Barcelona Netball Club - Marbella Torneo
A fab event with more than 14 teams taking part across two groups meant that there was a lot of netball to both play and watch, with most teams providing excellent competitive games. Having previously attended this torneo back in 2022, there were a few old scores to settle... despite that history we were hopeful and under the stewardship of el Capitan Ebony (who alongside Judith amongst others) had been part of that '22 squad... we got down to business.
Firstly - we had a fabulous 👌 apartment which gave the early arrivals some needed downtime as we relaxed, talked team tactics and got our head "into" the game.... being a little close to the venue also meant that we didn't have such an early start on match day... and we're treated to scrambled eggs care of "Chef Amy" - don't mention the bacon though...
Sufficiently fuelled we made our way along the 8 min drive to San Pedro school where the sessions were in full swing....Two pools meant we had 6 games in total to play... but due to the draw, we didn't get to play the lovely costanets this time. Following a super fun group warm-up, we got ready to play our first of 6 very interesting matches.  Traditionally it often takes us a match or two to get settled but this time we came out of the gate with two back-to-back wins (8-4 and 4-2)  each game though felt a little frenetic as we settled down to play and we took a lot from this to move into game 3.  A few changes as Ebs was rightly worried about the heat and rotating players meant we lost game 3 as a few players were out of position and the shooter of the opposition was one of those that never missed, disappointed but hungry to get back to winning ways, we shook it off returned to our winning team combo for Game 4.
Game 4 - the one where we lost our Becs.  After having lost match 3, it was fair to say everyone wanted to do well... so we all got down to business, but the team we were playing were a little less experienced so a lot of suspect moves and cautions meant it was only a matter of time before a miss-timed trip took out one of our own.  Unfortunately for us, it was a very painful sprained ankle meant a pause, whilst trying to play on, helping Becs off the court, trying to get ice!  It was hard to focus on the match at hand as we rallied to get Becs the support she needed whilst simultaneously continuing to play on - but we managed it and after a win against the odds we had a well-needed break to help us regroup.
After lunch, we faced the hosts Marbella.  Who on home turf had every right to feel confident... despite this we were super evenly matched grinding out a well-earned draw with our mid-court, defence and shooting combo continually working well.  Buoyed by this draw we went to our final game of the heats with the possibility of placing 2nd in the group and moving onto the semis in touching distance.. and only the unbeaten team in our group left to go. AKS smarties... now at this point I can say that this team was made up of players with an average age of about 16, so although we were looking for a fairytale it wasn't to be as we lost this game 14-2. Which despite the scoreline we gave them a real run around with the feedback that it was one of their harder wins, which for us as our last match was a great compliment!!
Matches played all that remained was to head back to the apartment and soak up a few more rays before we got our glad rags on to party with the rest of the teams down in Puerto Banus.  They say what happens in Marbs stays in Marbs... so I will leave the report there!
All in all, we had a great time.... the same time next year team?  Link to our Album
Results: 3 wins, 1 draw & 2 Losses.
Marbella Torneo Reel
