Well here we are and guess what?  It is raining again!  But, that does not detract us from the task in hand - today is the day the Navy A and Navy B go head to head in the tournament.  So, let me tell you how the day has gone.

Taking the match seriously we all wanted to train despite the rain and so in true form to our training to date, we had another circuit training session followed by a game of waterpolo in the pool and the rain! 

Once we had dried off we went to the Castiers Comprehensive School to do some work with their netball team.  We played some games associated with netball and did some shooting practice with them.  They thoroughly enjoyed it and we did too.  Luckily it was inside so the rain did not affect things!  It was great to see the children laughing and the mini netball games were really good for them.  We noticed that they were wearing the RAF netball skirts donated to them last year; a number of teams in St Lucia do not have money for kit so it was good to see that the RAF had helped them before.  We gave them lots of RN souveniers when we left and they seemed really pleased with it all.  We wanted to work with some children while we were here and we were all really glad to see what an impact we had made.  We have arranged to work with Eagles before we leave as they have been such a great team so we are looking forward to that in a few days.

So, the time had come to face eachother in the tournament and we were really excited!  Navy A needed to beat Navy B to secure a place in the semi-finals and Navy B wanted to beat Navy A as true sports teams do!  The game kicked off at 2030 and there were still a number of spectators in the hall wondering which side to support!    Navy B began by fighting hard and taking a 4 goal lead but this was soon diminished by the A team leaving the quarter score at 12-6 to Navy A.  Navy A were the stronger side but they were put under pressure by Navy B who were forcing errors and enjoying the fight.  The second quarter was 24-13 to Navy A.  Despite the competetiveness on the court is was great to enjoy ourselves too.  The games throughout the tournament had been hard and it was good to play British netball!  Navy A pulled away in the third quarterand the score was 40-19 going into the final quarter.  At this point, the comradeship on the court between the two teams was great and a brilliant example to some of the children spectating.  There was a real friendly but competetive atmosphere and we laughed at times when mistakes were made on the court.  It was also the first time during the tournament that both coaches had not looked stressed!  Navy A won the match and we shook hands at the end to celebrate a good British game!

The Navy B team was now out of the rest of the tournament but placed 6th out of 7.  The Navy A team had come 4th and are due to face Digicel Elite tomorrow for the semi-finals.  We know we will not beat Digicel, and we also suspect Shamrock will not beat X-Ceed so our next fight will be for 3rd place.  We will face Shamrock for this battle on Saturday so watch this space! 

Navy A has done brilliantly to reach the Semis and Navy B had a great win over a Carribean team despite only just coming together as a team. 

As always, love to all at home and thank you for keeping your fingers crossed for us throughout the tournament.