The Eagles U13 girls started their South Region Campaign with great excitement last Saturday (4th September 2021) at the pre-season tournament in East Grinstead.

The tournament consisted of 7 teams; Eagles, CD Phoenix, Royals, Woodley, AP Saints, Beacons and 5Ways.  Each team was to play each other for 10 minutes in the morning session.  This was then to be repeated in the afternoon session.  A busy day of netball ahead with 12 ten-minute games for the Eagles girls in total. 

Eagles got off to a relatively slow start playing CD Pheonix in their first match.  It was an 11-5 win but the girls were looking a little rusty and Joely (Eagles GK) was feeling a bit under the weather and was unable to play.  Royals were next.  The match started well, going goal for goal till 5 all.  Sadly, then Eagles started to wobble.  Joely was missed in defence and there were a few centres where the attack didn’t communicate well.  The final result was 14-8 to Royals.  Fortunately, Eagles then had a bye; time to take a breath and time for Joely to recover.  A full-strength team went on to play Woodley with a good 10-3 win.  Eagles went on to win the rest of their matches in that round with little resistance meaning that they came second, behind Royals in the morning session. 

The afternoon session started a little slow with Eagles grinding out wins against Woodley and CD Phoenix but then they started to get in their stride and had a great team performance against AP Saints to win 13-3.  Sadly, they lost the following match against 5ways by 1 which was unexpected and against form but they turned this around and went on to show some excellent netball against Royals who they beat resoundedly the second time round, 9-4.  A final win against Beacons resulted in them coming top in the afternoon session. 

It was a fantastic day of netball, much enjoyed by all.  Jasmine (Eagles GS) was chosen to be Eagles’ coaches player of the tournament and all in all it was a very good start to the Eagles U13 South Region Campaign.  Bring on 9th October!