Double Hat-Trick!

Published on isbi School News dated Thursday 12th of December 2013

After a clean sweep in the District Rounds earlier in the season, Oundle's U14, U16 and U19 Netball teams recently won all their matches in the County rounds and are through to the Regionals set for January.

In late November, the School's U14 netball team participated in the County Netball rounds at Northampton High School, playing and winning a total of seven games.

In their opening game the Oundle team beat Brooke Weston, 6-3 and followed this with wins against Campion, 5-1 and Caroline Chisem, 9-0.

Northampton High School proved to be strong opposition, with Oundle's defenders showing great speed and determination in a match that finished 6-4. The next match played against Pitsford was won with assertiveness, with Oundle's shooters Lily Craven (13) and Minna Dundas (13) scoring a remarkable 13 goals to the opposing team's single goal.

Captain, Lucy Stock (13) commented, 'The hardest match of this tournament was against Quinton House, who were a well drilled, fast-paced team and posed a real threat to our winning streak. However we played concise, quick and accurate netball which meant that, after a nail-biting game, we won 7-3.'

The U14's final game, against Southfield School for Girls, was won 13-6 taking them through to the regional rounds.

Lucy concluded, 'The team played incredibly well together and as the day progressed our netball improved, with both our attack and defence contributing to this successful win. We are all looking forward to the next round.'

The U16s, meanwhile, also went to Northampton High School, playing the second round in the national tournament. They played and won a total of six matches, scoring an impressive total of 90 goals!

Their first match was against NSG who they beat 19-1. They then played Wellingborough who they knew were going to be tougher opposition. They won this match 10-2. There followed wins against Moulton, 18-2 and Campion, 11-1. With excellent defending, the girls beat hosts, NHS, 14-1 and Corby Business Academy, 18-2.

Captain, Hebe Hughes (16) commented, 'Overall the team played really well in attack and defence, scoring 90 goals and only allowing 9.The U16 player of the tournament was Florence Garnett (16)'

Finally, but by no means least, Oundle's 1st team, comprising, Captain, Molly Macleod (18), Emily Bainbridge (18), Juliette Aliker (17), Bella Ellis (17), Eliza Reay-Glover (17), Scarlett Brown (17), Alex Cobb (17), Harriet Cooper (17) and Polly Baker (15) won through to the regional rounds in the U19 netball county rounds, also winning all of their games.

Their first game was against Sponne, a game which they won convincingly 29-1.

Captain, Molly Macleod commented, 'Our defence got off to an amazing start and made some fantastic interceptions throughout the game. This allowed us to turn over the vast majority of the opposition's centres and thanks to a high level of consistency from our shooters, we gained a large goal difference.

We came up against Wellingborough in our second game, the team which we had struggled to beat a few weeks earlier in the district rounds, but came away victorious with a score of 13-1. Our attack got off to a slow start, but thanks to the high quality of interceptions from our defence we didn't allow Wellingborough to get ahead. Although our shooters held up under pressure, our attackers were struggling to make positive moves onto the ball and played predominantly on one side of the court. Because of this, we found it difficult to create space on court, but now had something to work on in our next game.'

The girls went on to beat Brooke Weston, 12-1, despite a solid Brooke's defence.

Molly concluded, 'In our final game we had to play Northampton High School who were our biggest competition in the whole tournament. The whole team got off to a great start as everyone was constantly making strong drives onto the ball and applying great pressure to the opposition. Our defence consistently turned over NHS' failed shots whilst our shooters rarely missed. This allowed us to gain another victory with a score of 12-6. We also played Campion School which resulted in another win 10-2.

After this clean sweep at the tournament, we have progressed through to the regional rounds which will take place next January. The whole team performed outstandingly and Scarlett Brown was player of the tournament on account of her fantastic interceptions and rebounds and the level of pressure she kept up on the opposition. '

Head of Netball, Bev Burnham commented, "I am absolutely delighted with the results for the netball club; the teams have had relatively little practice and show much promise for the forthcoming season.'