Amesbury Under 11 and Under 13 Reach National Netball Finals Champions

The Under 11 squad were both excited and incredibly nervous to have reached the Nationals.  Once again they had a very strong group to contend with, yet on the day they shone, displaying some very skillful netball.  The girls achieved a number of great wins in their qualifying pooled games (St. Pirans 8-6, Taunton 9-1, Sutton Valance 7-6, Great Walstead 9-2 and Town Close House 9-4) which resulted in them coming a very respectable third in their group.  This placed them in the top 12 nationally. Portsmouth Grammar School was the winner of our pool and went on to lift the trophy as National Champions.  Our girls should be absolutely delighted with their performance and with their final positioning.  Well done to the whole squad and their coach, Miss Kirsty Evans.

The Under 13 team had a very tricky pool in the National Finals qualifying rounds.  With only the top two teams going through, they knew that they had to win most, if not all, of their games.  This didn’t appear to be a problem for the first few games.  They leapt into action tucking five fine wins under their belts thanks to some wonderful team work (Baudesert Park 12 – 5, Cheam 8 – 0, Port Regis 10-6, Greshams 14 – 6 and St. Anselms 13 – 7).  The girls were on fighting form and truly looked to be one of the strongest teams in the National competition.  Unfortunately, however, they couldn’t sustain their winning form and narrowly lost two of their games to Dumpton (9-8) and Winchester House (9-7), despite being in the lead for much of the two games.  This left Amesbury in third place in their pool much to our girls’ disappointment, narrowly missing out on a place in the knock-outs by a matter of 3 goals!  The Amesbury Under 13 squad played brilliantly and their overall placing of joint 5^th Nationally is an outstanding achievement considering the size of some of the schools we were up against!  Dumpton went on to win the pool and subsequently won the title of National Champions.

Reaching the National Finals, finishing in 5^th place and being in the top 12 Nationally is an incredible achievement for Amesbury and is a great finish to what has been an outstanding season of netball.   A huge well done to both squads!

Mrs Lauren Dover

Head of Girls’ Games

Amesbury School