St Edwards Academy (Leek) played in the National Schools Girls U11 Championship Finals at the weekend. David Rose has sent the following report :
"On Saturday and Sunday 1st/2nd April, Jasmine Jones,
Tilly Snape and Lilly Brown played for St Edwards Academy in the National Schools
Girls U11 Championship Finals at Bramley in Surrey. After an early start and a four and a half
hour journey on Saturday the girls played four games each, the last one
starting at half past seven in the evening.
From the twelve games played on the Saturday, they won seven, drew one
and lost four. At that point they were in 4th place. After some hot chocolate, 'a bit' of sleep in
the boarding house and a cooked breakfast they were ready for three more games
on Sunday. The first was against
Nottingham who won the northern stage with ease - we won two and drew the other
against them with magnificent play. The next round we won 2-1 and then we got
beaten by the overall winners who only lost two of their 21 games.
The girls ended up in 4th place, with only private
schools - who often have their own 'Grand Master' coaches - beating us. Lilly needs a special mention for winning six
of her seven games - an incredible achievement, demonstrating such high levels
of concentration.The girls had a brilliant time and they deserve a lot of
credit for the kindness and support they showed each other. They got home late
Sunday night, knowing they had school the next morning."
