Sports News 2008

HOCKEY UPDATE Katie Mander (Year 12) U17 County & Midlands, ‘England Futures’ hopeful

I have been playing hockey at school, club and county level for the last few years. Last year in the annual county tournament I got selected for Midlands trials. From these trials I had two further trials and I was successful at both. The Midlands Association then picked 15 girls from the trials to play in a match against Wales under 18. I was selected for this match. I scored a goal to help the Midlands team to win the match 6-0, this was a very impressive achievement considering the Midlands team had never played together before and the Wales team had been training for months. After getting through the Midlands trials, I went to several other training sessions and I got selected to go to the JRPC (Junior Regional Performance Centre) for five day camps during the summer holidays. These camps were incredibly strenuous and demanding on fitness and core skill. I was constantly on trial throughout the whole week. From the JRPC I got picked to be part of the England Junior Regional Performance Centre. This is otherwise known as The Old Midlands Tournament. I played a tournament against two other JRPCs from around the country. From this tournament the players for the ‘England Futures Cup’ are picked and then players are selected to play for England. I am now awaiting results to see whether I got through the trials to be part of the ‘England Futures Cup’.

Katie Mander

Isabelle Crighton (Year 10) U15 County & Midlands

I started playing hockey at school and Tamworth Hockey Club three years ago. For the past three years I have been selected for the County team and have played in a number of inter-county tournaments. This year I was selected to attend a Midlands training camp, over the summer and again in September. I am now waiting to be informed of further Midlands training later in the season.

Isabelle Crighton

FRA English Schools Fell Running Championships

Richard Mahoney represented Polesworth International Language College in the English School Fell Running Championship, which was hosted by Sedbergh School in Cumbria on Sunday 28th September 2008.

The competition was organised into year groups in which the Year 10 and 11 ran together over a 3.58 mile course with a climb of 1315 feet. The course was particularly challenging due to the number of steep climbs, particularly in the first half of the race, which took part on Howgills Fell. The entries were dominated by northern based schools where fell running is a favourite local sport and the area has produced a number of national champions. This was reflected in the number of entries for Years 10 & 11, which totalled 116.

Richard produced a tremendous performance particularly in the first part of the race on the climb to the summit, which was marked on the day by a large flag of St George, to finish 22nd place. This was an outstanding achievement considering the majority of lads in the race practice on the fells all year round. The race was extremely well organised and was a credit to the organising school who will also be hosting further events next year.

This was the first time we have had a representative at these championships.

Well done Richard!

Congratulations to ex-pupil Luke Williams 11DAN on coming Second in the Welsh Judo National Championships in May.

Jo Houghton has had another outstanding season playing for Aston Villa.

Having progressed to the U16 academy, Jo played a significant role in the successes of the team this year, winning all but one match.

Well done Jo and all the best for a successful future in Ladies football.

Aimee Wilson 7OLD is playing in the “European Championships” to be held in Gullane Scotland May 27th-29th.

Aimee has qualified for this event due to being part of the Great Britain Team that played in the World Championships held at Pinehurst, North Carolina, America last year. Aimee has competed in the World Championships three times in the last four years.

Aimee recently took part in the “Nottingham Girls Open Championship” were she came 5th with a field of 60 players aged up to 18 years old.

National Achievement in Rugby for Fiona Fletcher

During the Easter holidays I was selected to play for the National Talent Development Group U18’s against Canada U19’s at Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire. Canada had beaten Scotland U18’s 53 – 0 in the week before so we knew we were up against tough opposition. We trained for 1hr 30 in the morning before the game and it was the first time we had all trained as a team. It was a difficult game in bad conditions, as the Canadians scored two early converted tries. We started to play more as a team and scored two unconverted tries to leave the score 14 – 10 at half time. We were constantly pressuring the Canadians right until the end but we eventually lost 19- 15. By Fiona Fletcher

Many congratulations to Fiona, clearly a very talented rugby player.

Well done to the Year 8 Football Team on winning the County Cup for the second year in succession. They won 3-0. Well done also to the Under 12 Football Team being runners-up at the District Finals.

Hockey Round Up

U12 Area champions
U13 Runners up in area tournament
U14 Area champions (unbeaten)
U15 Runners up in area tournament
U16 Runners up in area tournament

It has been a very exciting and successful year for hockey at Polesworth. Not only have we brought home the trophies from the U12 and U14 tournaments and finished runners up in all other age groups. But we managed to beat Twycross on a number of occasions in the process, most notably 5-1 at the hands of the U16 girls.

The U16 team were incredibly unlucky not to win the area title early in the season, losing 1-0 in the last seconds of play to the overall winners (the same Twycross team that they later defeated so convincingly).

The U15’s, a team of talented year 9 and 10 girls were unfortunate not to win their area tournament, but finished a worthy second.

Arguably the most successful team of the season was the U14 girls. This impressive team of year 8 and 9 girls were undefeated this year, winning the area title and scoring an exceptional 43 goals while conceding none, a real team effort.

Unfortunately, we are lacking keen year 8 hockey players but an abundance of talent in year 7 enabled the U13 girls to achieve runners up position in their area competition, losing only to the eventual winners.

Not only were the year 7 girls pivotal in the successes of the U13 team, they have been outstanding as a team at U12 level. Their hard work throughout the season was rewarded with the title of Area Champions at the end of the season. This is a team of many talented young hockey players, definitely one to watch for the future. Well done to all the girls who competed this year.

Further congratulations go to the following girls who have played hockey at representative levels this year :
Isabelle Crighton, Year 9, County.
Ellie Shaw , Year 10, County.
Katie MAnder, Year 11, County.

A special mention goes to Katie Mander who has recently attended trials and training sessions with the Midlands hockey squad. We are all very hopeful for Katie’s future success within Midlands hockey and beyond.