Nuthurst A emerged as winners of the first phase of Division A in the Horsham Primary Schools Netball League this week after a dramatic 2-1 play-off final victory over Leechpool A, the team who had topped the table in front of them based on the pure round-robin results. They can’t get too carried away however as in two weeks time the top six plus two promoted teams from the second tier all come together to do it all again from scratch to inform the final standings. Confidence will be sky high in the Nuthurst ranks though and the fact that no team in the league is now unbeaten makes for the unpredictability which exciting sport rests on.

Obviously it’s great to see winners but of course there have to be losers and on this occasion Southwater B’s bottom spot berth was affirmed with a 5-1 defeat to Shelley A and a play-off reverse against fellow basement battlers Kingslea B 3-1. Both can look forward to hopefully easier times in Phase 2 in Division B.

Kingslea A eased their relegation fears by giving their own B for six of the best. In the mid table orbit Shelley A and Southwater A swapped positions for whilst Shelley A were administering Southwater B’s last rites Southwater A were shown no mercy by a Nuthurst A outfit playing like a team possessed.

There was no sign of the play-off upset to come after Leechpool A cruised to 5-0 victory over another top table challenger All Saints in the last divisional match. No doubt Leechpool will be highly motivated for revenge when the league goes into the home straight. All Saints picked themselves up impressively to win the third place play-off 7-1 over Shelley A. 

RESULTS

TABLE 

5pts for a win, 3 for a draw, 2 for a loss but score 50% or more of opposition’s score, 1 point for a loss below 50% 

PLACINGS AFTER PLAY-OFFS 

1. Nuthurst A 
2. Leechpool A 
3. All Saints 
4. Shelley A 
5. Southwater A 
6. Kingslea A 
7. Kingslea B (relegated) 
8. Southwater B (relegated)