After two consecutive weekends of travel and netball for the Telstars U14 and U16 teams and their coaches, we are thrilled to be able to report their success at the Nationals.

The weekend of the 7th/8th May saw the U16 team head for Sheffield. Their first day saw them in a really tough group of Saints of Cornwall, Charnwood Sapphires and Telstars. Telstars won the group and then played Turnford and Saracens in order to be placed in the next day's competition. After an absolutely fantastic game against Turnford, worthy of any final, Telstars and Turnford drew. We needed to win against Saracens by a margin of 13 goals in order to have a place in the top 6. Telstars responded well to the pressure and won by 15!!!

The next round we played Oldham and Saints and unfortunately lost which led to a play-off against Star for 5th and 6th place. Despite putting their all into the game, Telstars could not overcome the Star team and lost by 2 goals only.

Telstars finished the day in 6th position.

The following weekend it was the turn of the U14 team, who went to Loughborough for their tournament. Their first group, again incredibly tough, was Tameside, Turnford, Eagles, Bar-Beacon and Cliftonettes. Telstars lost to Tameside and Turnford in their first two games, but then started to turn things around when they took on Eagles and after an nail biting end to end game were unlucky to lose by 2 goals. Confidence had increased by then and the next two games they won. This put them into the group fighting for 7th - 12th place.

Following a really good team talk on the Saturday night, the squad came out fighting on the Sunday. They played Flame and Hucclecote, winning both convincingly, and putting Telstars into the play-off for 7th and 8th place against Eagles, the team who had narrowly beat them the day before.

Telstars were not to be denied this time. A tremendously exciting game followed with the result unclear until the whistle went at the end of the game. Telstars had won 12-11!!

Telstars finished the day in 7th position.

It is a huge achievement for both teams , but also a testament of the hard work put in, that we have maintained our position at Nationals compared to last year.

All of this could not have happened without the continuous hard work,support and organisation of the team of coaches, Anita, Michelle, Bruce and Steph. Many many thanks must go to them as well.

Well done and congratulations everyone.