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Turnford U14 Take Silver at National Finals

Turnford U14 Take Silver at National Finals

emma ferns29 May 2022 - 16:51

A Wonderful Weekend of Netball At the Highest Junior Club Level

Turnford U14 headed to England Netball national finals in May having won the East Regional League.

The Turnford team travelled up on the Friday night to Sheffield and coach Sam Bird gave a speech to the players about believing in their ability, working together and being supportive of each other though the weekend.

The opening nationals draw put Turnford in a morning group with two other very strong teams, one of which (Poole NC) had previously defeated the team on two occasions this season.

The squad played Poole in game 1 and lost heavily 31-13. However, coach Bird had used the opportunity to test out some unfamiliar combinations to learn how to beat Poole again if and when we met later in the competition.

Game 2 was v Matrix netball with Turnford taking a hard fought win 21-16. The team took great confidence from that win.

Nationals format meant the sqaud was then reset into another group - one they must win to make 1-6 on day Two. The first game of this group led to a big win v Ryland NC 38-9.

The final game of Day 1 of competition was another big win for the club beating Oaksway 30-12. It had been a good first day and the target of making the top 6 to compete for the medals on Sunday was met.

The squad had the benefit of a traveling physio who made sure the players adhered to their recovery after each match. The squad and parents had dinner together followed by an early night!

The girls were extremely excited to be competing to be the best in the country – but had drawn their nemesis club Poole NC whom they had lost to on the Saturday. However, lessons learned the day before meant that coach Bird switched the defending players up, which really surprised and upset the Poole attack. With the defending unit of Ella, Zaneya, Holly and Brogan producing a physical and outstanding “wall of defence” the attack unit were unstoppable and too quick for the Poole defence. Daisy’s passing connections with Coco in the circle and the hard drives from Katie meant that we got great shooting positions and shot brilliantly. We won the game by 1 goal 19-18. The crowd and the players went bananas!

We then had to play Grangetown to get to the Gold medal match. Another stellar performance from the whole squad led to a big win 25-11. The whole team performance was fantastic. We had made the Gold medal match.

We had a long break of a few hours before the final, so the girls went for a walk and watched some of the other placing matches.

The Gold medal match was an absolute thriller! Turnford started strong going up by 5 goals, but Kingsway Power came back at us until by the end of normal time the game was a draw!

2 minutes of extra time was played each way, and it was neck and next the whole way. In the final seconds Coco put up a shot and scored…but the timer deemed that the game had ended as the ball was in flight and the goal was disallowed. The final score was 23-24. We were devastated!

The girls however recovered and congratulated Kingsway on the win. The Turnford players were awarded Silver medals and officially crowned National U14 Runners Up. It was an outstanding weekend of netball.

The girls represented Turnford so well, and the parents, coaches and players made some wonderful memories of a fantastic weekend of competition. Watch this space – we will be back to win at U16 level!

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