Year 9 PGL Netball Tournament
On Friday 22nd March the Year 9 Netball Team packed up the minibus and headed to Liddington PGL for a Netball Tournament and a weekend of outdoor activities.
On the evening of our arrival we took part in some team games and tried to ensure we got to bed early to be prepared for the start of the pool games the next day... some of us did not think we needed any sleep!
On Saturday we had an early start with our first game against Joyce Frankland Academy 4 - the girls started off with a strong 16-0 win. The girls then played Devonport High School for girls in their next pool game. This was a tough game, the girls went behind by 3 goals quite soon into the first half, but a half time team talk and a reset the girls came out and played some great netball in the second half, with some brilliant turnovers and great shooting to win the game 9-7. The third game of the pool was against Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College where the girls had a strong win - 12-2! The final game of the day was against Brimsham Green School which was a close game but again the girls played some brilliant netball and came out with a 10-5 win making it 4/4 for the day.
The second half of the day the girls went to take part in the PGL activities such as abseiling and a climbing wall, and then in the evening we headed for the silent disco! A much earlier night was had in the evening as everyone was very tired, which was great preparation for the final two games in the pool.
After a good breakfast we headed to the courts to play Joyce Frankland Academy 4 for the second time and again the girls came out with a strong win, this time 13-0. The final game was another showdown with Devonport High School for Girls and this time unfortunately we came out with a 7-2 defeat. After playing all 6 games we needed to wait around to find out if we had made the final. Whilst we waited, we headed to the big swing for some more PGL fun and then to the zip wire... and the good news came - we made the semi finals!
The semi final was against Joyce Frankland Academy 3 and this was a hard game with some great netball being played, again some great attacking play and great defensive play from both teams meant that it was a close 10-6 finish and we were so proud of the girls for making it to the FINAL!! The final saw another showdown with - you guessed it - Devonport High School for Girls! A big team talk and some positive mental rehearsal we sent the girls onto the court for one last time. You could sense that the girls were nervous and you could see this in their play, a few mistakes were being made and unfortunately this gave Devonport a bit of a lead a 3 in the first half. Half time was a great time to speak to the girls and give them the belief that they needed to know that they deserved this and they were worthy of being in the final!
Miss King and Mrs Dovey spent the second half struggling to stand still, the girls started strong with a good turnover to get a goal back and then from there there was no stopping them! They made turnover after turnover to bring the goal deficit back. The game then turned again to Devonport and they had some great passages of play and they had some brilliant shooters who did not miss. The girls then dug deep and were able to reply to the Devonport dominance with some great play and just as the hooter went we scored one final goal - the umpire however said that this did not count. With Miss King, Mrs Dovey and the girls all asking what was the score the umpire told us that the final score was 8-7 we waited for what felt like forever to say that it was to Robert May's School - we had won the final!
The girls were amazing throughout and showed great communication, encouragement and teamwork!
We hope that the girls had a great time and we hope that perhaps we can go back next year to defend the title!
Congratulations to the team:
X Youldon, E Jones, A Mossley, A Eustace, J Eustace, L Staton, J Phillips, L Van Turton, R Vernon & S Alma-Binks
