Netball: She Cranes win Six Nations Cup final

By David Namunyala

Uganda 52 Singapore 29

Despite their late arrival, the national netball team, She Cranes, worked their way through six games to emerge champions of the Six Nations Cup that ended at Toa Payoh Sports Hall in Singapore.

The Ugandan girls capped their tour with a tremendous finish after beating hosts Singapore 52-29 in the final game.

This impressive finish automatically puts Uganda in line to be entered into the World ranking that they have long yearned for. In the final, Uganda’s skipper Peace Proscovia netted 30 goals as Hadijja Nakabuye added 12 goals together with Martha Soigi’s 10 goals that earned the She Cranes a historical climax.

The African representatives, who were making their first appearance at the invitational event, were on top of their game right from the start. Facing challenges The She Cranes have a record of beating odds to pull off results.

But unlike the Africa Nations Cup where the team had to endure a 2399km road trip to Malawi, this time round they had completely lost hope of travelling after the local body UNF announced that their coffers are empty.

The team was rescued 12 hours later but still missed their flight thereby losing the first game against USA by a walkover.

But the walkover suffered against USA did not demoralise the team who picked themselves up and beat Republic of Ireland 54-41 to enter their first points at the week-long event.

However if it was not for an earlier story in New Vision on Thursday, November 28 that highlighted the team’s woes, the Ugandan girls could have easily missed out altogether.

The story called upon the Ministry of Education and Sports and the National Council of Sports (NCS) to rescue the team the next day with 12 air tickets to ensure the team showed up at the weeklong contest.

The last minute call was a big challenge to the local netball body (UNF) coach Fred Mugerwa who had a task to pick the best 10 players to serve the nation in Singapore.

The initial team had Peace Proscovia as the skipper, Esther Awayo, Jesca Achan, Beatrice Zawadi, Halima Nakachwa, Lillian Agio, Caroline Nyafono, Martha Soigi and Hadijah Nakabuye.

Sh100m from President Museveni Four days into the contest, UNF had to fly in two other players Rachael Nanyonga and Alice Nanteza to join the team, after they received another boost of over sh100m from President Yoweri Museveni who wired the money to the federations account on Wednesday, December 5.

The eighth edition of the annual contest also saw Papua New Guinea beat Sri Lanka 60-48 to finish in third position.