Plymouth School’s Netball Tournament
The second week back from the Christmas holidays, Ben was picked in the school Netball team (as he goes to Netball club on a Wednesday after school). They had so many people want to play that they have an A team and a B team. Ben was in the B team with most of the other Year 5’s, with the A team being made up of Year 6 children.
They had a qualifying day on the Wednesday, and they were unbeaten! They won all of their games apart from 1 which they drew, so they ended up 2nd in the group and thus made it through to the finals day on the Thursday. The only team that was higher than them was the A team. The tournament was being held for all of the schools in Plymouth at Marjons, so just up the road from work. This was ideal, as I was able to pop up for an hour on the Thursday to watch him play. Kelly helped take some of the children on the Thursday, so she was there already, so I met her at reception and got a hot choc. 😉
Ben’s first match started a little later than expected but I was able to see him play in 3 matches. Unfortunately, as the teams were the best ones in Plymouth, the skill level went up quite a notch it seems, as Bickleigh B lost every match apart from 1 which they drew 0-0. They just couldn’t get the ball and the other teams were really good and some of the children were a lot bigger – probably Year 6 children. The Bickleigh teachers were getting worked up as well and Miss Ingram had to leave the hall at one point as she was sweating and red just from sitting down and shouting instructions to the children! haha I couldn’t do it either as it was getting me worked up as well just watching and Ben was getting annoyed at some of his team mates as they were rushing their passes and giving the ball straight to the other team. He is very competitive, but you have to play to win! haha I had to leave before the last couple of matches but Kelly stayed and was giving me a text commentary over the phone.
When they had finished all of their matches, we found that they had ended 5th overall out of 32 schools, which is really good seeing as Ben and a lot of the others had only started playing last September. Annoyingly, they just missed out on the Devon tournament as only the top 4 teams went through to that. The Bickleigh A team ended up 4th so they just qualified. Ben did enjoy it though and if he carries on, he will no doubt be in the team again next year. He got a nice certificate for each day as well. 😉
