Bridgewater U11s (Prep V and VI) travelled to Rochdale this afternoon to compete in the Independent Schools Association basketball competition.  We have a rich recent  heritage in this event, winning in 2014 and narrowly losing in the final last year.

We started well: a 2-0 victory against QE (Imran and Charlie on target) and a 3-0 victory against BCP (Star, Max and Thomas).  Against Firs, we were shocked into a response when they went 1-0 up virtually from the tip off.  Respond we did, as Charlie and Max both scored two for a 4-1 victory.

Into the playoffs, against Brabyns again we conceded an early point, but again it was Charlie and Max to the rescue as we ran out 2-1 winners.  And so to the final match, against St. Gerard’s.  Zykiah will henceforth be known as ‘The Octopus’ for the way he blocked and generally made life difficult for their star player, cutting off their attacking threat.  It was close but eventually Holly, who had been hitting the rim all day, popped a basket in and ensured it was five wins out of five and the championship to us!

Well done to all the players today: with a large squad, not everyone got as much court time as they would have hoped but, to their credit, no one complained and it was a real team effort that won us the trophy (with no small help from Mr. Smith’s strategic coaching).  Well done to our basketball champions!