A Great Effort!

This year has seen a new BSME event added to the calendar, this being the Under 11 Netball Tournament. St Chris took two teams to Dubai to compete against twelve other schools in this inaugural event, hosted by King’s School, Dubai. Teams were placed into two pools and on day one they played against all the other teams in their pool. Our girls did extremely well, and after day one we had lost some, drawn some and won some matches.

At the start of day two we were laying in 3rd and 5th place. St Chris A team had qualified for the Cup Final while St Chris B team had qualified for the Bowl Final.

It was a nail biting quarter final for our A team against Jumeirah Primary School A, when after full time the score was a 5-5 draw, so the teams had to play for a Golden Goal. With a high degree of effort, determination and sweat St Chris came out on top and was the first team to score the golden goal.

So it was through to the semi-final where we had to play against Horizon. Unfortunately, after such a gruelling previous match and no real break between games, we had a slight dip in focus and felt the sting of the yellow and black dressed busy bees. We left this court having now qualified for the Plate Final against Nord Anglia.

Nothing was going to stand in our way and we were ready to take on yet another seeded team. As the ball moved up and down the court, we saw interceptions, marking, court balance, finding space, accurate passing and again after full time the score was drawn. We then had to really prove our worth as the game went into extra time for a further ten minutes. Our girls dug deep and played their socks off and after an exhausting competition came out victorious and are now PLATE WINNERS 2017 with a score of 11-9.

St Chris B team improved with every centre pass. Unfortunately they were knocked out of the semi-finals, but managed to end on a high with a 4-0 win against The British International School of Jeddah.

Throughout the competition all teams and umpires were nominating players who they thought were the most valuable player on each team. We are pleased to announce that Isabel Looby and Leanne Cockerill were voted St Chris most valuable players. If the decision was left to me I would have been unable to highlight one individual player. Everyone who attending this weekend shone in one way or another and we are so proud of you all.

Well done!