Game 5 was played last night with a diminished Sovs outfit coming up against what looked a well-organised Two Swords team. Absences from starting guard – Matty, and starting forward – Chunkas put pressure on the thinner Sovs team in 30oc + temperatures at the Netball Centre.

Although Two Swords had 2 players on the bench, the game commenced in a snail like manner with neither team willing to run the court in the conditions.

This resulted in a rotation game being played by both teams, with Two Swords throwing some pin-point passes to pull to pull off some well thought out plays that the Sovs could only watch with dropped jaws at the simplicity of their execution.

With these delightful post up moves Two Swords began to grow in confidence and extend their lead on the Sovs who were still contesting every ball with generally sound defence.

As Two Swords began to break away on the scoreboard, Age put a highlight in for “play of the day” efforts for his mid air collision with the opposing guard in a 50/50 ball (being out of bounds) that would have surely put a slighter man in rehabilitation for a month – but yet they both got up and played on.

The Sovs went into the half time break considerably down, both on the scoreboard and mentally, as Two Swords had an answer to everything that was being thrown at them.

Strategists (Mark) decided to alter the style of the game into the second half having Ro start outside of the key, allowing the Widdison boys to post up and control the passing tempo.

This ingenious coaching move proved a success as more space was provided in the key for quicker rotation in and back out. With some crisp passes into the key and some strong post up moves from the boys the Sovs began to slowly bridge the gap with some physical play.

With some confidence back in the team, the Sovs started to press and reduce the gap, unfortunately Two Swords hung strong with their lead taken into the half time break.

It wasn’t until Ro fouled out that Two Swords got back on top with the extra man advantage, which they exploited well by drawing the Sovs out of the key and passing into the gaps.

In the later stages of the game some tasteful moves were made by the housemates (Age and Alex) with aggressive drives and brilliant dishes by Alex to set Age up for some easy points.

In the end the game has been put down as a learning experience, and one which the lads can draw confidence from later in the season as the Sovs outscored their opponents and controlled the game in the second half, but still went down 38-26 to the better opposition of the day.