Sevenoaks School was well presented at this year’s netball county finals with a team competing in each age category (U19, U16, and U14). The U16 and U14s had great success with both teams coming second and therefore qualifying for the regional round.
The U19s had a tough round ahead of them and knew they had to all play at their best to qualify. However a slow start saw them lose their first two games against Maidstone Grammar (6-9) and Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School (5-8). Determined, they went on to convincingly win their next three games against Walthamstow Hall (10-5), St Olave’s (11-3) and Colfe’s (11-6). Their last two games saw two unfortunate losses against rivals Benenden (5-9) and Tunbridge Wells Grammar School (8-9) leaving them to finish a creditable fifth in their group.
The U16 team went out to prove a point with a confident win over Walthamstow Hall (14-0). A tight second game was a critical win for Sevenoaks against Benenden (7-5), but they needed to keep composed for their hardest game against Tonbridge. However errors began to creep in and the team was punished by Tonbridge’s strong shooting duo, seeing a loss (6-10). This was followed by tough opposition in Newstead Wood, with Sevenoaks managing to scrape a win (5-4). With an unexpected result against Invicta (5-11) the team thought they had blown their chances of getting through to regionals. However, they finished their last two games with two strong wins against Chatham Grammar School (10-4) and TWGGS (9-2). With great surprise, mixed results saw Sevenoaks take second place and go through to regionals.
The U14 squad went into their competition with determination. Their first game was a win against TWGGS (9-8). Their second game was a loss against Sutton Valence (4-6), but a close third game against Bromley High (6-5) and a convincing win against Weald of Kent (15-5) meant that Sevenoaks was in a position to qualify for regionals. A tough loss in their sixth game against Tonbridge (9-10) meant that the team needed to score as many as possible in their last two games. They pulled out all the stops to win against Walthamstow Hall (8-3) and Benenden (12-5), and with mixed results from the opposition, also go through to the regionals.
