Nail-biting Netball for King’s U19s

It has been an exciting, netball-packed week for the U19s, with a cup fixture against Wellington College and the county round of the National Schools Competition. 

 On Wednesday, we hosted Wellington College for a highly competitive cup fixture. Our First Team, made up of girls from Fifth Form, Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth (Years 11 to 13), started strongly, ending the first quarter just a few goals behind a strong Upper Sixth Wellington Team, and they continued to press on and restrict the Wellington lead through to half time. A final result in favour of a polished Wellington side sadly saw the girls knocked out of the Cup, but Miss Haynes and Miss Herdman were proud of the girls’ resilience on court, with all 12 squad members contributing to the match and never letting their heads drop, despite the scoreline. 

 Yesterday, Bromsgrove School hosted the U19 County Tournament and, due to adverse weather conditions and frozen courts, the tournament was moved inside, where the atmosphere for a hotly contested tournament was tense from the offset. Seven teams were ready to play for their positions at the Regional Finals in the new year and, with several injuries, our U19 squad made up of Lower and Upper Sixth pupils showed versatility in the positions played on court. Special mention must be made of Natalie S, who stepped up, well out of her comfort zone, to become a key member of the defensive circle for the tournament. 

 Early in the contest, the girls played and lost to the eventual tournament winners, Bromsgrove, meaning we knew that in every game from there on it was essential to win to go through in second place. The defence listened to coaching staff and adapted their play to try to counteract a particularly strong holding goal-shooter, but unfortunately an end-to-end match where the final score did not reflect possession time did not end in King’s favour against familiar local Worcester school opposition, RGS. 

 The mathematicians of the group came into their own at this point, calculating goal differences: RGS were still to play Bromsgrove and Malvern College, and a loss to both sides would mean the second-place qualification would still be up for grabs. The girls responded superbly to this information, and the shooting circle took on key feedback, which helped see three consecutive wins with excellent goal differences. The King’s girls really gave everything to the tournament; with a few injuries picked up along the way, the remaining seven players played right up until the final whistle. We wish Bromsgrove and RGS the best of luck at the Regionals and look forward to the occasion with our U14 and U16 sides.