Champions!!

On 26 April, our Year 6 netball team headed down to the prestigious Rugby School to compete in the ISA U11 National Netball Championships. We had qualified for the competition as ISA regional winners back in February and were excited to play against 23 of the best independent schools from across the country.

We started the competition with real determination and team spirit which saw us compete against the winners of the East Region. With a solid win under our belt against Copthill School, the team gathered momentum and produced some further outstanding performances, with umpires and other school coaches commenting on their excellent standard of play.

We qualified for the knock-out stages of the competition as winners of our group with 5 wins out of 5. We met Polwhele School from the South-West in the Quarter-Finals and won with a convincing 17-2 scoreline. Moving into the semi-finals we were faced with a match against Alleyn Court, who had also played some wonderful netball throughout the competition. Somehow, our Magnificent Eight, found another gear and reached the National finals for the second consecutive year with a 22-1 win.

In the final, we faced our fellow Northern competitors, Alderley Edge School for Girls. We have had many fixtures over the years with various year groups and we’ve always enjoyed our friendly competition against each other. The girls knew that one more victory would see them being crowned ISA U11 National Champions. Yet again, the girls performed out of their skin, fought for every ball and worked together as a cohesive unit. After the final whistle, we came away with a 17-4 win and the National title. Not only was this a phenomenal achievement to compete against the best netball independent school teams from across the country but we have now achieved BACK to BACK National Netball titles!

8 games, 161 goals scored and only 12 goals conceded. This was an outstanding performance from the defence right through to the consistently high level of shooting and build-up play. We’re proud to have brought the 2023 title home to Bowdon Prep, following our previous National Netball titles in 2017 and 2022.

A huge congratulations to Allegra, Annie, Dolly, Evie, Hannah, Izzy, Katy and May – their netball futures are bright!