U12 Middlesex Schools Finals

Written by Meredith Jarratt & Manpreet Gill

On Tuesday 15th March, NHEHS Year 7’s Netball A team got the opportunity to go to the netball tournament they had been training towards All the excitement leading up to the tournament began when the team was selected

Once the day had come, we were all prepared and excited to give it all we had Our journey began from the second we got onto the bus – we arrived with smiles on our faces and were all ready to play!

After a good warm up, the tournament began with our first match against St Helen’s With a strong performance from the whole team, we pulled out a winning margin of 10 goals The final score was 11-1 to NHEHS which left our confidence high as this was a great start for the team We then gathered around to talk about how we could improve in our games to come In our next match against Orleans Park, we managed to pull out a great win of 16 – 1 to us. After that, we took a few deep breaths and waited for the next match to come As the bell rang, we started our next game against St Benedict’s, who were a very good team, but once again due to our great defence, attack and movement in the shooting circle, we once again managed to come out winners, this time 11-4

We were all very pleased with the results and the day so far, but now we were due to play SHHS We all focused on how we could play our best game as a team The game began and was by far the most intense match we had played so far At half time, the scores were tied 6-6 With only a few minutes left, we did everything we could to secure a win Thanks to our defence, we managed to intercept one of their balls and took that straight to goal As the whistle blew, we had won the match by 9-6 With happy faces, we took a break before playing our next team

Next, we played Channing, which was again a clear win with 112 to us After this match, we rested, because our next match would be tricky to win We were playing Godolphin and Latymer, whom we had played in the past, and therefore knew we were in for a hard match We all closely marked our opposition to reduce the amount of time they got the ball We all pushed really hard and after a very good match from both sides, we narrowly won the match 5-3

We were all elated as winning that match meant we had a guaranteed place in the semi-finals, however, this didn’t stop us from playing very strongly in the last match of our pool We were playing Francis Holland who made a great start in the first half, but we managed to overtake their score making us the winners of that match by 6-2 to

In the semi-final, we had to play LEH, whom we had also played in the past It proved to be a very tight game with just a two goal difference at half time The two goal difference stayed the same throughout the match which meant we unfortunately lost the match with a final score of 7-9

After the match we felt both disappointed but happy We sat down and began talking about things we did well and things we would like to improve in the future. This was a great way to end our season of netball in year 7. We came joint third best in the county at netball

Throughout the season, our team has had some amazing wins and achievements Starting from our first ever tournament as a team where we came second, losing the finals to Surbiton, to another tournament where we re-played Surbiton in the finals and won, winning a gold medal We have had many successes as well as a few losses We have improved as a team over the season, having learnt how to work, collaborate and play for each other as a team We cannot wait for next year ’ s season where our journey as a team will continue

We would like to thank all the teachers who made this netball season possible and for all the opportunities we had to play and do the things we enjoy