Huge congrats to Chloe Davis (Year 12), Matire Ormsby-van Selm (Year 11) and Chloe Carr Patterson (Year 11), who made the premier tournament team. by Supplied

Netball teams' Aussie dream

St Paul's Premier and Development netball teams crossed the ditch to compete in the Trans-Tasman Netball Quad Tournament in Ballarat last month.

Premier girls take gold

In the early hours of the morning, following another successful Harington Fashion Show, our netballers travelled from Hamilton to Auckland to fly to Melbourne, Australia where they encountered not just cold, but freezing weather conditions. They had arrived to play in the Trans-Tasman Netball Quad Tournament against Ballarat Grammar (host school), Pembroke School (Adelaide) and Kristin School (Auckland).

On the first day of competition, the Premier team had a comfortable win against Kristin, and also won their next three games that day. Next day our girls were up against their toughest competition, Ballarat Premier, but the Open A once again came away with a win. Day three saw the girls starting their day with a semi-final against Kristin School, which they won and in the final against the home school of Ballarat Grammar, they fought hard to be able to retain their champion title, with a final score of 33-22 making them the winner for the Premier grade of the Quad Tournament.

Congratulations to Chloe Davis, Matire Ormsby van-Selm and Chloe Carr Paterson who were selected for the tournament team for the Premier grade.

Development team's stellar effort

The Development team played four outstanding games on the first day of competition, putting everything they had on the courts. The second game, against Pembroke’s development team was a testing game for the girls, with St Paul’s winning at the start, but then having Pembroke raise their game and increase their score by half-time. In the last quarter, the St Paul’s girls stepped up, resulting in the girls taking away the forced win. Following this, the girls played two Premier teams, which when you consider the strength of these teams, it was heartening for the girls to have close losses in these two games.

In the semi-final, the Development team played Pembroke’s equivalent and the girls brought their passion for netball out onto the court and it showed with the girls claiming a 32-26 win. The final, against the host school, Ballarat Grammar, was the hardest game of the tournament for the St Paul’s girls, but they fought hard, working alongside one another to show the strength of St Paul’s spirit, but unfortunately the girls had a close loss of 23-25.

Congratulations to Greta Simpson, Sara Phee and Caitlin Fladgate who made the tournament team for the Development grade.

The girls from both the Premier and Development teams would like to thank Mrs Helen Bradford, Mrs Marg Landon, Mrs Jackie Lock and Mrs Sonya Noble for organising this amazing tour and for accompanying us to Australia.