The sixth annual Helen of the West Netball Festival got underway Saturday at the Beausejour Practice Indoor Practice Facility. It’s still early but from the looks of things, defending champions Digicel Elite Strikers and X-Ceed (St Vincent) are the teams to beat.

At Saturday’s brief opening ceremony, newly elected president of the St Lucia National Netball Association (SLNNA), Rufina Paul, welcomed the participating teams and special guests which included, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Transformation Youth & Sports, Donovan Williams; Officer in the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Deeta Beharry; Courts OECS Managing Director, Malcolm Burns; First Vice President of the SLNNA, Gordon Leon; and Sports Personality, Joseph “Reds” Perreira.

Teams participating this year are: X-Ceed, Royal Navy A, Royal Navy B and local teams Digicel Elite Strikers, Eagles, Shamrock and Avengers.

This is the fifth year Courts has sponsored this tournament. During his remarks the Managing Director mentioned he would like to see the various OECS countries with Courts branches return to this tournament. St Vincent is one of those branches. From day one, they have always competed in the Helen of the West Netball Festival. Courts originated in the United Kingdom and with that in mind, Burns is delighted to have two teams with the Royal Navy competing this year.

Following his brief remarks, Burns presented a cheque to the SLNNA President towards this year’s tournament. The Helen of the West Netball Festival is also sponsored by the St Lucia Tourist Board.

Permanent Secretary, Donovan Williams, spoke of his ministry’s commitment to promoting and facilitating the development of netball. He mentioned that netball is one four sports incorporated into a national coaching plan program for St Lucia under the direction of Sacred Cows sports foundation.

Williams pointed out that there were concerns and reservations from other sports associations, as to why netball was chosen as one of the four sports for the pilot program.

He defended the decision and said “we see the power of netball as a means of galvanizing the hearts and minds of young females in particular.”

After Williams officially declared the tournament open, X-Ceed won the first game of a triple header on Saturday. They sunk the Royal Navy A team 60-26. In the second game, Digicel Elite Strikers grounded the Royal Navy B side 88-13. The third game was a highly competitive affair with Shamrock getting past Avengers 38-36.

The first game of the tournament took place early in the day (before the opening ceremony). In that contest Avengers clipped Eagles 39-32.

In games played Sunday, Shamrock were 48-17 winners over Eagles, X-Ceed beat Avengers 46-25, Royal Navy B clipped Eagles 30-29 and Digicel Elite blasted the Royal Navy A side 90-17.

In a key matchup on Monday evening, X-Ceed with a 3-0 won loss record following a win over Royal Navy B on Monday morning went up Digicel Elite Strikers. More on the game in Thursday’s Star newspaper.

The tournament continues this week at the Beausejour Practice Indoor Facility starting at 5pm each day.