On Sunday 16th June, this year’s Lacrosse Team took part in the National Finals of the inter-school competition. We have been taking part at this level since 2004 and have traditionally been very successful. This year’s team had two players who finished runners-up last year and also three year 5s who will hopefully go on to play next year, too.
The morning started, as always, with a pre-tournament breakfast courtesy of The Novotel, Stevenage. The team and squad met at school and then travelled over to be treated very well by the staff at the hotel. After photographs, we then had to make our way to the University of Hertfordshire Sports Village to register and warm-up. They all looked very smart in their new kit and were looking forward to the day’s lacrosse.
The league draw was not kind! There seems to be a tradition that very strong teams are all placed in the same league, and we knew it was going to be tough.
We needed to finish first or second in the group stages to progress to the ‘Championship’ competition in the afternoon. Third or fourth would see us compete in the ‘Plate’ competition and fifth would see us go home early. The first game was very close, although we were not playing as well as we could have. Passes were not being completed and shots were being missed. The final score was 7-6 to Sunninghill.
Game 2 was better and resulted in a 6-2 victory against the Scottish Champions, Killearn. With this to boost the confidence, we didn’t really want the 90 minute break we now faced before the next game. When the third and fourth games came, in quick succession, they resulted in two more defeats. 7-4 to Belmont and 9-3 to Hale Prep. We finished third in the league and therefore, for the first time since 2005, we were in the Plate Competition.
As I mentioned earlier, this was no disgrace as the league was strong. In fact Sunninghill and Hale Prep played each other for the overall title later in the day. To finish third to the National Champions and the National Runners-Up is another excellent achievement.
The Plate Quarter Final, against St Gilbert, was where we played our best lacrosse. We threw and caught the ball perfectly and looked like the sort of team I knew we were. The final score was 7-1 to us. The Semi Final was not as successful, however, and we lost 9-5 to Coulsdon, another very strong team.
Despite not doing as well as we might have hoped, the players were excellent ambassadors for the school as always and I am sure three of them will take part in the competition next year. Well done to all of them, and a big thank you to the parents and supporters who came along and cheered the team on.