Netball, Hockey, Squash, and Netball!

Date: Thursday 6 March 2008

Netball, when played well, by two evenly matched sides can be as exciting as any sport, and so it was today when the Senior Girls' Inter-House 3rd/4th playoff and final took place on the lower courts. Watson just shaded it in the playoff by 23 - 19, thanks largely to their greater height in the key areas where Bronwyn Marsh and her fellow defenders dwarfed Jess Dixon and Katie McNie. The final was as competitive as any match could be. Baker raced into a 9 - 2 lead after the first quarter, but Wagner pulled it back to equalise at 23 - 23 with just minutes to go. Baker then took the game by scoring four goals without reply, and won 27 - 23. These two matches were, in the estimation of the pundits, the best House matches in a very long time.

During the course of the day, the Boys' 1st XI Hockey squad were taking part in the annual Frank Mason Tournament hosted by Kent College. The squad came third in their group, beating Manwood's 2 - 0, losing 0 - 1 to Langley Park, and drawing 1 - 1 with King's Rochester, and 0 - 0 with Eltham College. This put them into the afternoon's Plate Competition for the Harry Beach Shield. Their progress......came to a rapid end after the first match of the afternoon session. Drawn against Borden G.S., a 2 - 2 result meant that our fate depended on the lottery of penalty strokes. We lost, and came home.

Squash was the annual Lent Term 'A' V match against Wellesley House from Thanet. For the first time in several seasons the youngsters came out on top by 3 rubbers to 2. Arnie Dunning and Rafi Stone won convincingly at Nos 1 and 2, but Henry Kirkness went down 1 - 3, and Ioanna Peeva, playing two matches in the absence of Andrew Fellows, lost both, sadly, 0 - 3.

The 'other' Netball was the Under 15 District Tournament at Herne Bay High School. The outcome will be relayed as soon as the pigeons come home to roost......And the news is the best of the season so far! Our girls were playing in the Plate Competition, and faced five other schools - and beat them all! Chaucer, Abbey, Herne Bay, St Anselm's and the Archbishop's School were all swept away by a blitzkrieg of five wins out of five! District Colours were awarded to Olivia Thrush and Jenny Wheal, and the whole squad have medals to commemorate their part in the success. And there's an impressive shield to be engraved and re-presented at the next School Line. Can they now beat St Lawrence on Saturday to end the season in some style?