The U13 Netball girls took part in the Cranleigh A and B team tournaments and won both. Both teams retained their unbeaten record with the A team winning all nine of their matches, and the B team winning all six of theirs.
A team match report:
WON
Results:
v Westbourne House WON 9-3
v St John’s WON 6-5
v Westbourne House WON 8-1
v Lambrook WON 9-2
v Highfield WON 7-0
v Feltonfleet WON 9-1
v Seaford WON 12-0
v Prior’s Field WON 6-2
v Cranleigh WON 9-4
The girls arrived raring to go for a jammed packed day of Netball. The tournament structure was a round robin so this meant the girls had 9 matches to play, each of which were 6 minutes each way. The warm up was slick and with their netball brains engaged, the girls took to court for the first game against Westbourne House. The girls worked hard to keep errors to a minimum and the timing of their movements was fantastic. Throughout the tournament, the team stayed in the same positions with both Yasi Fryer (Wa) and Ella Stephens (Wa) sharing the Centre position, both of which had a great impact. The second game was against St John’s and ended up being the hardest of the tournament. The girls kept composure at crucial times during this game and kept possession of the ball well. Results against the other schools were very strong as the girls won every game of the day. Excellent shooting by Amelia Burke (Wa) and Eva Sesay (Hu) was consistent throughout, and Eva showed variety in her game, passing the ball back out and in to get closer to the post. Freya Johnson (GH) was great at getting free for centre passes and did some superb feeds into the shooters. Amy Henwood (Hu) played amazingly throughout, getting lots of interceptions and being very effective at getting the ball down the court. Grace Gardner (GH) captained the team well and worked hard to stay close to her GA to keep her out of the circle. Gabby Sesay (Wa) and Grace Gardner worked well with each other and Gabby was excellent at getting the rebounds and putting pressure on the shooters. An amazing performance from all of the girls, who all thoroughly deserved player of the tournament as it was truly a whole team effort.
Group rounds:
V Priors Field won 10-0
V Danes Hill won 10-0
V St Johns won 8-4
V Highfield won 15-1
Semi Final:
V Westbourne House won 10-2
Final:
V Cranleigh won 13-3
B team match report:
The team were without one of their regular shooters, so Phoebe Gordon moved into the role with Robyn Emmett moving up from the C team to play the wing attack position. These changes could have potentially disrupted the girls but they rose to the occasion and played their best Netball from start to finish.
Going out strongly in the opening half of the first match boosted their confidence. Izzy Cannon as goal shooter rarely missed. When Priors Field had possession, the defensive pairing of Bethany Hodges and Arabella Alderman stopped the ball getting into the circle so they were unable to score.
A similar pattern followed in the next game against Danes Hill. Shooting remained superb from both Izzy Cannon and Phoebe Gordon. Defence through the court caused Danes Hill to struggle and the Epsom girls pounced on every weak pass or loose ball.
In the third match against St John’s the girls had to step up their game still further to pull ahead and maintain their lead. The game was far more physical but this did not detract from Epsom’s play and they concentrated on maintaining their structure through court and placing the ball into space with, in particular, great feeds to Izzy Cannon and Phoebe Gordon in the circle from Robyn Emmett and Imi Stoole.
Against Highfield the girls were unstoppable with great play from centre passes, through the centre channel and into the circle by the 3rd phase. Shooting again was key with nearly 100% accuracy. In the semi-final the girls met a determined Westbourne House. The competition was evident but the team remained calm and controlled and took an early lead which they never looked back from.
In the final the girls played virtually faultlessly both in attack and defence and thoroughly deserved the win. A great show of Netball from every one of the girls and they should all be extremely proud of their performance.
POM: Phoebe Gordon, Izzy Cannon and Bethany Hodges.
