U16 Netball County Winners 2024!

By Mrs Rebecca Stewart, PE Teacher

On Saturday 16th November, the U16 netball squad met at ISSC to play in the Suffolk Netball County Finals, having qualified as the winners of the Area tournament in October.

The tournament had a round robin structure, where we played every team. Every goal counted because you scored one point for getting 50% or more of the oppositions score in a loss and three points for a draw, these being a life saver points later in the day when things got close.

Ipswich School were a tough game to start with and certainly gave us a few areas to tidy up on in the coming games, but taking one point was crucial. Next was a very hard but evenly matched game against Culford, with both teams scoring off their centre passes and aiming to turn over the ball. Amaiya (GS) and Lilia (GA) held their nerve scoring at every opportunity and Annie (GD) and Freya (GK) put pressure on the defence with some excellent marking and rebounds. RHS was our third game and was much harder than the score suggests. Tilly as WD helped us to pull the score away by making multiple interceptions that we were able to convert to goals. We were clever with our passing as they are a very springy team. We had finally settled into our own game!

In the Stowmarket match we were able to take a clear lead with Yasmin fighting for every ball as WD and Olivia playing WA feeding the circle beautifully. King Edwards was next, Sophea as WA helped the shooters to create triangles giving them the best opportunities to shoot, with more than one goal a minute. Isabella kept the game flowing fast as the C, being the key linking player down the court. Framlingham were a tall team that meant we had to drive forwards for the ball, the defence made it extremely hard for them to score, giving us another win. In our final game against Sir John Leman, we set the shooters a challenge of scoring twenty goals in fourteen minutes, which they achieved just before the final whistle, amazing!

With the matches finished we waited nervously to find out our final placing, not really knowing how a few of the other key games had gone. We were extremely excited to hear ‘Ipswich High School’ crowned as the County Finalist Winner 2024!

Ipswich School 7 – 11 (1 point)

Culford School 9 – 9 (3 points)

Royal Hospital School 11 – 4 (5 points)

Stowmarket High School 11 – 1 (5 points)

King Edward VI School 15 – 8 (5 points)

Framlingham College 9 – 1 (5 points)

Sir John Leman 20 – 2 (5 points)

Congratulations to the whole squad. We are so proud of the determination and resilience you showed on court. You fully deserve your place at the Regional Finals in February. Well Done!