Well done to our amazing U12 squad for giving us a weekend to remember!
This is our second year attending the Pontins tournament, which is recognised for hosting some of the best netball teams in the country.
We started on Saturday with our group matches. Our group looked tough and we had to be on form from the start. The girls rose to the challenge and showed great determination and desire.
Poole were our first opponents and we knew we had to start well. We warmed up and an early pasta lunch helped us to a great win. Turnford A were also expected to challenge us and we continued our form keeping up the pressure to the end and winning again. Thameside, as expected, was a very hard match but we never stopped challenging and fighting.
Having made it through those first three tough matches our heads were up and our confidence growing. We continued our good form winning all of our remaining games. We ended the day unbeaten, finishing second in the group only on goal difference.
- Vs Poole gems 7-2 win
- Vs Turnford A 6-4 win
- Vs Tameside 5-5 draw
- Vs Finch B 10-0 win
- Vs Hatfield White 6-1 win
- Vs Alfabets A 17-0 win
- Vs Dreams 6-0 win
Day 2 saw us taking on local Berks rivals Woodley, for our first match. We continued our form from the day before and won convincingly 8-3. We then had to play Conquerors Mohawks, who were unknown to us, and had to cope with driving rain in the second half. We had set ourselves up well in the first half, so despite the elements, we again won 5-2. We won our final group game against Turnford B (who were group winners from the previous day) 11-1 to top the group and ease into the quarter final.
Our quarter final opponents were Turnford A again. We knew we had beaten them on Sat in a very tough match. We suspected they would come back even stronger, which they did. The girls had to fight hard and showed great resilience and desire to come back from losing the first half 4-1 to win the game by one goal 7-6. We were in the semi-final!
We played our semi final against a committed and determined Hatfield Purple side. The adrenaline was pumping, the parents were screaming! The girls had to raise their netball to a new level and despite a battering and a bruising we won 5-3 and we had reached the final.
Oldham were our final opponents, a nationally recognised club. We fought hard to the end with spirited and gutsy play. Due credit to Oldham, they played impressive, competitive netball and beat us 9-3. We probably could have scored a few more goals to reduce the margin, but the result would have not been in doubt.
The under 12s without doubt played probably their most spirited and gutsy netball against some of the best recognised clubs nationally. They should all be very proud of themselves.
Well done to our U12 squad Abi, Amarise, Lucy F, Ella, Melinda, Keshni, Lucy B., Florence, Jo, Phoenix, Tori and Ines for a fantastic weekend of netball.
Thank you to Neil and Maria, Livvy and Maisie for all your expert coaching, and thank you to our chalet mums, Ana, Melinda, Ranj and Odette for looking after the girls and feeding them pasta and chocolate brownies to fuel their success. Thank you to Wendy for keeping the score all weekend.
Enjoy a well deserved rest. See you in 2 weeks at Dreams!
