Solihull School

1st VII captain: Liz Hall
2nd VII captain: Lesley Rigby

The team played matches over two terms and the girls trained hard in all weathers and even throughout their study leave in January.With so much talent and enthusiasm for the game the team improved through the season.

Liz Hall led by example, playing some inspirational and committed netball as goal defence whilst being a great captain. Working well with both Emma Vincent and Becky Dunn (goalkeeper), they were able to play fast, flowing netball up to Rachel Taylor at wing defence. Rachel would win almost every centre and, working closely with Steph Jobson and Fiona Ross at wing attack, created many opportunities for Julia Shelly and Anaeka Sodha, the shooters. The success rate of our shooting got noticeably better as the season progressed, and the 1st team ended up with a scoring tally of 113 goals! Kelly Townsend worked tirelessly as centre. Her energy and speed kept the ball alive and her accuracy of passing was outstanding. Jess Bartley also worked hard all season and she secured a regular place in the 1st team, playing with commitment and determination in every game.

Christine Fancott and Manisha Lishman played in the 1st team on numerous occasions and proved to be extremely accurate shooters. The depth of shooting talent in the school is encouraging and this augurs well for next season.

The Solihull Schools U19 tournament, held at City Technology College, took place on 5th October. We beat Solihull 6th Form B 9 – 0; St Martin’s 4 – 2; CTC 8 – 0 but lost to a very good Solihull 6th Form A side 3 – 5. Overall, we were Runners-up.

Beating St Martin’s 12 – 9; Josiah Mason 19 – 4, Heart of England 12 – 2; Princethorpe College 12 – 11; King Edward’s Stourbridge 9 – 7 and Cadbury College 10 – 2, gave us confidence to play with a much more positive approach to our game. We speeded up our passing and our set plays were increasingly effective. Despite losing against teams such as King Henry VIII, Coventry and Bromsgrove, we learned a lot and developed our set plays as a result.

The 2nd VII, captained by Lesley Rigby, had a harder season. Playing against tough opposition, we had wins over Solihull 6th form B 5 – 3; CTC 7 – 0 and a very close match against Princethorpe 24 – 29. Losing to St Martin’s A, King Henry VIII, Coventry, Bromsgrove and King’s High Warwick was hard, but it provided good experience against teams who have played together for several seasons. Manisha and Christine worked well together in the ‘D’, moving well and finding space. Orla Swindells, Fiona Fairlie, Lesley Rigby, Anna Mulira, Alison Hearn, Estelle Chrichton, Steph Brien, Natasha Santana-Vaz, Lucy Williams and even a late appearance from Emma McCabe, made up the 2nd VII and with so much enthusiasm for the game, we even fielded a 3rd VII for two matches! I would like to say a big thank you to all the players who regularly trained and improved so much throughout the year, despite such tough fixtures.

The West Midlands tournament held here at Solihull was on the last day of term, 5th April. Solihull fielded two teams in an extremely high quality tournament with seventeen teams from twelve schools. Losing Emma Vincent and Julia Shelley to field trips and holidays to sunnier climes, left huge gaps in the team. However, despite this, we played hard and won some vital games. The standard was exceptionally strong and Bablake won overall.

I would like to thank Mrs Black for her time with the netballers at school, Mrs Pauline Smith, who umpired for us on a few occasions and Mr Farmer, who became ‘scorer’ at the West Midlands tournament.

Thank you also must go to Liz Hall for captaining the team so well, and all the players who trained so hard over both terms. Their commitment and enthusiasm is impressive and I am really looking forward to season 2006 – 07. I am sure we will have a very strong side! Well done girls – you did us proud!

Mrs L J Hogg