We were at the Energy Box Levenshulme last week for the third Schools Competition of the year, Badminton!
Four schools attended, each bringing two teams of doubles, to compete in a round-robin group, 3 points for a win, 1 point for a loss.
To continue our programme of Schools Competitions we chose another sport which might not usually be found in the calendar, but one which our schools showed interest in, and which is popular amongst pupils.
We went for an adapted doubles format with the rules, which was great to show the players, some who were more familiar than others! We thought whilst it wasn’t the focus of the day, developing players understanding of service rules and court dimensions was a bonus to those who had only played non-competitively before, with a slightly confusing diagram on hand to help!
Teams came from Greenbank Preparatory (Cheadle Hulme), St Catherines (Didsbury), St James’ (Rusholme) and St Ambrose (Chorlton) to compete for 1st and 2nd place medals and the pride of taking the shield back to their school to display. It was a closely ran race, with the deciding match coming with just a couple of matches left. One of St Ambrose teams did fantastically and narrowly missed out on first place, but eventually it was a team from Greenbank Preparatory who eventually topped the table, staying unbeaten throughout the whole competition! Massive congratulations to them!
Matches were played first to 11, with teams only able to score when serving, and serve swapping sides and from one partner to another each time. We briefed the teachers and coaches and gave the teams a few minutes’ practice, before the first matches.
With some games finishing quicker than others it meant lots of time to play friendlies and practice. It was great to see teams chatting to other teams from other schools to see if they’d played each other yet, or if they wanted a friendly game, they were really getting into it!
As we approached the last few matches it became obvious that there were two stronger teams, as St Ambrose Reds and Greenbank Yellows had been unbeaten, and were playing each other with just one game left each. All eyes were on what was likely to be the deciding match, and whilst St Ambrose Reds took a few point lead, it was Greenbank Yellows who pulled through winning 11-5. We finished with the presentations and by giving each and every player a massive well done for all their impressive efforts.
We’re straight onto planning our next Free Schools Competition, which will be Netball on the 22nd of March, look out for invites via email and letters delivered by your LSC coach.
