St Hugh’s coach hopeful of retaining junior netball title

Coach of defending ISSA Urban Junior Schoolgirls Netball champions St Hugh's High, Nardia Hanson, is not overly confident of retaining the title, with the Cross Roads-based institution scheduled to open their season on Friday.

St Hugh's defeated Immaculate Conception in the final last year, but Hanson is cautiously optimistic of a repeat this year, having only retained three players from the winning combination.

"I am not confident, but being hopeful to make it to the second round," said Hanson when asked about their chances of retaining the title.

They are hoping for a positive start when they open their account at home against Greater Portmore on Friday, and, with heavy rains affecting most of the matches on Wednesday, want better weather conditions for their Zone B encounter.

Convent of Mercy Alpha's junior will also be in action in the zone, as they host Holy Trinity. Campion will be at home in both the Junior and Senior competitions in the zone.

On Wednesday, defending senior champions St Catherine failed to open their account at home because of bad weather conditions, although their junior started successfully by getting the better of Vauxhall 14-6. The senior match was washed out.

In other completed junior games, Merle Grove defeated Papine 17-7, Camperdown held off Clan Carthy 5-3 in a low-scoring game, while Jonathan Grant easily got by Tivoli 26-7.

Competition also got under way in the Rural tournament on Wednesday, with three completed matches among the junior.

Green Island were the biggest winners on the day, thumping Frome Technical 27-2. Belair also had an easy 24-4 win over deCarteret College, while it was a 14-8 win for Marymount over St Mary Technical.