Once again Shoreham College proudly held the Under 11 ISA Netball Tournament.  It was to be a weather watch all week as to whether I was going to hold the Tournament at all, the weather reports were awful!  As we have such a great Sports Hall, I decided to hold the tournament Indoors for the first time (it took some effort to organize the timings!!).

There were 6 schools taking part, three from Sussex, The Towers, Lingfield Notre Dame, and Shoreham College and three from Surrey, Collingwood School, Babington House and Gads Hill. Once I told them on arrival that we would definitely play indoors, they were extremely relieved!

Our Under 11 team were full of enthusiasm as usual and although a little nervous, they need not have worried.  Our first match was against Lingfield Notre Dame, whom I knew were strong, although we lost this match 6-1, we played well but it really fired up their determination to win the rest, which is exactly what happened!

Our next match was against the Towers, again a strong team, but after the first match their determination to win was paramount! They had a comfortable win of 6-1,but they had to work hard for it.

Their next two matches were against two schools we had never played before.  Playing Collingwood School was quite a tense match and extremely close.  The team held their nerve and managed to scrape a win by one goal, phew!  

We knew at this stage of the Tournament that the Towers were right on our heels and it meant that the result could go into goal difference. Hence the next match was against Babington House in which the girls upped their game and tried to score as many goals as possible. They won this game 5-0.

Once all the matches had taken place, the teams and spectators gathered into the Sports Hall for the presentation of the certificates and medals by the Headmaster, Mr Stearns.  Gads Hill, Babington House and Collingwood School all received runner’s up certificates. In 3rd place was the Towers, in 2nd place was Shoreham College and for the second year running the winners were Lingfield Notre Dame.

I cannot tell you how proud I am of the girls receiving their Silver medals, they truly deserved it.  Congratulations to you all:  JASMINE MILWARD, AMELIA RITCHIE, SOPHIE RANTZAU-ANDERSON, AMY WEDGE, LUCIE STREET, GABRIELLA JONES, GEORGINA LILEY, ELLA SCAMMELL AND ELLA BROCK.

My thanks also goes to Miss Heard for her fantastic umpiring and my colleagues Mr Edlin and Mr Shelley for their support.  Also to Mr O’Neill-Roe for 300 odd photos, the kitchen for tea and all those within the College for making it possible.