THE ISSA rural area netball competition concludes today with Holmwood Technical and Denbigh High looking to retain their respective Senior and Junior League titles.

Holmwood, the reigning all-island champions, will play Titchfield High in the senior final, while Denbigh will tackle fellow Clarendon team Knox College in the junior decider.

Both games are scheduled for the Leila Robinson Court at the National Stadium, starting with the juniors at 1:00 pm.

That game will pit the two most impressive rural area Under-16 teams against each other, with the winner set to meet the urban area champions in the all-island play-off.

Denbigh, by virtue of being the defending champions, will start as favourites. The central-Clarendon girls eased past a decent Holmwood outfit 40-29 in last Wednesday’s semi-final and will be oozing with confidence ahead of this match-up with Knox.

Their opponents are no pushovers however, and, given the ease with which they progressed through the preliminary rounds, this Knox team should also be a confident bunch.

They held off a tough Manchester High unit in the semis, beating them 30-27, and will also fancy their chances of upsetting the title holders in the grand finale.

Meanwhile, in the feature game, Holmwood will go in search of their fourth-successive (and 10th overall) hold on the senior trophy.

They will face a Titchfield team whom they beat with minimal fuss in the inter-zone round. But the Christiana-based girls, who defeated Manchester High 44-42 in the semis, will also be weary of their opponents, given their gutsy performance in the previous round.

The Portland-based Titchfield, displaying discipline and fight, upstaged Denbigh 40-36 in an exciting semi-final encounter at the Juici Patties Complex last week, and will no doubt be harbouring thoughts of pulling off another upset in the final game of the competition.

But given their celebration at the end of the Denbigh-Titchfield match, Holmwood more than likely believe that they have their opponents measured.