Jhaniele Fowler scored 57 goals as Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls defeated England’s Roses 63-53 for a consolation victory in the England Roses Vitality Series that concluded on Sunday.
England coming off their dominating 66-47 victory over Jamaica on Saturday, seemed to play with lesser intensity as Jess Thirlby experimented with her line up starting Laura Malcolm at centre and later bringing Georgina Fisher into the attack.
Notwithstanding those changes, Jamaica played much better than in their two previous matches, successfully getting their passes into Fowler, who only missed three shots in the game. Shanice Beckford scored five of her eight attempts at goal.
For England, Fisher scored 21 of 24, Helen Housby 15 of 17 and Eleanor Cardwell 14 of 16 and were the primary scorers in the loss.
Jamaica led 14-11 at the end of the first quarter and extended the lead to 32-24 at half-time thanks in large part to the defensive work of Shamera Sterling, who was outstanding in disrupting England’s attack and was named MVP.
It was through her work alongside Kadie-Ann Dehaney that saw Jamaica extend their lead in the second quarter. England, however, would rally in the third quarter when they tied the Sunshine Girls’ 16-16 to keep the lead at eight going into the final quarter.
However, the visitors, desperate to take something away from the series, managed to regain their composure and held on for the confidence-boosting victory.
Jamaica started with Fowler, Shanice Beckford, Khadijah Williams, Adean Thomas, Latanya Wilson, Shamera Sterling and Kadie-Ann Dehaney. Thomas suffered what appeared to be an ankle injury early in the game and was helped off the court but later returned to help her team to the win.
Leighton Levy is a journalist with 28 years’ experience covering crime, entertainment, and sports. He joined the staff at SportsMax.TV as a content editor two years ago and is enjoying the experience of developing sports content and new ideas. At SportsMax.tv he is pursuing his true passion - sports.
Holmwood Technical completes ISSA rural area Netball double; St. Catherine, Wolmer’s Girls win urban area titles
Defending all-island champions Holmwood Technical retained their ISSA rural area Under-19 netball title with a 38-30 victory over Denbigh High in Thursday's decider at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
The May Pen-based won the first quarter 9-8 before the defending champions rallied to lead 15-14 at the half and 37-24 at the end of the third quarter.
The victory for Holmwood completed the double on the day as their Under-16 team had earlier secured the crown with a 21-16 win in an all-Manchester affair over defending champions Manchester High in a repeat of last year's final.
In the urban area final, St Catherine High captured their third straight Under-19 title with a 32-24 win over The Queen's School. The St John's Road-based school led all quarters 11-3, 20-12 and 23-16.
Meanwhile, Wolmer's Girls took the Under-16 crown after beating St Hugh's 27-21 in their decider.
Manchester High defeated Glenmuir 46-44 to claim third place in the rural area Under-19 category while Mile Gully High claimed third in the Under-16 category with a 32-17 win over Titchfield.
In the urban area, Gaynstead High claimed third in both the Under-19 and Under-16 categories with wins over St. Catherine High and Camperdown High, respectively.
They beat St. Catherine 34-19 and Camperdown 37-23.
Sunshine Girls captain Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard expecting second child
Jamaican netball superstar and Sunshine Girls captain Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard is expecting her second child, her club West Coast Fever announced on Thursday. The news, while joyous, has already affected her availability for recent competitions, as she stepped away from the sport to prioritize her health and well-being.
In a statement, the Australian-based Fever extended their congratulations to Fowler-Nembhard and her family:
"Everyone at Fever is absolutely thrilled for Jhaniele and her family. We’ve always known that Jhaniele has dreamed of having another child, and seeing that dream come true is simply wonderful!"
Fowler-Nembhard’s pregnancy meant she was unavailable for the recently concluded Jamaica-England Horizon Series, which was played on November 16-17 in Manchester and November 25-26 in Kingston. She had been training with the Sunshine Girls and was expected to play a critical role in the series, contributing as a top scorer and mentoring new senior squad members.
In her absence, Romelda Aiken-George joined the squad and helped fill the void in the goal circle. Netball Jamaica President Tricia Robinson acknowledged the significance of Fowler-Nembhard’s absence but emphasized that her health and well-being were the priority:
"Netball Jamaica is focused on her health and well-being and will provide updates as necessary regarding her condition."
Fowler-Nembhard married Ashani Nembhard in a private ceremony in Kingston on December 20, 2023. She also has a daughter, Drehannah, from a previous relationship. This pregnancy marks a new chapter for the couple as they expand their family.
As the West Coast Fever’s leading goal shooter and a five-time top scorer in Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball League, Fowler-Nembhard has cemented her place as one of the world’s greatest netballers. Her absence from recent international competition is a reminder of her immense value to the Sunshine Girls, both on and off the court.
While her team and fans will miss her presence in the immediate term, Fowler-Nembhard’s contributions to Jamaican netball are already legendary. The netball community joins in congratulating her on this exciting milestone and looks forward to her eventual return to the sport.
World Netball exploring shifting Netball World Cup to every two years; new Continental Cup competition
A radical plan by World Netball to increase opportunities at the elite level could see the Netball World Cup being hosted every two years instead of the current four-year gap between tournaments.
On Monday, UK based newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, reported the game’s powerbrokers of Netball New Zealand, Netball Australia and Netball England had partnered with World Netball to introduce a new competition, the Continental Cup, signaling the hope to grow the sport of netball and its commercial opportunities.
Vice president of World Netball, Shirley Hooper, however, told Newstalk ZB the idea was “very premature” and only a prospectus as part of the global event strategy had been released.
“We were essentially going out to market with a bunch of different ideas of things that we could do. We’re trying to build on the very successful 2023 Netball World Cup in South Africa, build on the burgeoning interest in women’s sport and identify partners, whether they be agencies and investors and the like that we can work with to grow the sport of netball and those ideas that were expressed in that story are some of the ideas that we are thinking about, but we haven’t resolved anything, we haven’t confirmed anything at all,” she said.
The Continental Cup was proposed to start next year with the top-ranked team from each of the five World Netball regions taking part – Asia, Oceania, Europe, America and Africa.
It would be repeated in 2026 in a one-off move and held every two years from that point with the World Cup also moving to a biennial event, rather than the current four years, following the Sydney 2027 tournament.
Some of the additional prospective changes reported by the Telegraph include the possibility for the Fast5 World Series to be held more regularly than once a year as well as an aligned global calendar.
Hooper said there were several discussions to have before anything was set in stone.
“There are so many things that we need to consider. So, what we want to do is to take the time to consider that and it’s not just the top three nations that come into play there. It’s all the other countries as well who are arguably a lot less resourced in terms of figuring out how we get there,” she said.
“I think if we’re honest, money can solve many problems and so it also comes down to the question of how much commercial funding is out there for what it is that we want to create. That’s the step we have to go through first before we can even start to finalize all those things,” she added.
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