Essex Open Netball Club lost their third consecutive Premier League game at the University of East London, but there were signs of improvement in a spirited display despite a 55-29 loss.

Essex started slowly against a strong Leyton side and soon found themselves 15-7 down at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter proved to be very difficult for Essex and they were unable to create enough chances to score the goals necessary to keep them in the game.

At half-time, Essex were trailing 27-12, but the third quarter saw Essex enjoy their best period of the game.

Ellie Chambers, Leanne Spencer and Lola Stevens worked hard and Sofia Sefton and Leah Hazleden were about to take advantage of the opportunities created.

Essex managed to match Leyton goal for goal as the quarter saw both teams score 10 apiece.

Unfortunately, Essex could not keep the pace up and Leyton dominated the last quarter to run out winners 55-29.

Essex suffered a second consecutive defeat in the Essex Met League as they lost 56-48 to Marshall’s Purple.

After being behind for the vast majority of the game, Essex staged a tremendous fightback to bring the scores level at 47 all with five minutes remaining.

Unfortunately, after all their hard work, Essex could not see the job through and their challenge petered out.

Essex started the game really slowly and in no time at all they found themselves 6-1 down before they managed to pull the score back to 15-11 at the end of the first quarter.

In contrast to the previous two quarters Essex started the third quarter determined to get back into the game.

Some tactical changes saw Essex score eight goals against a solitary reply from Marshalls.

Essex missed an opportunity to go ahead for the first time and then fell away to lose by eight goals, which was a margin that was bigger than looked likely in the last quarter.

The B team lost a close game to Eclipse 43-31, the C team went down in another thriller to Foxes 1 57-51, and the D team were the sole victors on the day defeating Foxes 2 59-41.

The E team lost to Leyton D 39-36.