JUPITER played Almondsbury at home on Saturday with a new starting lineup and slipped to the narrowest of defeats, going down 47-45.

They took a while to settle and unfortunate team errors saw the opposition take the lead 16-13 for the first quarter.

A positive team talk changed the game and Jupiter came out stronger - however they couldn't close the gap and were still behind at half-time.

In the second-half, Jupiter contested every pass and linked through the court well.

Good communication and linking play from Imma Matcham (GD) and numerous interceptions from Beckie Cowley (GK) gave Jupiter the opportunity to turn over the ball and capitalise from this.

A huge team effort and push of energy made them the stronger team winning the second half of the game, however the damage was too big and the clock ran out of time too early leaving the final score 47-45 to Almondsbury.

Neptune were beaten 30-39 by Paulton Vipers on Saturday.

Neptune started tentatively in the pouring rain and took a while to settle – and their slow start enabled Vipers attack to capitalise on this and led 22-12 at half time.

The second-half saw Neptune step up their game with tighter defending and sharper attacking play that enabled more goals to be converted. Neptune took advantage of the few mistakes that Vipers made and managed to get within nine.

Mars faced a tough Spears side and lost out 53-27.

Mars started out strongly with the attack producing great play to score on most of the opportunities Kia Jenner (GA) and Sophie Cornish (GS) had.

However Spears fought back just as hard to end the first quarter 15-8 up.

Spears extended their lead to 24-16 going into the third quarter - and although Mars wing attack Chris Shaw, repeatedly created chances to get another eight goals in the quarter, the final fifteen minutes led to Spears running away with it.

Mercury suffered a 46-21 defeat to Arrows of Paulton, where a storming first-half display from their opponents proved costly.

Arrows led 23-9 at half-time and although Mercury showed improvement with strong drives and great interceptions from the centre court, they couldn’t recover the deficit.