JAMALCO and Global United ‘B’ captured the 2016 Netball Jamaica/ Supreme Ventures Limited Major and Minor League titles when they won respective finals at the National Indoor Sports Centre last Friday.

The JAMALCO aggregation handsomely defeated arch-rivals University of the West Indies (UWI) Pelicans 40-27 to claim the Major League title for the first time. They completed the season without losing a match.

Global ‘B’, also unbeaten, were winning their first Minor League title after a 29-14 beating of Tantrum.

In the Major League final between two unbeaten teams, the first quarter was poorly contested as both sides made simple mistakes, but JAMALCO took a 8-4 lead at the break.

The Pelicans stepped up the pace on Clarendon-based JAMALCO and tied the scores at 10-10 before the latter grabbed a 19-13 lead at the half-time break.

Pelicans came back strongly and trailed 24-28 at the end of the third period.

But JAMALCO turned the pressure on the Pelicans, and eventually moved away to a relatively easy win.

Winston Nevers, coach of JAMALCO, said it was a very good win, but added that players had to work hard.

“We did not score many goals in the first quarter because of a few mistakes… giving away the ball too easily,” Nevers said.

“However, the players managed to build their lead again and closed the third quarter in front 28-24. The final quarter we decided to apply the pressure on UWI Pelicans, and we simply outplayed and outscored them to win convincingly,” explained Nevers.

Derrick Brown, the Global ‘B’ assistant coach and manager, said he was very pleased with his team’s win.

“Frankly, the team is made up of mainly schoolgirls attending Gaynstead High School, and they performed extremely well throughout the season. They played well and were able to cope with the tougher and harder matches than school competitions playing in the club league competition. They are young, and they played just as good as their older opponents who played in the Minor League,” Brown said.