On the weekend of March 7th – 9th, the Year 6 AB and Year 8 BCD netball squads travelled to Condover Hall in Shropshire for the two day GDST Netball Rally, where they would take on netball teams from all over the GDST, including Brighton Girls, Croydon High, Newcastle High, Northampton High, Northwood College for Girls, Oxford High, Putney High, Streatham & Clapham High, Shrewsbury High and Sydenham High Schools.

By Sophia MacKenzie, Year 8

After finishing my history lesson we all rushed outside to get on the coach. We were told it was going to be a 3 and a half hour drive. I didn’t think I was going to last! 

As we arrived we had our dorms all sorted so we found our block we were staying in and found our dorm. 

Later that evening, me and some of my friends went to play laser tag which was so fun where it was pitch black and all the light we had was from our guns. There were also lots of other activities such as Jacob’s ladder and abseiling on as well. 

The next morning we were woken up by Miss Munro at 7:30 which was a really exhausting time to wake up, because let’s just say that I do not wake up at 7:30 on a Saturday morning!!

After half an hour we all met outside our block of dorms where we were staying and Miss Munro told us we were going on a fifteen minute run! It was so cold that morning and I was half asleep! After our run we went to have breakfast where we had eggs and bacon which were actually really good. 

We had a lot of time to spare as our first match was at 11:30 and so during the spare tie my dorm all went zip lining which was really fun. As we are used to having a snack at 10:30 on a regular basis we then went to the tuck shop were got a few sweets and snacks to keep us going. 

Before we knew it it was time for our first match. We were all quite nervous but we knew we had to do well for ourselves and for all the teachers and the school. We managed to win three matches that day! In the evening, Miss Munro revealed that our B team had made it into the cup tournament the following day which we were really happy about, especially as we had been playing against A teams most of the weekend!!! 

Then next day we had to wake up at 7:00! Which was far worse than 7:30!! Miss Munro yet again surprised us to another run which was also fifteen minutes. 

Our first match begun at 8:30 so we had to quickly have breakfast and sadly there was no time for more activities!

Unfortunately we only won 1 out of 3 games that morning so we did not qualify for the first and second place match, placing 3rd in our pool.

However, I felt that we are definitely getting better as a team and we will always learn more from defeats than from winning all the time! 

The C and D team both went into the plate after the first day and played some really good netball across the weekend too, especially as they were also up against a lot of A teams! 

Thank you for reading my Condover Hall Netball Weekend Experience!!