Thursday 6 April 2017

National Schools Championship Finals

St Edwards Academy (Leek) played in the National Schools Girls U11 Championship Finals at the weekend. David Rose has sent the following report :

"On Saturday and Sunday 1st/2nd April, Jasmine Jones, Tilly Snape and Lilly Brown played for St Edwards Academy in the National Schools Girls U11 Championship Finals at Bramley in Surrey.  After an early start and a four and a half hour journey on Saturday the girls played four games each, the last one starting at half past seven in the evening.  From the twelve games played on the Saturday, they won seven, drew one and lost four. At that point they were in 4th place.  After some hot chocolate, 'a bit' of sleep in the boarding house and a cooked breakfast they were ready for three more games on Sunday.  The first was against Nottingham who won the northern stage with ease - we won two and drew the other against them with magnificent play. The next round we won 2-1 and then we got beaten by the overall winners who only lost two of their 21 games.

The girls ended up in 4th place, with only private schools - who often have their own 'Grand Master' coaches - beating us.  Lilly needs a special mention for winning six of her seven games - an incredible achievement, demonstrating such high levels of concentration.The girls had a brilliant time and they deserve a lot of credit for the kindness and support they showed each other. They got home late Sunday night, knowing they had school the next morning."