Derbyshire school netballers reach National Schools' Finals

2 February 2012

Trent College school's U14 netballers are gearing up for the biggest tournament of their lives after winning through to the National Schools' Netball Finals.

The Long Eaton schoolgirls (pictured) will travel to Basildon, Essex, to take on the cream of England’s school netball talent on Saturday, March 17 after claiming a hard-fought runners-up spot at the Regional Finals in Northampton.

The reigning Derbyshire county champions completed a 100 per cent clean sweep as they marched through the group stages and semi-final unbeaten in Northampton.

But they couldn’t quite make it 12 county and regional match wins in a row as they were beaten by Nottingham High School in the final, having earlier edged to victory over their fierce local rivals in the group stages.

Olivia Thornton, Trent College Head of Netball, said: “This is a brilliant achievement for the girls. They held their nerve in a few really close group games to go to the semis as group winners and then produced a superb performance to beat Loughborough in the semi-final. Despite not quite being able to get their hands on the Regional Championship trophy the girls will take a lot of heart from this tournament to fear no-one at the Nationals.”

Coached by Trent College teacher Sue Taylor, the U14 girls will be training hard ahead of the Nationals, with former England player Julie Malinski once again set to help the girls out with their preparations.

Trent College’s U19 and U16 teams narrowly missed out on following their U14 schoolmates into the Regional semi-finals at Northampton after both finished third in their respective groups.

Photo: Trent College.

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