Sports: Report - Netball 2022/23
The Merton netball team has had a fantastic year climbing from Division 5 into Division 2. Founded only last year by Vicki Moon and Ellie Owen (both 2020), the team has now more than 20 talented players who train and compete weekly. The team has been fortunate to have such a wide range of students across subjects, genders and abilities this year, from people who asked, ‘Isn’t that a volleyball?’ to very experienced players both returning and new.
The team started Michaelmas in the lowest division: 5. Our start was rocky with a loss to Osler, but we were only warming up. We went on to win the subsequent seven matches and top the division. Some highlights included the matches against Wadham and Lady Margaret Hall, 19-12 and 24-1 respectively. These amazingly high scores are a credit to our terrific shooters Emily Jones (2020), Ellie Owen, Suryansh Mehta (2019), and (in desperate times) Eleanor Bogie (2021). However, the term’s soaring success can be massively credited to our returning players from last year who really stepped up, led, and supported the team both in training and at matches. These phenomenal players included the team co-captains Eleanor Clark and Eleanor Bogie, Hajrah Hafeez (all 2021), Emily Jones and Ellie Owen (both 2020).
Having now made our way into Division 4 (which then became Division 3 when, because of the increasing number of teams, five divisions were split into six), the team rallied yet again with some of our brand-new players shining through. Special mentions must go to Megan Harfield (2021) who has been a spectacular goalkeeper all year, even inventing her own marking techniques. James Pepall (2019) brought height and defensive chutzpah this year, not missing a single training session. Another shout-out must go to some of the freshers who joined us this year: Emma Gracey, Antonia Johnson and Jemima Freeman (all 2022), who have been absolutely outstanding. Merton won five matches out of seven over the term and found itself yet again climbing the league into Division 2.
Hilary really saw the team come into its own with some fantastic play and amusing ‘Moments of the Match’ which we introduced into the games alongside ‘Player of the Match’ to have a laugh at some of the spectacular netball on show. ‘Players of the Match’ were selected at every match but haven’t been listed here as we had too many individual team members selected. This is further testament to the talent and dedication of our team. ‘Moments of the Match’ include slips into the splits, some amazing off-court saves and the team’s favourite kind of pass, the ‘Square’. Other highlights of the term included our match against Peterhouse, Cambridge, a fabulous game against friendly players. Merton was victorious, redeeming ourselves from our draw last year. Our well-deserving players of the match were Jemima Freeman and Jemima Barnes (2021) who both whizzed around the centre court, untouchable to their defensive players.
Moving into Trinity, although many of the team were studying for exams, we still had a great term. The team took third in our league in Cuppers, narrowly missing out on competing in the quarter-finals. This was great showing by Merton against some Division 1 teams in the tournament, whose division we hope to join next year (fingers crossed). Trinity also saw the team hosting our very first tournament at the Merton Sports Day. This was a great success with over 50 Mertonian and Mansfield students coming out to join the netball fun.
Overall, it’s been a terrific year for Merton netball and hopefully we’ll carry this year’s success into Michaelmas 2023, aiming for Division 1. Eleanor Bogie will continue as co-captain, joined by Jemima Freeman. We look forward to seeing our amazing team next year.
Eleanor Bogie and Eleanor Clark (both 2021)
Netball Co-Captains 2022-23
Merton netball team, having been formed in Trinity term 2021, had a great entry into the proper netball league this year. Being a new team, we entered the league in Michaelmas in Division 5. We had some great players show up (despite some injuries throughout the term) and managed to win six out of eight of our games to come second in the league (we were aided by some teams failing to turn up). Some highlights included the match against Linacre where we managed to get a score of 23-3 as well as against Brasenose and St Benet’s where we won both matches with scores of 11-2 and 8-2 respectively. Despite some initial mathematical errors by the league giving us false hope of coming first in the division, we managed to secure second place overall, just missing out on promotion but feeling pretty confident going into the Hilary league.
With our close loss in Michaelmas, going into Hilary we were determined to secure a promotion into Division 4. We got off to a great start winning 15-9 against Keble, the team we were expecting to be our closest rival through the term. We managed to keep up our momentum throughout the term, securing a season where we were unbeaten as a team although ending it on a draw with Univ in a tough game where we were neck and neck throughout. Despite this tense end to the season we managed to secure our position as first in the division and won promotion to Division 4.
I’d like to give a special shout out to the following who were all nominated player of the match at some point across the year: Emily Jones (2020) and Eppie Sharp (2018) whose shooting was always on point, and Ellie Owen (2020) consistently coming out of nowhere with some incredible interceptions. Also, a shout out to Evie McGrory, Imogen Walsh, Nikita Nunes and Jess Hancock (all 2020) for being our most committed second years as well as Hajrah Hafeez, Eleanor Clark and Eleanor Bogie (all 2021), our newest members who were so committed throughout the year. The one-off appearances of Benedict Yorston (2019), Fergus Waterhouse (2019) and Kieran Wetherick (2020) as well as Declan Nelson’s (2020) commitment to the club being a lastminute sub on multiple occasions (one time even showing up in chinos) should also be noted – it’s great to have such diversity of involvement in the club!
However, it hasn’t just been a term of serious competition and we have also taken on some more light-hearted competition this year. In Hilary we entered into the Pink Week Tournament and despite only managing to field two players, managed to team up with Oriel to secure victory with our very own Ellie Owen securing Player of the Tournament too! We also played against Peterhouse, Cambridge at the Peterhouse v Merton sports day in a very tough match and just about managed to maintain our unbeaten streak by getting a draw of 11-11. In Trinity our netballing has been somewhat minimal but we did have a great turnout in the Merton–Mansfield derby at Sports Day. In this tough grudge match (which definitely questioned the title of netball being a ‘non-contact sport’) we unfortunately lost out to our long-time rivals but persevered and showed our strength as a team.
Overall, it’s been a great year for Merton netball and hopefully we’ll carry this year’s success into Michaelmas. Good luck to our new captains Eleanor Bogie and Eleanor Clark.
Vicki Moon (2020)
Netball Captain 2021-22