was a challenge for the centre court players of Lucy Burnett & Lorraine Beel to get the ball past Vivary's WD, as she was hunting down every ball, and coming away with lots of possession. Thunder kept their composure to take a marginal lead at the end of the first quarter 12-10. 

Rowan Fitzsimmons & Lorraine Beel made way for Claire Turner and Daisy Totterdell to take to the court for the 2nd quarter.  Player of the match (and so richly deserved) Daisy, started the game as she meant to go on, with 4 interceptions and 4 tips for the 2nd quarter, and kept Thunder in the game. She worked tirelessly with Ruth Chamings (GD). Paula Young was out on the wing, and applying plenty of pressure. Our shooters were forced to shoot long, and not getting the consistency on target to only take 8 out of 15 attempts. Several unforced errors from the mid court, allowed Vivary to creep into the lead at half time 20-21. More changes to the Thunder line up for the 3rd quarter.  Ruth went in to the centre bib, to allow more height, and link up with Lucy Burnett at WA. Our unforced errors were kept to a minimum and Rowan proceeded into providing 3 vital interceptions for this quarter. VIvary's defence kept our shooters out to the edges of the circle, and due to the pressure of the mid court players, our shooters were forced to shoot long, with only 6 out of 14 attempts sinked. Coming in from the 3rd quarter, we were now 4 goals down, 26-30. The last 15 minutes of play, were certainly upped a level, in regards to physicalness. To try and change the dynamics of the game, Ruth took the role of GA, and Cleverdon Brend reverted into the shooter role. Lorraine Beel came back onto the court at WA and Lucy reverted back to centre.  To begin with, Thunder managed to patiently claw their way back into the game. Steady passing, made Thunder provide safe and secure passing, and we started to regain the score. This certainly rattled Vivary's players and the voices of their team bench.  With only 5 minutes of play left, Thunder had managed to get within 2 goals. Pressure was applied by their defensive players to get our final ball into the circle. With lots of contact and obstruction called, we were certainly having to work our socks off. It certainly made it hard for our shooters to feed the ball around the circle to get the perfect shooting opportunity, in which left us not getting the scoreline we needed, and bowing out at the final whistle, losing 34-39.

Team Line Up:  Paula Young, Ruth Chamings, Rowan Fitzsimmons, Lucy Burnett, Lorraine Beel, Lorraine Cleverdon Brend, Louise Lathwell, Claire Turner & Daisy Totterdell.  Player of the Match from the opposition went to Lorraine Cleverdon Brend, and Daisy Totterdell won the vote out right from Titans members.