IN a chaotic evening in the City of Churches, the Adelaide Thunderbirds and NSW Swifts have played out a partially-abandoned draw after several delays.

After the match was firstly delayed an hour due to court safety, the Swifts were very patient moving it down the court towards attack off their first centre but it was all for nothing as they missed the subsequent shot.

It took almost two minutes but finally the Swifts did get the opening goal off the opening centre pass, which was a relief for them because it had been their centre pass.

The Swifts ultimately were the ones to first pinch a goal off their opponent’s centre pass and build a proper lead for themselves. The lead was two to three goals for much of the quarter, but as the power five began it was out to four.

The Swifts then stepped it up a gear and got the lead out to as much as seven during the Power Five period. However, a late resurgence from the home side saw the lead down to four at the first break.

Much like the first quarter, it again took almost the opening two minutes of the quarter to score the first goal in the second term. But finally the Swifts did get the opening goal off the opening centre pass, which was a relief for them because it had been their centre pass.

The Swifts maintained their momentum through the early part of the quarter, scoring double the goals that the Thunderbirds did in the opening five minutes of the term. The Thunderbirds then rejigged their shooting end to the one that had worked so well for them last week, and the fightback was on.

It took a few minutes, but slowly but surely the Adelaide Thunderbirds of last week kicked into gear and scored the last four goals of the quarter to level proceedings. Then the chaos hit.

There was a power outage at half-time, and since the match could not be finished in a 120-minute time frame, it was then abandoned. Since the scores at half-time were a draw, both sides will receive two points.

The league then put out a statement noting:

“Due to a high voltage transformer issue causing a power outage at Netball SA Stadium, the match between the Adelaide Thunderbirds and NSW Swifts was not able to be completed in the allocated timeframe in which it must be played.”

“The game will be declared a draw with scores locked at 25-25 when the match was called off. The points will be shared, in accordance with SSN rules of the game.”

Before the match was abandoned, Tayla Williams (14 feeds, eight assists, one deflection), Latanya Wilson (three gains, one intercept, four deflections and a rebound) and Shamera Sterling (two gains, one intercept, five deflections and a rebound) were all playing well for the home side. Eleanor Cardwell had also landed three super shots.

Meanwhile for the visitors Helen Housby (10 goals from 14 attempts, 12 feeds, nine assists, two gains, two intercepts and a deflection), Maddy Proud (16 feeds, six assists, two gains, two intercepts and a deflection) and Paige Hadley (12 feeds, six assists, one gain and an intercept) had all been busy.

ADELAIDE THUNDERBIRDS          12 | 13 (25)
NSW SWIFTS                                 16 | 9 (25)

STARTING SEVENS:

Adelaide Thunderbirds

GS: Lucy Austin
GA: Eleanor Cardwell
WA: Georgie Horjus
C: Tayla Williams
WD: Hannah Petty
GD: Latanya Wilson
GK: Shamera Sterling

NSW Swifts

GS: Romelda Aiken-George
GA: Helen Housby
WA: Paige Hadley
C: Maddy Proud
WD: Allie Smith
GD: Maddy Turner
GK: Sarah Klau