MATCH REPORTS

Sheffield Concord’s U16 started off their regional campaign, back in mid- January, with a fantastic win against local rivals Sheffield Stormers. The “steel-city derby” clash between South Yorkshire’s team 1 and team 2, fought at York University, with both teams vying for the upper hand. Luckily, Concord took the local bragging rights, against a strong opposition, securing the match 36-14 with sound play from the whole team.

Unfortunately Concord were not able to continue and build upon this success as they were beaten 22-29 by Leeds Carnegie. Although this was a loss Concord could have done with out, the whole team (after a shaky start) managed to pull back the goal deficit in this game to within seven- even winning the last two quarters!

The next battle for Concord was held on Valentines Day, although no love was lost between both Concord and Harrogate Phoenix. Both teams had many regulars missing due to the half term break and in Concord’s case a modelling competition!

Nevertheless, the show had to go on and on it went. Act one was very tight with neither team seizing the lead and few goals scored. The second act was even tighter, with Concord then, Harrogate then Concord again taking the lead until Concord finished the play with a 29-25 victory. A special mention goes to Beth Crowley who played the entire game, despite injuring her knee in the first quarter!

On the last day of February, Concord was on home ground at their training venue the E.I.S facing two very tough matches. The first was against Hull Chevrons, the Humberside giants who placed third overall in last year’s national finals. Concord really held their own throughout the first three quarters, with some fantastic shooting from Olivia Needham, Pippa Kay and Beth Crowley, even taking a lead into the final quarter! Sadly, it was not our day with Chevrons showing their high levels of fitness, with the final result ending 37-30 to Chevrons.

After a one hour break, Concord was back on court, ready face Wakefield Phoenix, however the physicality of the earlier game took it’s toll in the first quarter, despite good shooting from Grace Black and Pippa Kay, with Concord going down by more than eleven goals. However Concord never gave up. There was fantastic centre court play from: Lucy Arundale, Ashni Lakhani, Nicole Weir and Elsa Pullman with the ball flying (quite literally) down court to the shooters. The defence of: Jenny Boddy, Lorna Radford and Rhian Evans also put up a strong fight making many interceptions and forcing the (very accurate) Wakefield shooters to the very top of the shooting circle. All of these strong performances meant that Concord managed to win the remaining three quarters pulling back, so that the final score of 43-37 to Wakefield was within six.

A big thank you has to be said from all of the Concord players to Liz Hughes and Jane Webster, our fantastic coaches, who have trained us and accompanied us on those long trips to York. Also, thank you to Sue and Lucy Crowley who have acted as scorers for us throughout our matches. Without all of your help, we wouldn’t be able to compete at such a high ( and enjoyable) level!

Concord who qualified as the winners of the South Yorkshire Competition, currently lie fourth in the U16 Yorkshire Regional League.