Wardle Student Diary - PGL Netball Tournament

Bethany Roscoe, a Year 8 pupil at Wardle Academy

Bethany Roscoe, a Year 8 pupil at Wardle Academy, gives her view on a recent PGL Netball Tournament.

On Friday 7 March, I joined the rest of the Year 8 netball team and Year 9 team for the PGL Netball Tournament. We all arrived at school on Friday excited about what the weekend would hold and ready to set off. When we arrived, we had a quick tour around camp with our group leader Hayley, before heading back to our cabins and unpacking. Later on that evening, we went into the main hall where we did lots of team building challenges with the other teams. Then we went back to our cabins where we rested our heads for the night; we wanted to be on top form for the competition the next day.

We had a very early start on the Saturday as we had our first match just after 9am, but thankfully our breakfast gave us enough energy to win the first two matches 6-1 and 10-0. While we were waiting for our next match, we joined the Year 9 team over at the big swings. We had such a good time, and even Miss Bowler and Miss Shepherd were taking pictures at the top! We headed back to the courts ready for our last match of the day. They were a really strong team and challenged our netball skills. We tried our hardest to intercept, get the ball down court and into our net. The final score was 3-3 which put us 4th on the leader board.

We had the rest of the day off, so we split into groups to do some activities. My group went to tackle the abseil. Everyone managed to do it first time except for me. With a bit of encouragement from my group, I finally managed to do it. After that, we went back to our rooms to get ready for the disco later that night. All the girls were dressed to impressed and we hit the dance floor. After a very fun filled active day, we were all tired out and headed back to our cabins to rest our weary legs.

Sunday was our last day, and we were ready to give it our best shot to make the final. The first match started well, but as the match progressed one of our best players, Sadie Spence (GD), tripped up and had to come off, which left us with no spare players.

Sadie was taken to hospital and was given stitches. After being left without our usual goal defence, Niamh Roche stepped up and took her place; we weren’t going down without a fight!

We won that match 7 – 6 and the next one 9 – 5. In our last match, we had a powerful start with the score 9 – 0 to us in the first half, but we were told during the break that we would have to win with a big goal difference to be in the final. We stepped up our game and in the second half we scored goal after goal, playing the best we have ever played. We won 17 – 0 and were through to the final!

After watching our Year 9 team win their final, we wanted to follow in their footsteps. Our opposition were an amazing team who hadn’t lost a match in the tournament yet, so we knew it would be a tough match. It was a fast paced game and without Sadie we struggled to keep up with their accurate play. At half time, we were losing by 2 goals; we needed to play more defensively and intercept their passing. Unfortunately, they won 8 – 4, but we gave it our all, and with our determination we will be back stronger next year to lift the trophy. We may have lost but our enthusiasm towards our games made us all winners.

Bethany Roscoe Year 8 Netball Team Captain.