he Pandas pulled off a 48-34 sweet victory tonight in a physically tough match with Lastonets Imperial who pushed their patience and discipline to the limit.
Cornwall's lead official, Debbie Ashworth was on courtside assessing the visiting umpire. She gave our girls the greatest accolade saying: "You girls are to be commended for your composure under extreme pressure - you didn't let it effect your game and should be proud of the end result."
Debbie went onto compliment our joint player of the match Sophie Tucker on her performance. "Your defender is a division 1 player home from Uni - you did incredibly well to hold your own."
This was an extremely hard fought match and to receive praise and positive feedback from such a knowledgeable official is incredibly rewarding for the whole team.
Lastonets were a hard nut to crack but our girls kept their cool and motivation - it was admirable they were fiercely determined not to let the opposing side get under our skin but to play their own game and keep composed.
Lastonet's defence were literally on our players from the start doggedly trying to wear us down - but rising above the physical pressure Sophie Tucker and Hannah Steadman plugged away showing their skill to secure the Pandas a 11 goal advantage going into the third quarter.
But then it got tense - very tense! Lastonets lifted themselves up coming back at us with a surge of goals decreasing our lead to just six goals.
It was definitely game on and decisions had to be made. That's when the cream began to rise to the top - Sarah Medlin was inspirational swapping Emily Enterman to centre who came back with fresh legs benefitting from Nina Chun's influential time on court and moving herself into the wing defence spot.
Emily loves a battle and thrived on the challenge working well with another of our battlers Deannah Jayne who was so effective feeding into the circle. And the link Sarah immediately had with our defence proved pivotal. Sarah's encouragement and on court advice to Megan Hampton and Ashley Hogg gave this ever developing partnership a massive boost. These two girls played a blinding final quarter feeding the ball with great accuracy to facilitate solid play down the court.
In fact our defenders stood out with Ashley Hogg deservedly receiving the joint accolade of player of the match.
This was a tough game and it was teamwork from every single player in a Panda dress that resulted in our victory.
We came back fighting in that final quarter to emerge with a convincing win posting our highest number of goals (13) to Lastonets 5.
What a positive way to end such a physically demanding match - satisfying and deserved.
Thanks again to Jackie Carr and John for missing out on the England match scoring and timekeeping for us and to our umpire Jackie Walker.
And to Lastonets Imperials for testing us in more ways than one!
And to Debbie Ashworth for your honest feedback - it's always appreciated.
The Pandas face Bayside on Monday at Penzance - another team on song with an unbeaten record so far.
Kathryn Pearn - Chair