St Bartholomew's School, Newbury, lacrosse team success at National School's tournament in Aldershot

It was another successful end to the season for Newbury's young lacrosse players.

The senior lacrosse team from St Bartholomew's School travelled to Aldershot earlier this month for the biggest event in the country's school lacrosse calendar, the National Tournament.

The first day saw the team – the only state school to be represented at the tournament – face some of the strongest teams in the competition.

Despite this, the girls held their own, losing three closely fought games, drawing with Sherborne and winning 8-0 against The Kings School, Canterbury.

Kelly Thorne, assistant headteacher at St Bart's who accompanied the girls throughout the weekend, along with PE teacher Lindsay Leach, said: "The team trained so hard, both inside and outside of school, in preparation for the National Tournament.

"St Bart’s were up against some extremely strong competition and the skill and determination shown by all our players on the pitch meant that St Bart’s dominated many of their games."

The "amazing skills and determination shown by all on the pitch" meant that this year St Bart’s qualified for division two for the finals day – improving on last year's result, when they came away division 3 winners.

The finals day started well with a hard fought draw with St George’s, Edinburgh and from that point on, "the girls played some highly skilled lacrosse and dominated the competition".

They enjoyed a 9-0 victory against Abbots Hill and an 11-0 win against Rendcomb, which placed them top of their group.

The first game in the knock out stages was against Queen Margaret’s, which they comfortably won, 5-0.

A 4-1 victory against Uppingham in the quarter final followed, before a last minute change of field saw the girls given just minutes to get themselves ready for the semi-final.

St Bart's battled well but Bedford ran out 5-2 winners, before they also went on to win the final.

The St Bart's team, many of whom play for new local side Phoenix Lacrosse, as well as on both English and Welsh national pathways, were Anna Colston, Lucy Colston, Georgia Humphreys, Izzy Smithson, Gemma Moon, Izzy Duly, Annabel Grant, Izzy Quesada-Getgood, Freya Morse, Grace Conington, Emily Cox, Immy Moon, Sophie Livingstone, Annabel Maclean, India Duly, Izzy John, Ellie Upton and Lucy Bosley.

Miss Thorne added: "I am very proud of their achievement and the fantastic way they represented our school. Thank you to all of the parents, family and friends who came to support us over the weekend.

"We hope they enjoyed the experience as much as we did.”