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SPORT 13
Netball Season 2019
Mrs Hannah Merchant, Head of Netball
After a very busy season of fixtures including friend-
lies, tournaments and cup matches I can safely say our
pupils have had an all-encompassing season. Participa-
tion has been high with plenty of fixtures spanning A-E
teams and even a 4th team senior fixture took place
against Chigwell.
Despite a rough start to the season, with what felt like a burden of
defeats, the girls dug deep, trained hard and their commitment and
resilience paid off and all teams can boast success. Many of our girls
have played across two age groups: testament to their abilities and
this brings excitement for next season.
Special highlights include the U14 squad reaching the semi-finals of
the Essex Cup when, despite a valiant effort, they were defeated by a
very capable FitzWimarc squad. Our U16s bought home some silver-
ware in the Essex Plate competition beating Colchester in the Finals.
As did the U14s winning the Redbridge Borough Tournament held at
Trinity School.
The Senior 1st team should be proud of their performance in the Kel-
sall tournament narrowly coming 2nd in their pool and therefore just
missing out on a place in the finals. They also progressed through to
the semi-finals of the Essex Plate Cup but were defeated and denied a
place in the finals by Southend High School.
I think I write on behalf of all the pupils in thanking all the staff who
have helped to make this such a successful season. I would also like to
thank all the girls for their continued commitment and I look forward
to what will be a very exciting season next year.
U16s – Essex Hockey Champions
Eleanor De Renzy Channer, 5S
On Monday 25 March, the
U16 Hockey team travelled to
Chelmsford Hockey Club for the
Essex Cup final to take on Saffron
Walden, to whom we lost in the
final last year.
Fuelled by the prospect of a very swanky,
glass-backed trophy and a McDonald’s en
route home afterwards, we set out. In true
Bancroftian style, we soon proved that we
would need more than the promise of a
few medals and some chicken nuggets to
really get ourselves stuck into the game;
by this I mean we needed to go a goal
down, let the half time whistle go and
have a reality check from Mrs Fryer-Green.
Her half-time team talk worked and we
were a different side in the second half,
transferring the ball around the back and
up the wings with confidence. We knew it
was going well when we all felt headaches
coming on from the relentless screaming of
the opposition’s coach at her own team- to
the extent that Mrs Fryer-Green actually
needed a paracetamol at the end of the
match! We pulled it back to be 3-1 up at
the full time whistle, with Kiera Murphy
scoring two goals and Charlotte Peters
scoring the third
Having collected our well-deserved medals
and belted out deafening renditions of
We
are the Champions
at the top of our lungs in
the minibus, we arrived at Maccy Ds for the
true highlight of the evening. Then, laden
with wraps, nuggets, fries, Mcflurries (and
a carton of milk for Mrs Fryer-Green), we
headed home, revelling in our glory.