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Friday 19th March

This marked the start of an exciting 6 day Netball Tour to Malta. All 19 girls in the year group along with Miss Wright, Miss Neale, Miss Bray and Zack (our mascot) headed off early to Gatwick airport to begin the tour. After a short flight we boarded our coach and departed for the hotel Santanna. That

evening we enjoyed a buffet dinner followed by a leisurely walk along the sea front.

Saturday 20th March

After a good breakfast we had some free time to take a bus trip to Mosta where we visited a local cathedral that was bombed in the First World War. After this we transferred to an indoor sports hall to play our first fixture against Netball Fundamentals. This local club showed great potential but were not strong enough to overcome either of our teams.

Team 1 v Netball FundamentalsWon 17-4 Team 2 v Netball Fundamentals Won 22-10

After two fantastic wins in which the girls played some great netball went off to the town of St Julian’s for a spot of bowling. This proved to be very entertaining and involved various techniques; my favourite was Phoebe Baldwin’s. I won’t disclose the winner, but best bowler went to Ella Flashman who scored a massive 93 points! After this we got ready for a spot of retail therapy! This resulted in some impromptu dancing on an empty stage!! We then returned to the hotel for dinner and some chilling out.

Sunday 21st March

This was our rest day as Netball is not played on Sunday in Malta. So we took advantage of this and enjoyed a georgous boat trip to Gozo! We were accompanied by our very own tour guide, Ernest, who showed us around the sights and educated us on Maltese history. In addition to the sights we were very lucky to be invited to visit the only animal sanctuary on the island run by Betty Berry (grandmother of George Berry in year 8). This provided us with an insight into the work involved in rescuing stray dogs and cats and meant that we got to meet them all! Even though the girls asked to take home nearly every animal in sight, we decided there just wasn’t enough room on the return flight, but we could support their work by sponsoring a cat that had been brought in the day before. Betty had decided to name the cat “Fleet” due to our visit and we fell in love with him straight away!

Monday 22nd March

This turned out to be a very busy day we got up early and then headed off to our first fixture. This match was against Pembroke Girls School a local senior school. The B team played extremely well and produced a convincing win.

U13B v Pembrooke Girls School Won 28-8

Later on that afternoon we prepared for the second match of the day, against a local club team called “Trojans”. This team had lots of possession but could not get the ball in the net due to our strong defence. Another win for the girls!

U13A v Trojans Won 33-3

We then moved onto our third match of the day. This was played at a local sports ground under flood lights. The “Attwood Devils” are a club team who have been playing together for some time. They proved to be strong competition, with some girls older than ours. Our B team put on a great show but unfortunately the game had to be abandoned as most of the island had been experiencing a power cut. We hoped the power would come back on to enable us to use the flood lights and continue but this never happened. We had no choice but to stop when the light faded.

U13B v Attwood Devils – half game Lost 15-5

We returned to the hotel half expecting to be sitting in the dark for the rest of the evening, however I was delighted to see our hotel fully lit up when we returned ( thank goodness for backup generators!) A late dinner and some free time finished the day off nicely!

Tuesday 23rd March

Another busy day! A lovely trip to the beach for an ice cream, with some girls even taking the opportunity to have a swim in the sea, preceeded our first fixture of the day which took us back to Pembrooke School.

Another great performance by Feltonfleet! Well done girls.

U13A v Pembrooke Girls School Won 38-6

We had the rest of the afternoon to visit Valetta, the capital city of Malta. For this tour we enlisted the help of Miss Bray (Bray Tours) with her guide book. It was a fantastic afternoon full of beautiful sights, great company and lovely food!

We jumped on our coach and left for the final two matches, which were taking place at a senior school under floodlights. The opposition were a local club called “Melleiha” made up of some older girls who proved to be very strong opposition.

U13B v Melleiha Mini’s Lost 18- 4 U13A v Melleiha Lost 19-15

Even though the girls were older, both of our teams worked their socks off and played extremely well. The A’s only narrowly lost as the game was going goal for goal well into the 3rd quarter. Two great games to watch!

We then headed back to the hotel for our final dinner and awards ceremony. The evening flew by and it wasn’t long before we were off to bed to get ready for our early departure the next morning.

We said goodbye to Malta and hello to all the parents waiting eagerly at Gatwick. I was very proud of how the girls behaved and played their netball throughout the tour and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. I would like to thank the girls for coming and Miss Bray and Miss Neale for all their hard work, without which this trip would not be possible.

Miss Wright