Netball

U14s & U16s

Massive well done to our U14 and U16 netball teams who took part in the Anne Miles County netball tournament on Saturday 4th October.

The U14 team started strong with a 19-1 win against Sandringham. This was followed by intense games against St Eds winning 9-4 and Berkhamstead winning 8-7. They continued to dominate their pool winning 8-0 against Queenswood and 18-4 against St Mary’s. This meant they topped the group and qualified for the semi-finals. Here they met STAHS where they continued to work hard and won 12-6. This meant that they were through to the final, where they went on to meet St Eds again and maintained their undefeated winning streak with a score of 12-7. This means the U14 netball team are COUNTY CHAMPIONS and have qualified for the regional finals on 7th February!

The U16s had a very good tournament. The team was made up of a mixture of Year 10s and 11s. We started our group games with a strong 14-8 win over Parmiters and a 10-6 win over Dame Alice Owen’s. The girls then really showed their ability with a convincing 20-4 win over STAGS. Our 4th game was a much closer encounter against Chauncey, but the girls showed their determination coming out winners 12-10. We then played Leventhorpe and were back to our best with a good 16-7 win. Our last two games were always going to be the hardest. First up was STAHS. Despite some excellent work all over the court the girls just couldn’t stay close enough and ended up losing 11-6. Our final group game was against Queenswood. The game just didn’t go our way, with the strong wind having a much bigger impact in this game. We finished with an 11-3 loss. This meant that we made it into the Shield Final, but couldn’t progress to the Regional Finals. The girls picked themselves up and dusted themselves off for their semi final against St Edmunds College. It was incredibly close, going to extra time and then golden goal, but we squeezed out a 15-14 win to progress to the final, where we met Leventhorpe again. This was a much closer fame, but the girls battled to the end and won 10-9 to finish as Shield winners and 5th overall.

Well done to all of the girls and thank you for your hard work and commitment over the last few weeks. You did yourselves and Presdales proud!

U15s

This week, the U15s played Broxbourne. A real nail-biter in the first half with the score sitting at 8-7 with Broxbourne matching all of our efforts. In the second half we stepped it up and found our rhythm! With some fantastic passing, solid defence, and sharp shooting, we pulled away to finish the game with an impressive 22–9 victory. Brilliant teamwork!

Year 9

Aquathalon

Presdales entered our first ever Aquathalon Race with four talented and enthusiastic Year 8 pupils taking part. The race was held at the Royal Masonic School where the girls completed 350m in the Pool and then straight into a 2.2km cross country race. This was a gruelling challenge and the girls showed amazing grit and determination to finish well in their heat. We await the final results.

Presdales was the only state school competing and it shows once again what a range of talents our pupils have. Not just talent, but also the drive and determination to push through when things get tough.

The girls were exhausted at the finish but rightly proud of their efforts. Well done Scarlett, Lily, Lois and Millie for being such fantastic competitors and also a lovely group of girls!

Football

Accomplished performance from our U15s in the National Football Cup, winning 8-0 against Brampton Manor in a one sided match.

The girls played some lovely football which was pleasing on the eye, however we squandered a lot of chances to only lead 2-0 at half time. In the second half, the girls were more composed in front of goal. When the score got to 8-0, the referee asked us to finish the game 15 minutes early, which we agreed to.

The result made the long journey to Newham in East London (and facing the hazards of London traffic!) worthwhile. Lots of good performances, however Coaches POTM goes to Florence W who scored 5 times and just missed out on a ‘double hat trick’. Well done to all the girls!