The National finals of the Pop lacrosse were held at the University of Hertfordshire on 15th June. Twenty four teams from all over the country travelled to Hatfield to take part in this annual championship.
William Ransom had a great start to the morning as they travelled to the Novotel in Stevenage who had kindly sponsored a team breakfast once again. An early 7 o’clock start for the morning after the first England game the night before, so a few bleary eyed adults. The team had been requested to have an early night! After a full cooked breakfast the squad left Stevenage and travelled to Hatfield and were registered and on the court warming up by 9.30!
The first game was against a feisty team of all girls. Rebecca opened the scoring as the team got off to a good start. The first four minutes saw some great passing between the players; they kept the ball in the air and themselves out of trouble. As Belvedere started to make a ‘come back’ the more physical boys gave away a few penalties for being too physical but luckily the game ended whilst William Ransom were ahead by 7 goals to 5.
With a forty minute wait the team then met Lenham a team of 8, 4 boys and 4 girls. Another good start and another tough game saw both teams fighting to get ahead. A final score of 7-4 to William Ransom was a pleasing result with goals from Leighton, Charlie and Rachel with strong defensive play by Louix.
A half hour wait and William Ransom were back on court against Newington. This was a really close game with quite a lot of contact from both sides and some illegal goal keeping by Newington which was not picked up by the umpires. The final score was very close, 4-3. All goals were scored by Leighton after some excellent passing around the opposition and some super long shots hitting the back of the net.
As the spectators breathed a huge sigh of relief, the players took on fluids and snacks and were back on court within half an hour to play Gatley. This team proved to be our downfall as their shooting was extremely accurate and they had a lot of really excellent players. Despite some good play from William ransom Gately were the stronger team and won 9-5.
The last game against Inglefield House, a private girl’s school was a morale raiser as William Ransom won quite easily by 11-3 with goals from, Leighton, Charlie, Tyler and Lauren and good defence from Louix.
William Ransom had won 4 of their 5 games and were on 21 points. Gately the only team in the competition to win every game were on 25 points. William Ransom went through into the Cup competition. Last year we had only managed the Plate so a step in the right direction! As runners up in their group, they had to play Gorsey Bank the winners of group D in the quarter finals. Once again another very skilful and physical side with the most raucous supporters! William Ransom played their best but lost this game 8-2 and so the end of play and time to go home.
Congratulations to the team, we were all very proud of you and the effort and sportsmanship displayed in your games. Thanks also need to go to Mr Davis whose business sponsored this year’s kit. Thanks also to the B-team who supported their friends and behaved so well. Thank you to all parents, Dain and Mrs. Driver who gave up their Sunday to support the children. The year 5’s look forward to carrying on with lacrosse in the autumn term and aiming to emulate this year’s squad and return to the Nationals. We wish them all the very best.