Netball Tour

Tour day arrives and 24 excited girls are eager to leave school to travel to Shrewsbury to begin a tournament of games. At the end of an easy and painless journey, we are greeted by friendly JCA staff. After being shown our accommodation we are taken to the dinner hall for some well needed food. After some bangers and mash we head out for a tour of the grounds including the courts where the girls will be playing. The other activities the girls can experience over the weekend are high ropes, zorbing, caving, archery and low ropes. For recreation there was a cinema room.

An early morning cooked breakfast set the girls up for their first day of games. What a start! Captains, Maia Kipping, Freya Holliman and Rachel Goodwin, lead their teams expertly on court. All three teams faced some very challenging opposition who had travelled from all over England to play.

All 3 teams had a subdued start; they seemed very quiet on court. However, once they had warmed up and played for a while they were a in the zone.

Mia and Leanna worked as a unit in the D position to keep the opposition from scoring. Once the ball was with Hannah, Emily and the shooters Georgia and Lauren, we proved the better team. During the plate play off, we were the strongest team. Good centre pass decisions from Rebecca gave the team a strong start and they managed to win all their matches. Well done girls. Player of the tournament: Hannah Brown

Some awesome defensive skills were shown in the other year 9 teams. Freya and Nina both put pressure on the oppositions shooting duo. Aimee proved to be the one to watch due to her quick passing, movement around the court and reading of the game. She most definitely deserved ‘Player of the Tournament’.

With a bleeding nose, bruised hip and torn ligaments in her ankle, Rachel Goodwin powered through and encouraged her Year 10/11 team to play their best game of the tournament. Their last game had them playing the top of the league team: a team that had previously won all their matches very convincingly. They played with vengeance but at half time were 1-0 down. The second half saw the GMS girls playing with more determination than ever, leading them to score 2 cracking goals. Following a Newport centre pass, they managed to attack powerfully and score themselves another goal, leaving us with a 2-2 score board with only 30 seconds to go. After some close calls on our defensive play, both the goal defender and keeper were taken out, leaving Newport to shoot freely and seal the deal with a 3-2 win. An unlucky loss for the GMS girls but this was by far their best and most exciting game of the tournament. Player of the tournament: Alea Wilks.

A number of the girls took to the trapeze swing where they had to climb a 20 foot pole, stand on the platform, most of them with their heart in their mouth,  and jump to try to catch the trapeze. The girls of Great Marlow made us proud because, without a fuss, (and some of the performing the Macarena and Gangnam style dance whilst up there) they jumped and showed the others how to do it! Obviously, Mr Dean and I were unable to take part as we were being the responsible adults, looking after the girls’ belongings and taking photographs!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Thank you girls and well done!

Miss C Mitchell