It is a long-held tradition that staff pit themselves against the 1st student teams in a range of sports, depending on the season. Staff have typically taken on the student cricket and football teams, but not for a few years have the staff team braved playing the 1st VII netballers. On Tuesday 14 March, a number of keen staff players did just that, going up against a very strong Shiplake side in what turned out to be a very tough match. Thank you to Miss Chloe Mordue for the following report:
‘On Tuesday, the 1st VII netball team played a group of male and female voluntary and excited group of staff members in a friendly netball match on the Astro. The staff team consisted of Miss Mordue, Mrs Lou Porter, Miss Chelsi Challis, Mrs Katherine Green, Mrs Sally Satch, Mrs Anna Morgan, Mr Tom Walter, Mr Marcus Milburn, Mr Adam Mallins, Mr Alex Hunt, Mr Duncan Traynor and both Mr George and Mr Duncan Miller! The staff were from a variety of departments throughout the school, and some hadn’t played a competitive game of netball in over 15 years.
The game took off to a good start, with Mr Milburn, Mr Mallins and Mrs Satch working well in defence against a strong Shiplake shooting side. Mrs Morgan was a fantastic and strong centre against Eloise and Mimi and worked well with Miss Challis, Mr Miller and Mrs Green. After many changes during the game on both sides, and with some of the Staff Team needing gentle reminders of some court rules, Mr Walter, Mr Miller and Mr Miller worked very well together in the mid court, passing quick and fiery balls down to the shooters. Jess Hide and Liv Bartlett worked well together in mid court, intercepting quick passes from staff. Mr Traynor came on to play, adding height into the staff defence against strong shooting seen from Sophia Gibbs, Brooke Creighton, Charley Burgess and Lauren Way.
Staff had the lead by about half time, with Mrs Porter, Mr Hunt and Miss Mordue collecting goals, but we were up against a strong Shiplake defence team and towards the end of the match they were turning over balls and bringing up their score. It quite literally all came down to the last minute and, with staff energy levels dropping, the promise of victory was slipping away. After a tense and tiring final quarter, excellent play from the 1st VII ensured that the ball was in their goal third for the majority of the time, and Lauren brought the score up to a draw of 29 all.
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Players of the Match went to Lauren Way and both Millers! Well played to everyone, and the teachers will put in the practice to beat the A Team next year!’