Last week saw the culmination of the annual England Squash national schools squash competition at Edgbaston Priory Club in Birmingham, and Gosforth Academy teams were there in force!
KEYSTAGE 3 GIRLS
Our keystage 3 girls team of Rebecca Little, Ebony Holmes, Holly Houghton, Syra Bhatt, Izzy Wright and Jos Durham qualified for the last eight with dominant wins at both local and regional levels but lost out in a close 3- 2 against Stowe school from Buckinghamshire. They then comfortably beat Taunton School from Somerset before losing to Sevenoaks from Kent and finishing 6th.
On a positive note, the Gosforth Trust team (Gosforth Central Middle and Goforth East Middle combined) also qualified for the finals day and managed to win the title!
The top three girls in their team are all in year eight and will move up to the Academy next year, which could promise much for next season's keystage 3 campaign.
KEYSTAGE 4 GIRLS AND BOYS
Gosforth Academy were defending champions in the keystage 4 girls competition, and despite losing 3 players to the keystage 5 team, they still took a strong squad to Birmingham, comprising 1. Ava Naibitt 2. Kate Naisbitt 3. Isla Cook 4. Sophie Cockett 5. Lexi Sweenie and 6. Anushka Sawant.
Comfortable wins over Wycombe Abbey and Millfield saw the Academy into the final, where it played Epsom College. This was a repeat of last year's final, which the Academy won 3 - 2.
Epsom has a couple of incredibly strong scholarship players at 1 and 2, and they secured two wins against the Naisbitt twins. However, we have strength in depth, and Sophie Cockett and Lexi Sweenie won comfortably at 4 and 5. It all came down to the number 3s, where Isla Cook tried hard but just lost out to another foreign scholarship player 10 - 12, 8 - 11. It was a great team effort, but we won runner-up medals this season.
Our keystage 4 boys are the strongest squad of players since we won this category 10 years ago, with Michael Mattimore and Alex Robertson (current adult N'bria County players) on the team.
The team of 1. Duncan Rutherford 2. Aidan Mahoney 3. Dan Toole 4. Matthew Ansell 5. Ethan Brown and 6. James Ulyatt had a comfortable win over St. Paul's School from London in the quarter final but then met our nemesis team, Epsom College, in the semi final.
Epsom College has two highly ranked U17s in its squad, and the English U15 number 1 plays at number 2 on their team!
The Academy team put up a good fight but lost 4 - 1, with James Ulyatt proving our strength in depth with a 2 - 0 win at number 5.
Epsom lost to Wycliffe College in a battle of the scholarship players in the final, but the Academy got back to winning ways by securing bronze medals with a 5 - 0 win over Aylesbury Grammar School.
KEYSTAGE 5 GIRLS
Despite missing two players due to a language exchange visit (Katherine Palmer and Sarah Jane Mothersole), we still took a very strong team full of county players to the national finals: 1. Shae Paterson 2. Zoe Shipsey 3. Grace Moore 4. Evie Paterson 5. Anna Morgan.
Two comfortable wins against Benenden School and Sevenoaks, both from Kent to the Academy team to the final, where Epsom College was once again waiting.
The rules allow Epsom to play their two international scholarship players from keystage 4 up in their keystage 5 team, which adds to their South African number one sixth former. We were up against it, but Anna managed to get a 2 - 0 win at number 5 in our 1 - 4 defeat. We are runners-up again to Epsom College.
So we couldn't add to the 7 national titles that we have won in the last 10 years, but the 2023/24 season was a successful campaign with two runners-up positions, a third and a sixth, which for a state school competing against mostly private schools with all their resources is quite an achievement.
Now we start planning for next season!