Year 11 Netball ends on a high at Regionals

On Saturday the 26th January, Ryedale school U16 netball team attended the Regional Netball Tournament at the English Institution of Sport in Sheffield after taking first place in the district tournament and second place at the county round.

On Friday 25th, we left school at 12:35pm to travel down to Sheffield and stay at the Hilltop Hilton hotel as a team. This enabled us to bond as a team before playing at the tournament. We had a bright and early start on the Saturday morning as we left the hotel at 8:15am; this gave us spare time to warm up and practice shooting. 

Our first game was against Beverley High, throughout the match our team was not in the zone and took a bit of time to get into the match; this led to Beverely High winning 13-5. Our second match was against Gateways. In this game we picked ourselves up and showed our determination, not letting the negativity get to us from the loss of the previous game. Our defence was tight and the work around the D was strong, this led to a draw of 11-11. Our third match was against St. Peters, this was the game we really wanted to win. Our team gave it our all and made some great passes which allowed the flow down the court to be untouched by the opposing team; we were quick in attack and undefeated in defence. Our shooters Evie Chapman and Olivia Darrell did some amazing shots which got us the win we deserved of 12-8.

After our win against St. Peters, we then had lunch which ensured us to gain some much needed energy back. Following lunch, we then had our fourth game against Sheffield High and had an unfortunate loss of 5-9, it was a close game but they were a strong team. We then lost our fifth game to GSAL (Grammar School at Leeds) 5-22. This was a very tough team and they were quick on their feet, which threw our team off guard, as we were not used to the quick game play. We tried our hardest but we were struggling for morale following the two previous losses. We picked each other back up with some positive talk to one another.

Our sixth match was against South Hunsley where we had another loss of 15-6. There were some great interceptions coming from defence and the centre court players but silly mistakes started to occur towards the end, which meant South Hunsley, gained the advantage.

Our final match was against King Edwards VII; our team made a strong come back and ended on a high as we beat them 9-8. Our defence with Abbie Cowton and Georgia Morgan was outstanding and really pulled the team up; Molly Chapman did some great passes and was excellent at getting into space, to be an extra pass. Olivia Clough did some strong and accurate passes into the D to our shooters. Molly Saggers did some great marking which applied pressure to the other team. Hannah Ellam was great at bringing the ball down the court and was an asset to the team.

Overall, our team came 6th which we were very proud of. The whole team played amazing and the standard of netball was extremely high. It was a great experience for us, bringing us closer together and showed us a side of netball that will stay with us forever.

The whole team would like to say a massive thank you to Miss Flintoft who has supported us throughout the 5 years at Ryedale; she helped us become the netballers we are today and we will always be grateful. Thank you for never giving up on us and taking the time out of your life so that we can have the extra netball practice. We missed you at regionals and hope we did you proud. We would also like to say a big thank you to Miss Middleton who has always supported us, thank you for taking over Miss Flintoft’s place when she could no longer coach us and being there for us to see us through to the end. You were an amazing coach and we hope we did you proud as well. Thank you to both of you for the amazing journey led at Ryedale and all the memories created! 

Tahlia Higgs
(Captain)

Miss Flintoft and myself are very proud of the year 11’s and how well they have progressed in their time at Ryedale. Many people commented on how lovely the girls were and what a credit they are to the school. It was great to see the girls play such a high standard of netball.

Miss Middleton