Southend Swifts senior women's team made the long trip to the West Country for two games and came back empty-handed after very exciting matches.

Both were in Women's National League division two south encounters and they lost to Taunton Tigers 63-56 and then went down 78-70 to Plymouth Racers.

England international Rebecca Lear grabbed 47 points for six-times former champions Plymouth, but Sarah Wagstaff had a career-high 21 points for the visitors.

But these were games Swifts needed to win to move themselves up towards a play-off place.

Swifts' only victors at the weekend were the cadets in Women's National League Central.

Without their two tallest players, Rebecca Rambin and Jane Barclay, they made fairly hard work of winning 74-67 at Leicester University.

Abi Dempsey was the leading scorer and there were good performances from under-14 players Emma Hart and Megan Roffey.

Barclay missed the match because she was making her international debut for England against Ireland at under-15 level in Manchester. She led the England team in rebounding as they fell to a 57-42 defeat.

Published Thursday January 29, 2004

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