The first game of the season was against an established Burmah team, but with most of the Calne squad unavailable a lot of our youth players took to the court for the first time. Despite every effort, Burmah won 61-27.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and with more of the squad available, a strong team was on court to take on Moonraker. Despite losing the first two quarters, in the second half of the game POM Lucy Ruddle made some fantastic interceptions throughout the court and with Lauren Adams getting in the shots, the team bought it back to win 34-29.

In the team’s next match, Calne lost out to strong RWB A team 51-19. Although the results were not in their favour, the team took positives from the match and highlighted areas to develop in their training sessions.

Taking on Croft C, Calne dug deep, kept going, and ground out the win, adding another 5 points to the board with a final score of Calne 32 - Croft C 28. POM Lauren Adams made some impressive shots from far out throughout the game, aiding the teams win.

A couple of tough matches followed, but despite a great squad effort throughout a very physical game, Calne lost out to Raychem B, 31-44. POM Sophie Vaughan had a series of brilliant interceptions which enabled the team to get the ball away from the oppositions shooters.

Despite not ending 2021 on a win, the team started off 2022 with a fantastic 40-21 win against Nationwide. Expecting to play inside, the team were moved outdoors at the last minute but quickly adapted and got ready to embrace the wet weather. For some excellent work moving the ball down the court and feeding it into the shooters the POM went to Lucy Ruddle.

For the second match of the year, the team took on top of the league Burmah. Never have we heard the onlookers cheering so loudly as Calne bagged a 47-40 WIN. It was an all round great team performance with minimal errors, some great turnovers from defence, and the shooters nailing their shots.

Despite RWB being above Calne in the league table and a previous loss against them at the beginning of the season, the team went out with confidence and energy to put up an impressive fight against the opposition, getting a 46-35 win. It was a strong team performance, with Sara Goode, Bethan Seymour and Jess Milstead improving match on match in defence, some impressive shots from far out by Lauren, Neav and Lucy, and some great interceptions throughout the court from Sophie and Kirsten.

Whilst it wasn’t the best performance, the team followed up with another win against Croft C 32-30. Despite the strong winds, the shooters converted the turnovers from POM (Coaches Player AND Players’ Player!) Sophie Vaughan who made some great interceptions.

Unfortunately, despite the team’s efforts, the season ended with a series of tough matches throughout March. Calne lost our against Nationwide C 53-29, Raychem B 51-38 and Delta A 61-14.

Throughout the season, Lucy Wood secured 2 POM’s, Lucy Ruddle 3 and both Lauren Adams and Sophie Vaughan bagged an impressive 4 each. A special mention goes to both these two girls who juggled the Swindon League alongside their first Regional season in U14’s; often having two games each weekend but still giving it their all.

We are pleased of the whole team for their first season in Division 3 and looking forward to seeing them develop and progress next year.