The Cayman Islands national netball team held their own at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank International Netball Series, where they amassed victories against top teams in the region.
The ECCB tournament held 22-29 Sept., at the Beausejour Indoor Facility in Saint Lucia, featured the Cayman women netting four wins against three defeats.
Cayman was not eligible to place in the event, despite their efforts, because they were invited to participated as a visiting team.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines claimed the Gloria Ballantyne Championship Trophy, ahead of runner-up Grenada, with St. Lucia securing third.
Cayman faced St. Lucia on the final day of the tournament in a competitive showdown, but Cayman was denied a repeat of their favourable results from last year’s series.
“We’ve had such a good run [so] to go away like this on the last day is disappointing for us but we have to celebrate our success throughout the tournament and not just today,” Katherine Gow, Cayman’s team captain said after the match. “We are really pleased with the seven matches.”
The Cayman women got off to a dominant start, beating Anguilla 90-14. Their momentum was temporarily halted when they met Grenada, who won 47-35.
Cayman would then rack up three straight wins against Dominica (62-37), Montserrat (69-18), and Antigua and Barbuda (56-31).
They closed the show with two closely contested games, the first against St. Vincent and the Grenadines who edged Cayman 56-41, and St. Lucia picking up the 56-42 win on the final day.
For Gow, there is much to celebrate, noting that her team is a real success story.
“If you look at some of the results we had this time last year, and what we’ve come away and done just 12 months later, we are pretty much the same squad with a few additions, so that’s a real big gain,” she said.
“There’s more work to do, and we know that, but we can’t be anything but proud of what we put out in this last week,” Gow added, while expressing her gratitude towards the tournament’s organisers and the enthusiastic crowd.
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