U11B at Rugby School Tournament

4th place overall, won 1, drew 1, lost 3.

A well organised and smoothly run tournament played on Rugby School’s lovely astro-turfs. Our under 11B, comprised of largely of u10s enjoyed the opportunity to play in a tournament and gained invaluable astro experience. We began the afternoon with our three toughest games. Our first game against Fairfield A saw us facing a skilful and confident team. They scored the only goal of the game in the first half, but we all defended impressively and tackled hard to keep them from scoring again. We did have our chances to equalize, with a few near misses and some good saves by the Fairfield goalie preventing us. In the first half of our game against Spratton Hall we held them to a 0 – 0 draw, with both teams enjoying attacking opportunities and plenty of end to end play. Spratton scored all their goals in the 2nd half, by moving the ball out to their wings and crossing the balls into their attacking D effectively.

Our 3rd game saw us facing the mighty S.A U11A team! We put up a valiant fight, with every girl playing with feisty determination. We held firm against the waves of attack from the As, tackling impressively and working hard to win possession of the ball. Their 1st goal came in the 1st half, but their 2nd occurred in extra time from a short corner.

In the 4th game our efforts paid off, with us dominating play from the offset. We had lots of near misses, but Ella N scored a goal just before half time. More missed opportunities occurred in the 5th game against Bablake, with us again dominating play throughout. We must remember to look for the gaps when aiming our goals and not shoot straight at the goalie! We also need to get our hips round in order to stop shooting too wide.

The girls can take pride in their commendable 4th place overall – one place behind the As. Emily H, Ella T and Arabella A all tackled well in defence and their ball distribution improved throughout the tournament. GK Fran B’s confidence grew, with her making some super saves. Georgie R proved to be a solid player, feeding the ball forward effectively and grafting throughout the games. Ella N, Georgina T and Clare T demonstrated solid stick skills, good fitness and a real hunger to score.

Well done a great team effort by all and thanks to our supporters for travelling so far!

DLB