July 2001 Sport News Headlines

Monday, July 16, 2001 - Web posted at 11:31:02 GMT

Boland netballers outplay Namibians

SOUTH Africa's MTN Boland Netball team returned home on Friday with an overwhelming win over their Namibian counterparts in three friendly matches.

The matches were played at the United Sports grounds in Windhoek during the course of last week.

The United Netball team suffered two defeats at the hands of the visiting Boland Provincial Netball team on Tuesday by 41 points to 30 and on Thursday evening by 38 points to 31.

An invitation team from the Central league lost by 61 points to 13 on Friday evening.

The Namibian women put up a brilliant fight against the visitors but the Bolanders' expertise gave them the upper hand.

The women from the Boland came to Namibia to play in preparation for the upcoming South African Championships that takes place from August 13 to 18 in Pretoria, South Africa.

They played with superb accuracy and led throughout the three games, never losing sight of their goal of winning.

The visitors had the added advantage of having two Springbok players in the squad and one player who represented South Africa in an invitational side, but still received tough competition from the Namibians.

Boland coach Bennie Snyman said that United were very experienced but should try to increase their tempo of play.

Said Snyman: "The Namibian ladies should work on their goal area and try and play faster in order to score more frequently."

The Boland team suffered a few set backs in the form of a light concussion suffered by one of the key players, Liezel Wium.

Thandi Ntlama, a national team player, could also not play all the matches due to an important international game coming up soon.

Other key players included Mable van der Vyfer and lanky Sonja van Wyk.

United's Hilma Ipinge defended the goals well and said she was proud of herself after the games.

Ipinge said that she had learnt a lot from the Bolanders and will use it to improve her game.

The Central team was made up of players from Orlando Pirates, United and Black Africa. - Nampa