Highfield and Brookham School netball team earn place at national finals

Fresh from scooping silverware at a netball tournament in Dorset, talented players from an independent school in Liphook have gone a step further.

The U13 girls from Highfield and Brookham Schools followed their Plate success at Bryanston School with a stunning victory in the IAPS regional tournament at Cranleigh School this week.

The girls won five of their six matches – culminating in a tense 7-5 win over Brighton College in the final – to secure their place at the national finals of the tournament run by the Independent Association of Prep Schools.

The finals will be held at Ipswich School in Suffolk on March 14.

Proud Highfield Headmaster Phillip Evitt said: “It really has been quite a week for our U13s on the netball court. We’ve only just stopped celebrating the girls’ wonderful win in the Plate competition at Bryanston, and now they have topped that with overall victory at the IAPS tournament.

“We are always delighted to send our sports teams to the IAPS events and support what are always incredibly competitive occasions, so to come away with the regional trophy and book our place at the national finals is truly wonderful. The girls and their coaching staff should be immensely proud of themselves.”

And Mr Evitt added: “They say things come in threes, so we’ll all keep our fingers firmly crossed for March!”

At Cranleigh, with only the semi-finalists guaranteed a place in the national finals, Highfield secured their place in the last eight with two wins and one defeat in the group stages – edging out Windlesham 7-6, thrashing Dumpton 18-0 and losing a close affair to Westbourne House 5-3.

But the girls really got into full flow in the quarter-finals as they pulled away to beat Edgeborough 9-6 before blitzing shellshocked Kings Rochester 11-1 in the semi-finals to set up their glory bid against Brighton College.

Highfield last reached the national finals of the U13 netball tournament in 2018 when they returned home as Plate winners.