Under 15 Girls Handball become County Champions!
Canterbury High School Handball Success….Again !
The U15 girls represented the school in the Kent Handball Finals held at Medway Park this week having gained qualification to represent the Canterbury District through winning the District Kent School Games playoffs before Christmas. The finals comprised of the top seven schools in the county all competing for a place in the Regional Finals due to take place in Guildford later this year.
Two years ago the girls made it through to the regional finals at U13 level and this year they had the step up to the U15 age group.
The competition had a slightly different format to last week’s boys competition with Canterbury High competing in a seven team league with only the winning team going through to the Regional Finals.
The first game for Canterbury High was against St Gregory’s and after going 1-0 down, the girls confidently came back to win 3-1.
Next up was Highworth Grammar, who last year made the National Finals at this age group and despite facing this tough opposition the girls came through with another 3-1 victory.
The girls went into their third game leading the pack. Rainham Girls were fully aware of this and did their best to shut Maddie Greenan out the game and despite their efforts, Canterbury High still managed to claim a point with a 3-3 draw which was enough to keep us ahead in the league table.
A tough fourth game saw Canterbury High claim a tight 1-0 victory against Rainham Mark Grammar and this kept the girls unbeaten streak going into the next game where they faced Maplesden Noakes. Full of confidence and playing some excellent handball, the girls cruised to a 4-1 victory.
St Gregory’s, after their first loss to Canterbury High were also on a winning run and had moved ahead of us in the group with the girls still needing to play the final game of the day knowing anything but a win wouldn’t be enough. The girls remained calm and despite this pressure went on to beat Ursuline 5-1 claiming their spot at the Regional Finals.
This is another excellent achievement for the girls who will go to Surrey later this year to represent the school at regional level alongside the U15 boys. Please congratulate them on their success and wish them luck for the next round.
U15 Girls :
Sophie Long
Elisabeth Mate
Tamara Fournillier-Onadeko
Libby Denby
Ellena O'Connell
Ellen Seatter
Abi Pickering
Astrid Apps
Maddie Greenan
The U13 girls had their first Handball experience at the County Finals. They found themselves against other schools that had played a lot more handball due to Canterbury High only needing to play Herne Bay High to qualify for this round. They struggled to play with confidence in the first few game but as the tournament progressed they produced greatly improved performances and were unfortunate not to finish higher than eighth place. Despite this, the girls learnt a lot from watching the U15 team and will be in a stronger position next year to compete again at this level.
U13 Girls :
Paris Kennelly
Dora Layton
Molly Layton
Bethany Graff
Grace Weldon
Rachel Aitken
Poppy Forrest
Lilly Manock
Faith Bean
Mia Gage