The Netball Europe U/17 Championships came to an end this weekend and as expected it was England who were declared champions with the Northern Ireland team ending as runners up.

Although the Malta team failed to win any of its encounters, they still should be pleased with their performance and satisfied for improving their results from last year's championships.

In their opening match against Northern Ireland, the Maltese players seemed unable to control their debut excitement and failed to show coordinated play.

This course of action permitted their opponents to immediately command play and to continue dictating matters for long periods throughout the match.

Although the Malta side had their own share of good moments, especially in the second quarter when the score ended 10-12 to Northern Ireland, the total gap in score was too big to recuperate and Malta lost 20-51.

The second encounter against Scotland was a more balanced affair. Malta was more in a position to keep up the pace with her opponents and had the Maltese players been more prudent with the many interceptions they managed to accomplish throughout the match, the final score could have been more positive than 33-25 and just one point for Malta.

Malta was then engaged in a match against Wales. Although the Maltese team tried their best to add their second point to their classification, their efforts proved futile as Wales were more consistent in their play and accurate in their shots to emerge winners with the score of 34-16.

On the last day of the championships, Malta confronted England. Even though the Maltese side was evidently at a disadvantage in their stature, our players were not disheartened.

Contrary, their approach to the match was quite aggressive and they proudly managed to net the first ball.

Although the Maltese players gave a brave performance and at times succeeded in disrupting England's concentration and rhythm of play, Malta's continuous struggle failed to narrow the gap in score and they lost their encounter 14-43.