History was made in Holland for UK Wallball with the first ever Junior GB team competing
Wallball is an up and coming new sport. Wallball is based on the historical ‘fives’ played at Eton. It is great for hand-eye coordination and bilateral limb coordination.
On December 20th, 2019. the first junior Team GB met at Heathrow airport to make history for UK Wallball. The team made up of 4 girls and 4 boys all under 17, from all parts of London were raring to go.
Upon arrival in Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam the team were greeted by the representatives of Score Wallball – the Dutch Wallball Academy, who transferred us up to our accommodation in Heeg. The first night was a nice relaxed evening, after dinner the players were enjoying games of pool, and getting to know each other better.
Day 1. After breakfast, we all headed to the venue. There were 500 games taking place over this weekend, with teams from all over Europe looking to take the top spot of Junior European number 1. We had players in all categories, so had games throughout the entire day. After a few nervy starts, Team GB starting to get into the swing of things, with almost every player getting at least 1 win under their belt! The atmosphere during the competition was great, players from all different countries getting to know each other and sharing the spaces so everyone could play before their matches! A great first day, and a great insight into international sport for our youngsters. We headed back to the Hostel, where we were joined by players, coaches and parents from Belgium and Ireland. We all had dinner together, then retreated to our rooms for some well-earned rest!
Day 2. Breakfast slightly later this morning, much to the happiness of our players! Again we headed over to the venue to get ready for the action – time to partner up and play doubles. All our pairs were in tricky groups, as some of the U17’s are already veterans of the game and have European rankings of top 10! We put on a great show, and with each game we improved and racked up more points, but on this occasion it wasn’t to be. Team GB did UK Wallball super proud, and we couldn’t have asked for a better group of young people to represent us, and their schools. Once back at the Hostel, we got pizza and pasta and ate all together, listening to Christmas songs and speaking of our experience of the weekend.
We returned back to Heathrow just in time to enjoy Christmas!
UK Wallball would like to thank Mr Cruz, of Trinity School for accompanying his students on the trip, Luke Thomson for his time and giving his coaching tips to the players, Score Wallball for hosting the great tournament and US Wallball Association for sponsoring the kits and Olympus for sponsoring the flights!
UK Wallball cannot wait to turn this into an annual event, and we look forward to coming back bigger and better.
If you or your school are interested in learning more about Wallball please contact UK Wallball by clicking here.
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