Final score: St Bede's: 37 Hurst: 49
Sarah Ivemy, who has coached this team for the last two years made the following comments in a post match interview:
"At the beginning of this season, each girl in the squad identified a personal aim and a team aim for this season and for next year. This year, every match we have played focused on our performance in the Sussex Cup and the SISNA competitions but these two challenges, demanding as they were in their own right, were overridden to some extent by our plans for 2012, when the girls will be U16's and therefore the team will be eligible to play in the nationals. I have high hopes for what they might achieve.
"Back to the match. We knew that we would probably meet St Bede's in the Sussex Cup finals and we knew that they are, as a team, taller than us, very strong and very quick on their feet. Our strength, by contrast, is that we are a very skilful side and our strategy was to employ those skills in a constantly varying pattern of tactics so that Bede's found it very difficult to judge what we would do next.
"St Bede's began the match very, very strongly indeed, demonstrating that they were as determined as we were to win and, although we maintained the lead during the first quarter, the game was too close for us to feel comfortable.
"In the second quarter, Hurst settled and the team began to use their heads more, especially under pressure. If an error was made, every single member of the team worked flat out to get the ball back, spurring each other on. We have three key defenders, Abby Biggs, Holly Sargeant and Phoebe Dicks; they really hunt the ball and get the interceptions. To enable these three to play to their strengths every other member of the team worked really hard to keep their hands up and force a Bede's error or make them pass the ball a bit too high and so give our interceptors a chance of winning the ball back. This is a very tiring way to play and every member of the Hurst team needed their break every quarter; they were working very hard every minute of the match and, although they are very fit indeed, that took a toll.
"We deployed a number of strategies during the game and I don't want to go into too much detail but they varied from forcing the ball out wide to create "chaotic" situations that Bede's would find it difficult to predict. Their objectives were, of course, to force errors from St Bede's. Throughout, our Centre Amelia Hammond and Wing Attack Nicole Tuffin tirelessly created space and fed balls into the circle where Libby Severs and Sophie Clowes shot consistently well despite the fact that they came under intense pressure.
"As a result of all this hard work, we began to stretch away in the second half. St Bede's, I think, began to get frustrated that they were not achieving more success despite the fact that they were taller and physically stronger than the Hurst squad. For our part, we achieved success because we mixed our strategies and tactics and because we were so incredibly focused, fighting continuously for space on the court and for every ball every minute of the game.
"Every girl in the team did wonderfully well, kept to plan and worked harder than perhaps they have every worked before. They deserved their victory and I'm very, very proud of them."
17 May 2012