U16 England Netball National Schools’ Finals

Our U16 netball team were outstanding when representing Brentwood at the National Netball Schools’ Finals held at Oundle School on Saturday 11th March.

The team came out of the blocks strong with a 15-5 win over Wakefield School. Jessica P and Trinity B were formidable in defence winning countless interceptions. In the shooting circle, Louella P and Sophia M didn’t miss a shot. The next game saw Brentwood come up against St Catherine’s. Unfortunately, Brentwood had a slow start to the first half losing 7-3. After some re-jigging of positions from Mrs Juniper, the girls went into the second half ready to fight back. The injection of Bobbi S in the shooting circle increased the movement and the girls began to find their flow. Sadly they just ran out of time and when the final whistle blew the score was 11-10 in favour of St Catherine’s. 

The girls got straight back to their winning ways against Stamford, with Trinity B picking up multiple intercepts and Jemimah K and Alyssa W combining nicely to bring the ball through the court to the shooters. 

Following this, Brentwood played Cheadle Hulme and struggled against their zonal style of defence. However, they learnt from the game and picked themselves up quickly against Yarm School with Sophie C and Emilia H combining nicely in C and WA, ensuring the ball got to the circle edge, which made the feeds much more successful. A deserved lunch break ensued before three more matches in the afternoon session. 

First up was Torquay, and the girls came flying out of the blocks winning the first half 9-4. They remained composed in the second half and the game finished 13-11. 

The final two games were against Hurstpierpoint and Bromsgrove with the girls knowing that wins would guarantee them a spot in the semi-finals of the play-offs. Every girl gave it their absolute all but sadly we fell just short. 

All nine girls were a credit to Brentwood School and we are very proud of how they conducted themselves throughout the day. There is lots of potential within the group and we are already thinking ahead to next year and how we can get into the play-off spots.

Team: Trinity B, Jemimah K, Alyssa W, Louella P (All Year 10) Jessica P, Sophia M, Sophie C, Bobbi S, Emilia H (All Year 11)