MAGPIES, who lost their last match against Grove Ladies by a couple of goals, were determined to win despite the absence of their captain Jackie Dixon.

Grove Ladies won the toss and in the first quarter were evenly matched but a few wild long passes by Grove Ladies enabled the Magpies to lead the first quarter 7-5.

The second quarter started well and was a very tight game, Magpies GD Nickki Brandreth's marking was excellent and also at getting free when they got repossession. Due to her excellent play Magpies ended the second quarter only one goal down, 16-17.

In the third quarter GD Dawn and GS Kim swapped around. This was a new combination and it took a while for them to get used to each other's play. GD changed to Tracy who uses her height and Nickki moving to GK using her athletic ability causing bad passes to the Grove Ladies' shooters. The Grove GK was also making this very difficult for Magpies shooters ending the third quarter again one goal behind, 16-17.

In the last quarter trying to get high balls to the shooters didn't work on both teams and GK Nickki made another excellent effort in defending. The score was extremely close and it was only in the remaining five minutes of the match that the Magpies finally got it together to forge ahead to win 25-20.

The player of the match was Nickki Brandreth.

Umpires Shelley Parnell and Sue Pickett saw fair play throughout the match.