EAST Norfolk Sixth Form College has achieved more success in a range of sports.

The women’s rugby team won the British Colleges’ Sport East Region rugby tournament (pictures back page).

In the past the women’s rugby team have been unstoppable and have won the Green King Trophy for five out of the last seven tournaments. For the last two years they have been runners-up to South East Essex Sixth Form College (SEEVIC), but this year the girls came out on top against their arch rivals from Southend.

The final was played over three matches of 10 minutes, a best-of-three decider.

The first match proved was a hard battle with the teams evenly matched in defence and attack. The deadlock was broken with a superb bit of individual skill by player of the match Laura Thacker.

She used her vision to spot a gap in the SEEVIC defence to race three-quarters of the pitch to put East Norfolk five points up. A few minutes later Thacker got the ball from the base of the scrum and broke blind-side to go under the posts to score a converted try for a 12–0 win.

The second match was also close as Thacker was being tightly marked. But this allowed the other team members greater space to attack the SEEVIC defence, and thanks to some excellent recycling of the ball Chloe Massey was left space to score near the touchline.

East Norfolk’s second try was a replica of the first, but this time it was Charlie Smith’s opportunity to utilise the overlap and touch down resulting in a 10–0 victory for the East Norfolk girls.

They will represent the East Region at the BCS National Finals held at Bath University in April.

The girls are now busy training for a seven-a-side tournament at Rosslyn Park before they compete at the national finals.

East Norfolk SFC squad: Chloe Massey, Lauren Halliwell, Ella Wisken, Laura Thacker, Tegan McCann, Laura Ash, Charlie Smith, Toni Dale, Gabby King, Ellie Hope, Steph Barrett, Ella Saunders, Ellie Wilson.

THE East of England British Colleges’ mixed doubles badminton final was a local affair as two pairs from East Norfolk Sixth Form College battled it out for the title.

In a close-fought final Luke Cox and Serena Verney emerged as champions against Bethany Fox and Dan Farrow.

As the top college pair in the six counties of the East of England, Luke and Serena will represent the east in the national finals at Bath University at Easter.

College badminton coach, Sally Bridgstock, commented: “We have a talented college squad and we are looking forward to the rest of the regional badminton events in February and to the national team cup competition.”

LAURA Thacker, a full-time student at the college, is celebrating being selected to represent the British College’s National team in the upcoming games against Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

Laura is in her second year studying for her BTEC National Extended Diploma in Sport and her level 2 coaching qualification. Next year she plans to go out to the USA on a football scholarship.

She said, “I’ve really enjoyed the experience and am now looking forward to representing my country, and I would like to thank everyone at East Norfolk Sixth Form College for their support.

“I have found the player improvement programme (PIPs) has helped develop the weaker parts of my game and further improve on my strengths, while the coach education course (SPACE) has helped me develop my understanding of the game. I’m now preparing for the England training camp which will be in half-term.”

Laura has worked extremely hard during her time at the college to achieve this accolade and give herself the opportunity of getting the best possible scholarship to USA where she hopes to study sports science.

THE men’s football first team were back in action in a league double-header against Cambridge Regional College.

Playing against a very strong wind in the first half the boys had to be disciplined and organised defensively to prevent CRC building a half-time lead.

Kai Hewitt communicated with the back line well and the East Norfolk defence stood strong with Dec Harvey having an excellent game.

Josh Trett and Jack Garrod varied their runs and combined well, with George and Nathan providing back-up. Although it could have been more than 3-0 at half-time (Jack Garrod (2), Josh Trett (1)) the score reflected how well the team had defended and how creative they were when attacking.

The second half was comparatively flat but Oli and Joe gave the CRC full-backs problems and stretched the game enabling Jack Garrod to continue to give the CRC centre-backs a tough afternoon.

Good work from Oli should have seen Josh Trett add to his tally and a free-kick from Josh Armes was well saved. Garrod provided an assist for Trett to score, and Trett’s hat-trick was completed after some good build-up play from Joe Larter.

An excellent display from Jack Garrod saw him take man of the match although Dec Harvey and George Barnden were equally impressive.

THE table tennis squad were in dominant form at the East of England Regional Championships.

After the entire squad had progressed from the Norfolk and Suffolk zonal competition it was going to be tougher against the best college students from the other four counties of the east.

Even so, the local students were crowned as regional champions in three of the five events.

Tom Baxter and Robyn Doidge took the two singles titles. Then Robyn and Sam Coleman won the mixed doubles.

Jess Atkinson and Catherine Bates took silver in the women’s doubles. There were semi-final places for Lewis Woolston in the men’s singles and for David Dickens and Will Bond in the men’s doubles.

The next test for the top-performing East Norfolk students is the National Championship at Easter.