First School Games County Final Takes Place

 

 

The first School Games County Final, the County Schools Table Tennis Team Finals, took place on 5th December at Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College, Burton-upon-Trent.

 

The School Games is a key Government priority for ‘realising a meaningful sporting legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games’.  A year-round sporting calendar is being created across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, specifically designed to get young people competing at intra-school and inter-school levels, and culminating in local, regional and national events.

 

Each sub-region is planning to organise a one-day ‘Level Three’ county festival in the summer term, where the winning teams from School Sport Partnership-level tournaments in a variety of sports will come together to compete for the title of county champions.  Within Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, as well as organising a main Level Three event, various satellite events are being supported and branded as ‘School Games Finals’, where they need to be run at different times in the year to enable the winners feed into regional or national tournaments.

 

Table Tennis is one such sport – the winners from the county finals will be invited to compete in the English Schools Table Tennis Association’s Zone Round in mid January in Bradford, where they will play other County winners from four other counties.

 

19 school teams qualified for the County Finals, with four players per team.  Each team won the right to compete by winning the district-level round organised by their School Sport Partnership.  The closest-fought competition was the Under 13 Boys age group – The de Ferrers Academy (East Staffordshire SSP) and Clayton Hall Business and Language College (Newcastle-under-Lyme SSP) both won 4 games and 15 matches, with de Ferrers winning on a points count-back by just 8 points (276 to 268)

 

Full results are as follows:

 

Under 11 Boys – Winners: John of Rolleston Primary School (East Staffordshire SSP).

Under 13 Boys – Winners: The deFerrers Academy (East Staffordshire SSP); Runners Up: Clayton Hall Business and Language College (Newcastle-under-Lyme SSP)

Under 16 Boys – Winners: The de Ferrers Academy (East Staffordshire SSP); Runners Up: Walton High School (Stafford and Stone SSP)

 

Under 13 Girls – Winners: Sir Graham Balfour High School (Stafford and Stone SSP); Runners Up: Brewood C.E. (C) Middle School (South Staffordshire SSP)

Girls U16 – Winner: The deFerrers Academy (East Staffordshire SSP); Runners Up: Kingsmead Technology College (Cannock and Rugeley SSP)

 

Chris Newton, Regional Manager for the English Table Tennis Association, and the tournament organizer, said of the event “It was great to see so many pupils taking part in table tennis, and the standard was exceptionally high.  I think the Under 13 Boys competition was the closest team match I have ever witnessed, and it certainly added a high level of excitement to the event.  I was also pleased that the number of girls teams taking part has doubled since last year”.

 

 

The next School Games Satellite Events will be the Sportshall Athletics County Finals on 9th January (Primary) and 11th January (Secondary) at Fenton Manor Sports Complex, Stoke-on-Trent.  In terms of the main Level Three event, Sport England is due to announce its decision on the funding applications submitted by each sub-region in mid-January, and if Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are successful more details will follow in the next newsletter.

 

Jane Kracke
Sports Manager
T: 01785 619187
E: jkracke@staffordbc.gov.uk