THE Rock have enjoyed a dominant start to their South & West Dorset League summer campaign, with a succession of outstanding victories.

A 44-20 victory over KHB has ensured the newly-formed side’s pole position in Division Three after a string of four consecutive wins.

From the outset the Rock took control with dominant play by the mid-court trio of Fiona Hillier, Karen Pomeroy and Ellen Blackwood.

KHB floundered a little at the start with some shaky passing and an inability to find court space through the Rock defenders.

However, some graceful and timely interceptions by Rachel Ralston and Justine Denton, in defence, soon bolstered their team and offered several shooting chances for Sue Cox and Tracy Moore.

These opportunities were not always capitalised upon, mainly due to the strong defensive presence of Rock’s Lisa Hall and Hilary Caines, who successfully distracted the shooter’s and stole several key rebounds for their team.

The first quarter score of 11-4 allowed the Rock to settle into a more relaxed style of play, with some outstanding passing and spatial awareness being demonstrated by the shooting partnership of Lisa Williams and Rachel Bustin.

KHB, however, showed true team spirit by chasing every ball and defending every pass in order to thwart the Rock’s rampant play.

Both teams produced some sound movement and skills throughout the court but the Rock gave the more polished performance with some wonderful player awareness and sat with a comfortable 19-12 lead at half-time.

The game continued in much the same trend with both teams battling hard, showing a positive fighting attitude.

At the start of the third quarter KHB did begin to make up some ground due to tidy feeds from Freya Ellis and Julie Gear into their shooters.

At the prospect of a close game the Rock responded by stepping their play up a notch and began to produce some textbook attacking forays that enabled them to increase the scoreline going into the final quarter, 31-16.

The Rock excelled in the final quarter and kept the pressure on their opponents with outstanding defence and accurate shooting.

KHB did not give up until the final whistle but realised they had been outplayed by a superior team.

The Rock girls were elated at their well-deserved win and are favourites to claim the Division Three title at the end of the season.

Also in the third tier, mid-table Piddle Inn B maintained their place with a 27-12 victory over lowly Dorothy Inn.

Piddle B started well by dominating the Dorothy’s shooting circle.

The Piddle’s defensive pairing of Jackie Savage and Catherine Earnshaw held their ground and forced several errors from the Dorothy’s attack.

The match however, was a little slow to begin, with only five goals being scored in the first 15 minutes.

During the second quarter both teams picked up the tempo but still displayed a lack of conviction in some of their passing, resulting in a loss of possession at key moments.

Dorothy’s goalkeeper and goal defence – Charlotte Parker and Lin Howard – worked well together to achieve some strong interceptions, narrowing the scoreline to four going into the half-time break, 10-6 in Piddle’s favour.

Dorothy started the third quarter with a flourish by turning over the Piddle centre pass, and were rewarded with a goal.

However, Piddle then responded with a strong counter-attack in the mid-court, with some fast paced passes by Caroline Kellaway, Emma Kellaway and Beth Andrews, to add a further two goals to their tally in quick succession.

In the final 15 minutes Piddle grasped the game and allowed Dorothy little possession.

Parker and Howard continued to work tirelessly in the defending zone but Piddle’s attack overpowered most of their efforts, securing a strong win.