Our U16 netball squad had a tough challenge ahead of them as they travelled to Oundle for the England Netball National Schools competition. Led by co-captains Lillie Wightman and Madison Ducker, the team were determined to give their best and make their school proud. However, the team faced multiple setbacks even before they left Yorkshire with a key player suffering a serious ankle injury and the unpredictable weather turning spring back into winter. Frantic travel arrangements for all the players and staff had to be made to ensure the squad arrived ahead of the tournament.
Unlike every other major competitive school sport, the national winner in netball is decided on short tournament games. A full netball game takes 60 minutes to complete, yet at the national schools tournament the team had only 14 minutes against each school. One wrong decision by an umpire, one small mistake by us, could cost us the game.
Out of 172 schools that entered the competition from all over the country, Wakefield Girls’ placed 15th. It wasn’t as high as we had hoped, but it is a position to be extremely proud of.
A memorable game was where we took the overall runners up, Bromsgrove School, to the wire and narrowly lost to them in a fiercely fought match against a team with U17 England players in it. The team showed that they absolutely deserved to be ranked up with the very best in the country.
We are very proud of the team for how hard they worked to get to the finals, and how they played and represented themselves and the school on the day. They are an outstanding netball team and also a really fantastic group of young ladies. You supported each other, you lift each other up and you back each other no matter what. Above all else, for that, you should be very proud of yourselves.
A special thank you goes to Mr and Mrs Partridge, for their kind sponsorship of the hoodies the team wore at the weekend, also on behalf of Thrombosis UK. Please do take a look at the website for this wonderful charity https://thrombosisuk.org/
Mrs R Manson