Tuesday 12 January 2016 Hockey players from The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) have enjoyed a successful start to their season by winning through to the national finals of a major schools competition. 2016 is the third year in a row that GSAL will compete in the U16 category at the finals of England Hockey’s National Schools Championships for Girls The U16s will be joined by the U18 team, the second year running that GSAL is represented at the national final in this age group. The national finals take place on 9 and 10 March, at the London 2012 legacy venue Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The competition will feature eight teams in each age group – the winning teams from the five regional competitions plus three of the regional runner-up teams. Both GSAL teams earned their places in the finals by winning the north regional round. The U18s claimed an especially sweet victory in the final of their regional round by beating the current national champions Stockport Grammar School 5-1, having lost to them at last year’s national finals. U18 coach Gwen Smith said: “They came through some tough games to become northern champions. This is an amazing achievement by all involved, to be one of the top eight teams in the country.” The U16 scored an impressive 76 goals and conceded just 21 on their way to becoming northern champions. They hope to improve on last year’s performance at the national finals, when they won the third place play-off. Year 11 student Gabriella Aston is co-captain of the U16 and was in the bronze medal winning team at last year’s finals. She said: “The competition was nerve racking with some high quality hockey; it gave us the chance to see how good the teams are and motivated us to improve and train hard. I’m so excited to be going back to the Olympic Park this year.” General Senior School Sixth Form
