NATIONAL COMPETITION
Preseason started in September for the A team players as they trained to compete in the first round of national competition and for Cup competitions. The County round of the national competition saw the U14s, U16s and U19s compete in November. The U14s, a newly formed group of players, finished middle of the table with some narrow losses during a tournament in which the whole squad rotated to give our youngest pupils some valuable tournament experience for future years. The U16s had a mixed squad of Years 10 and 11, coming away with three wins and five losses. However, the major highlight of the competition was the U19 squad, who won six out of their eight games, placing third and narrowly missing out on qualifying for the regional finals.
CUP
The Cup runs started in the Michaelmas Term for our performance squads. The 1st VII faced a strong Kings School Worcester in their first round of the Cup, taking a loss, which meant that they faced Canford in the Plate competition, narrowly losing out 36-37. The U16A performance squad managed to reach the third round of the ‘Sisters in Sport’ Cup competition, beating Bohunt school and Sir William Perkins and then bowed out in a loss against Berkhamsted school. The U14s enjoyed a cup run into the second round before being knocked out of the competition by Sir William Perkins.
LENT TERM
Our Lent season started with 50 girls attending preseason training at the College over two days, looking at both technical and tactical elements of the game. The 1st VII have had a tremendous season, punishing some teams with strong score lines whilst managing a constant change of personnel within the squad, including Abby (I), Emma (M) and Alice (M) who made their 1st VII debut this year whilst being in Year 11. The 2nds, 3rds and 5ths are unbeaten, constantly putting out strong performances against tough schools and the 4th team only lost one game within ten. The team narrowly lost, 30-32, to Teddies in a block fixture, however they then met them again two weeks in a row, winning 9-3 and 9-5. They subsequently took wins over Wellington College, Brighton College, St Marys Ascot, Teddies, Pangbourne and Marlborough in the annual 1st VII Invitational Tournament to come joint top of the table on points, securing 2nd place on goal difference. For the first time the 1sts, 2nds and 3rds travelled to the Lord Wandsworth tournament, with all teams missing players, the 1st team came third, the 2nd team came second and the 3rds won their tournament after winning all of their games.
The U16s age group saw some changes to squads as well as having a turbulent year with players having the opportunities to play in the 1st team but they took it all in their stride and had some fantastic matches.
