St Mary’s Hockey and Netball teams crowned victorious in sporting tournaments

St Mary’s is celebrating huge sporting success following two outstanding victories in competitive tournaments this month. The school’s Hockey team has been crowned County Champions and its Netball team scooped the title of Girls School Association (GSA) Senior Tournament Winners.

St Mary’s U18 Hockey team delivered a series of incredible performances at the U18 County Round tournament on Tuesday 20^th September. The competition saw the team take on other schools from across Cambridgeshire to qualify for Regional Rounds. The team began the tournament at Kings Ely School – playing both Kings and Wisbech Grammar. The girls stormed to victory in both matches achieving two back-to-back 5-0 wins.

The next stop was Ely City Hockey Club, where St Mary’s faced Saffron Walden in the semi-final. Working hard in defence, the girls secured a 1-0 win, which saw them progress through to the final to face Wisbech again. After a decisive 3-0 win, the girls were crowned County Champions. The team now has a place in the Regional Rounds on Thursday 10^th November, where they will take on schools from neighbouring counties.

On the netball court, St Mary’s was crowned overall winners at the GSA Senior Tournament – an intensive two-day event that took place earlier this month. Over a packed-out weekend the girls attended a Q&A session on Friday 9^th September with England Netball player, Beth Cobden. They also took part in four one-hour training sessions with Super League coaches and an England Netball player – before competitive matches commenced.

Tournament results were as follows:

St Mary's v Notting Hill and Ealing A – 18-13

St Mary's v Francis Holland – 17-9

St Mary's v Queens College London – 17-0

St Mary's v Sydenham – 12-10

St Mary's v Notting Hill and Ealing B – 13-11

Louise Powell, Director of Sport at St Mary’s School, said:

“At St Mary’s our ‘sport for all’ mantra ensures that each of our girls has the opportunity to take part in physical activities that are of huge benefit to their physical fitness and mental health. Sports participation at a young age is vital and teaches young people valuable life lessons relating to leadership, motivation, teamwork and respect. At St Mary’s we recently completed the final element of our state-of-the-art sports ground at Long Road, which features 3G rubgy and football pitches, artificial all-weather pitches for hockey, netball and tennis courts, athletics facilities, a grass pitch for football and athletics, as well as cricket nets. The ambitious development has propelled our sports provision to the next level and provides a fantastic place to train for competitive competitions such as these. Huge congratulations to both winning teams – who should be very proud of their fantastic team efforts and sporting prowess. Best of luck to the Hockey team for the Regional Rounds in November!”