By Kathy Gardner
On Tuesday 28th February, the U10 netball team played in the ISA Midlands U10 netball tournament, held at Stafford Prep. The day started with disappointment finding out that Rosie was ill and wouldn’t be able to play. Despite this unfortunate news, and the fact that we will be missing pancakes for lunch, we piled into Mike’s minibus armed with 3 big golf umbrellas, 3 large plastic bags to put clothes in, packed lunches, spare clothes, waterproofs and gloves.
On arrival, we made camp and captain Olivia got the team warmed up.
Our first match against St Wystan’s and the girls are on fire. A fantastic team performance and a 5-0 win. Next up are Stafford Prep and great, it has started raining! A tight game, could go either way…interception, turn over, interception, turn over, blood pressure goes up, comes down….final score 5-7…hard luck girls, a tough game. Crackley Hall are our next opponents…Unfortunately, not our best performance and a 1-5 loss but the score does not reflect the game.
We had our chances, but unfortunately could not convert them. The rain has settled in and hands are getting cold. OK, time to take on Malvern St James – it should be ours for the taking. It’s neck and neck, we score, they score, we score, they score…should be our turn to score but noooo!, they steal it and score, 2-3.
The rain has well and truly settled in for the afternoon, everything is wet, hands are cold. The girls gather under the umbrellas to eat lunch. Revived and energised, we take on Highclare – that’s more like it, 3-2 to Adcote.
The rain has now stopped! Can we build on this? Yes! is the answer as we take on and destroy Salterford 5-0. What a way to finish!
A very proud coach, not just for the way the girls played or behaved but because of their spirit. All the girls deserve a mention as they all did brilliantly, but it was now time for me to choose the player of the tournament – this was a tough call. Firstly, the short list; Camren for her superb interceptions, Poppy Thomas for her great dodges and court play and Olivia for her work effort, solid footwork and passing and for always being there when she was needed.
And the winner is… Olivia Dyer!
Categories: Resilience