Teams from five different universities participated in Student Sport’s inaugural inter-JSoc netball tournament: The hosts Nottingham alongside Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, and Manchester.
The Birmingham Jsoc team emerged as champions in a competitive and action-packed tournament dubbed as “Nottsball”.
Nottingham recently won their college netball league and were in fine form leading up to the tournament despite having lost to teams from Leeds and Birmingham in the past.
However, the quality shone through and the girls from Brum took home the gold after maintaining a perfect winning record on the day, mainly thanks to their star player and leader Talia Rich commanding the defence.
Highlights of the day:
Birmingham Jsoc dominated the tournament from start to finish sweeping aside every team that they faced. Big wins including a 42-23 thrashing at the despair of Bristol a cornerstone of their success and an insight into the quality of the team.
Other victories encompassed were 37-28 over both Leeds and Nottingham followed by a slightly more competitive match in their narrow 28-24 win over Manchester.
Captain of the Birmingham team Talia Rich expressed her delight of the teams performances describing it as “A pleasure to play with these girls today and see that our hard work prior to the tournament has come to fruition on the day”.
Runners up Leeds can hold their heads up high after pushing Birmingham all way. Lead by the impressive displays of captain Ella Bloom, they performed well throughout and were thoroughly deserving of a second place finish.
Impressive win margins over Nottingham, Manchester and Bristol cemented their place on the podium and extracted a beam of positive light over the future potential and quality of the team.
Ella highlighted that “It was obviously disappointing to fall short but I am extremely proud of the team today and very excited about whats to come next from us”.
Hosts Nottingham ended the day in 3rd place after a mixed range of performances throughout the tournament. The highlight of the day for the Notts girls was a commanding 35-26 win over Manchester. However, large defeats to Nottingham and Leeds respectively sealed their fate in missing out on the top two.
One sequence and goal from the hosts on the day:
Although all the teams involved had their sights set on winning, the will to win was slightly overshadowed by the excitement and proud nature of the tournament as a whole from every team.
Birmingham was the only JSoc with a netball team just 3 years prior to the event. Only a few years on and the progression of women’s sport in universities across the country was on display for all to see in this tournament.
Speaking to Nottingham Head coach Talia Skolnick she conveyed that ” Honestly just soaking in the day and seeing these girls giving it their all against each other puts a huge smile on my face considering where we were as a competitive sport a couple years back”.
The exuberance of joy throughout the event was highlighted by the friendly yet competitive attitude the teams portrayed in all games throughout. Member of the Manchester team Layla Jackson described the event as a “huge stepping stone and massive strive forward in inter-University netball”.
Honing in specifically on Leeds, Captain Ella Bloom caught up with me Post Match and highlighted her views on the day.
“Long day and its tiring playing 4 matches but overall, so much fun and so amazing to see girls from all across England come play together and raise money for charity”.
Ella was the shining light for the Leeds team throughout and was a constant backbone of the side in conveying her leadership for all to see.
Post match interview with Ella:
Over £1,000 was raised during the competition for two charitable organisations, It’s Never You, which supports parents of children with cancer, and World Jewish Relief (WJR).
The competition received backing from Student Sport, an alliance comprising Maccabi GB and UJS. The project helps teams in a number of ways, including by paying league and participation fees and providing the sporting equipment at no cost.
On the whole, a truly fantastic day for competitive University society Netball and one that truly highlights the recent progression and direction the sport is going in throughout all universities in England.
Putting on such a joyous event while simultaneously raising respectable money for charity is highly commendable and the tournament was a huge success in all aspects.
