Any Manchester-Merseyside sports fixture has added spice to it, and Mystics U14s visit to Liverpool to play Mersey Mavericks U16s yesterday had plenty to savour for the capacity crowd of about 20. We were without the influential due of Christiana and Emmy. They were doubtless high in confidence, having defeated the previously unbeaten York Vikings the day before.
The scene was set for a titanic showdown on a par with Wyatt Earp facing Billy the Kid. In theory, the task before us looked to be as tricky as trying to roller skate on ice. In practice, the opening skirmishes indicated the game would be as tight as any Yorkshireman. Mersey had a quick, skilful guard, some height and seemed mobile and well-organised. They looked as though they could be a tougher test than an A level physics exam.
That said, it did not take long for our 5 starters of Adele, Emmanuela, Elsa, Darcie and Chichi to find their feet. (They were in their trainers!) Fully aware that it was nearly November 5th, Emmanuela and Darcie were on fire in the first quarter. They scored the bulk of our 23 points with Adele racking up numerous assists with her impressive range of passing. Not to be outdone, Elsa and Chichi shone at the defensive end like highly polishes shoes to help restrict our opponents to a mere 5 points.
By half-time, the lead had grown to 28 at 43-15 thanks to some eye-catching basketball from all 10 Mystics. The 2 Ronnies, sorry, the 2 Maisies, Morgan, Zoe and Jahnia had all seized the opportunity to show their worth. They, too, had helped us in our aim to play harder and smarter than whoever we play against.
Possibly as a consequence of too frequent substitutions from me, possibly because we had a tendency to over-complicate things but our standards slipped somewhat in the third quarter. Our decision making reminded me of a broken Sat-nav- in that it became wayward at times. There were too many occasions when we shot too early in the shot clock or we tried to force things. This resulted in us only managing 14 points over the next 10 minutes.
A time out reminded those who needed reminding of the error of their ways. To their credit, they responded like Nelson (admirably!) so that the status quo (who had 20 hits with more or less the same monotonous tune) was restored in the fourth period which yielded 21 points for us. Our 78-35 victory makes it appear it was akin to the Swans at Alton Towers, an easy ride. It wasn’t as bumpy as the Big One at Blackpool but we did need to be on our game. Full credit to all 10 Mystics for being just that, as a somewhat different make-up of our players were the day before in the comfortable 71-30 win over Hartlepool expertly overseen by James.
Many thanks to all those involved on Saturday and to Annmarie plus our ever-reliable, helpful parents for you taxiing and support on Sunday. We now face the prospect of 3 games in 5 days with a trip to play a strong York side U16s on Saturday , an actual U14 fixture away to Stockport on Sunday, followed by a Wednesday evening local derby against Mystics U14 II. These precede two consecutive away trips to face Sheffield at U14 and U16 level. These last two are the games which will give us a true indication of where we are currently at. (I don’t mean in south Yorkshire! I do mean how relatively strong we are.)