Senior Tournament at East Grinstead

The Eagles Senior Team had their first tournament this season.  The weather held up and there was even some sun throughout the day!  

A couple of younger players joined this squad and enjoyed exposure to senior netball.  All in all a positive start to the season winning 6 out of the 7 matches.  Eagles came 2nd place overall.  Well played everyone.

Eagles U10 at Pontins (2017)

The U10’s set off for their first experience of competing at the annual Pontins Netball Tournament. This summer they were competing as U11’s, so this year was all about gaining exposure to the completive environment.

On the first day, they started fantastically, winning their first match. But they where in a tough group and so struggled with the rest of the matches against some strong and indeed much taller U11 teams.

They played well to win their penultimate match of the day against Worchester and went on to be placed in the plate aspect of the competition on the Sunday.

Saturday afternoon was spent enjoying the variety of activities around Pontins. swimming in the pool and lounging in their chalets.

Sunday morning they again started strongly and ended the day playing 4 games and winning 2 of them to finish third in their group and just missing out on progressing to the quarter finals.

The girls really enjoyed the weekend and what they learnt and saw from other teams and can’t wait for the new season to start (after their summer holidays obviously) and to go back next year as U11’s and see how well they can do.

Pontins 2017: Eagles U12 Runners up

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!

U16’s Essex Open Tournament

The U16’s returned to Redbridge Sports Centre to take part in the U16 Essex Open Tournament.  

The day was scorching!  Over 30 degrees and 9 matches to play.  Plenty of wet towels over the girls who managed to keep their cool throughout the tournament.  Supporters looked on from the relative comfort of the shade and still managed to melt!

Eagles won all their games and were crowned Essex Open Champions.  Nice to have support from one of our neighbouring teams, MK Netters, who were runners up.

Maria and Lisa were happy coaches and the last match, all the girls swapped positions with much laughter!  A good day out but very happy to be home and in the cool.  Well played and thank you to the coaches and supporters.

Berkshire Prem Tournament

Our U16’s and Beth from Senior 2’s took to the courts for the Berkshire Prem Tournament.

This tournament is an adult tournament but our girls looked comfortable and relaxed throughout most of their games.

They were led by Beth and managed their own substitutions and positions.  Athena were our tough competition and we were beaten in the last match which meant we went into the semi finals as runners up of our group.

We were able to out play our opposition in the semi’s so our final was to be a re match against Athena!  We knew it would be tough and started off strongly.  Athena stepped up their game and were more experienced.  In the end pulled away to win 9 goals to our 6.

Lots of positive comments from the other teams about how well our girls played and we were awarded a voucher for £25 for our club   Thanks to Sam Jenkins who umpired all our matches.  Well played girls.

Eagle U11 at Rushmoor

Nine of the u11a squad travelled to Farnborough for the Rushmoor tournament…. Priya named as the captain of the team comprising of Marta, Caitlin, Izzy, Maddi, Tabitha, Keira, Rebecca and Charlotte Y.

The u11 age group had 16 teams split into 2 sections and Eagles A were unbeaten for all 7 of their group matches…..some in really impressive style with loads of goals! In fact they scored 54 goals in the first 7 games!

The final match of the group stage was against local rivals Royals which was nail-biting stuff ending up in a 5 -5 draw.

Through to the semi finals they played Matrix and with the enthusiastic support of their idols from the u14s squad, they won with ease 7-1, only to discover the final was to be a repeat of the last group game!

Yes…. an east Berkshire final with Royals!!

The first half was end to end with some impressive defending by the Eagles team managing to disrupt the play of the skillful and strong Royals goal attack.

At half time the score was 2-2…..the title was up for the grabs and the parents were struggling to remain calm, let alone the players !

Unfortunately though the Eagles girls couldnt capitalise on their attacking opportunities and seemed to just run out of steam failing to get the ball into their D, allowing Royals to take the win in the last few minutes.

A fantastic squad performance with lots of versatilty.

Thank you to all the parents and fellow Eagles squads for their support.

Eagle U14 at Rushmoor

We headed off to the Rushmoor tournament early Saturday morning to compete in the U16’s category to challenge ourselves before the Nationals.

We got off to a great start in our first game beating Wokingham 14-0. We greatly appreciated the extra support from the parents and players from the younger years with their Mexican wave in the stand !

Next up was Weston Park Blades where we won convincingly 11-3 although the score did not reflect how hard we had to fight to win. We were really pleased with the result. Next match was against Royals, we knew this would be a tough match. We all played really hard and were determined not to give up our early lead. Final score was 8-6. Great Result.

We went on to win all of our remaining matches to top the group and win the U16’s category. The matches were a great opportunity to put into practice our new skills and coaching. It was also great to have Anna and Libby, fresh from their success at the U16 Nationals, with us bringing their experience and strong play.

Special thanks to Lisa for stepping in as coach for the day.

A massive well done to all the girls .. we went for experience and a challenge, not really to win but had a great result as everyone was outstanding.

Nationals – here we come !

Report Written By Maria Maier

U16 National Club Finals 2017

The U16’s took to the courts at Redbridge this weekend to compete against the best clubs in the country.

Saturday morning started off well with Eagles winning both of the their first group matches with relative ease.  The intensity increased in the afternoon but the girls kept their cool and kept their focus.  Each and every player from the squad of 12 did their part.

At the end of the first day, Eagles could go back to the hotel and re group for the Sunday matches, knowing that they would be playing for one of the top 6 positions.  Saturday night was great fun. Coaches and parents bonded as did the girls.  The girls “enjoyed” Ice baths!

Sophia Candappa, an ex Eagles player, came to support the girls on the bench.  She was encouraging and inspiring and we loved seeing her there.  Cat from the Eagles Senior 1 team also came to support along with hubby and the youngest supporter! her baby son.  Thank you all.

Sunday morning came.  We had 2 matches to play to determine which position we would be playing for in the decider match.  First match was at 9.30am against Bury.  Eagles had played them last year and had been beaten.  This year, we demonstrated our progress and were stronger throughout, coming away with a well fought for but convincing win.  The 2nd match against Turnford was tougher.  We were down for most of the match and at one point 8 goals down!  The grit, determination and cool heads that the girls showed enabled them to make a huge comeback in the final quarter and win by just 1 goal!  The girls couldn’t quite believe they had done it!  and neither could we!

That now meant, we were playing for gold and silver.  4 hours to wait until the final match of the day to decide the 2017 championship.  During the break, Jemma took part in the shoot out competition.  She was the runner up out of all the shooters at the tournament and was presented with a new ball  Well done, Jemma!

Thameside were our opposition and they had won it last year and their team was more experienced and mature than ours. We came out on FIRE.  Goal to goal but we were up 2 goals at the end of the 1st and 2nd quarters.  We maintained our composure and kept our lead at the end of the 3rd quarter and seemed to be pulling away in the 4th quarter.  With only 2 minutes to go, Thameside came back strongly and had a run of goals.  The full time score was 26 goals a piece.  Who would have thought it…. 5 minutes extra time was called.  Thameside showed their skill and managed to pull away at this point and took the lead.

The support that the Eagles team received around the court and the wonderful comments from the other teams, team coaches, spectators and officials was overwhelming.  It was a wonderful and well contested final that could have gone either way.

The weekend was exhausting, exhilarating, exciting and lots of FUN.   Parents, Coaches and Players were all united in their approach which enabled this team to make the final and do themselves proud.

These girls can!  Well done Eagles