This Sunday sees the start of the 26th Season of the Manx Netball Association with 16 fixtures being played across 4 hours at St Ninian’s Lower School and the NSC.
Premier Division
There are ten teams in this division this season.
There was a nail biting end to the Premier Division the last season with SMP Partners Ballasalla A taking the league title with a two goal victory over runners up Route 1 Connections. This season will see Route 1’s second team Turbos promoted in to the Division and with their first match against Ballasalla A they may have a bumpy ride, but this will also be a great indicator of what we can expect from Turbos!
There are some changes in the teams in this top flight with player movements including Hannah Riley moving from Ballasalla B to Missfits A, Erin Keggin leaving Simcocks for Route 1 and Becky King moving to Ballasalla from Simcocks.
Rubies will breathing a sigh of relief as new entrants in to the leagues see them holding on to a place in the Premier Division rather than face relegation!
Expect to see some great netball but no real surprises in this first week of fixtures.
First Division
This league has 11 teams with Castletown Pink and Bobby Sadler’s Young Farmers having been promoted from the second division. Both of these teams put in strong performances last season so it will be interesting to see how they settle in to the division against some of the established names like Team DQ and Fencibles A.
There was real battle in this division last season for the positions 2 – 5 with just 3 points separating them and positions being determined on goal difference!
Marbree Motors again were saved from relegation and they will be hoping to capitalise on their great shooting record and convert these to some wins! Perhaps the return of Sammy Bowden providing support throughout the court will bring some structure!
Second Division
There will be 12 teams battling it out in the second division, including new teams Castletown Navy and Missfits C.
Thompson Travel have three teams playing in this division so they will really be pushing for promotion this year. They have some great young talent coming through alongside some experienced players which should make for some exciting games!
There are a host of new faces within the Route 1 camp so how this filters down to their Sparks and Reactors teams could be interesting.
There should be some hotly contested matches this week, as long as first week back nerves don’t get the better of anyone!
