Over the weekend of Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th January 2025 players, coaches and officials from around the Country travelled to Harrow Leisure Centre to compete in the 2025 Youth Inter-Area Finals.
The weekend started on Saturday, with the Under 11s and 15s taking to the court, with teams from Kent, London, Norfolk, Cambridge and the North West competing in the Under 11’s age group. Each team played each other once in a round-robin format with it all coming down to the last game of the day between London A and Kent. The game saw Kent narrow beat London A 3-2 to top the group by 2 points from London A.
In the Under 15s competition teams were split into two groups with teams from South East, London & East taking part in Tier 1 and teams from London 2, South East 2, North West and East 2 taking part in the Tier 2 competition. The Under 15’s competition was part of the Performance Programme competition for 2024/25. In Tier 1 South East 1 went un-defeated during the day of the event to claim top spot in the group. Tier 2 was another close group with London 2 narrowly beating South East 2 3-2 in the final.
Special mention to the players, coaches and parents from the team from the North West, who travelled down on the 05:00 train from Preston to get into London for the event!
On Sunday it was the time for the Under 13’s and 17s to take to the court. In the Under 13s competition teams from Kent, London, Cambridge and Norfolk competed. Again, another competition unfolded as in the Under 11s competition the day before it came down to the final game of the day between London A and Kent to determine the winners. One goal determined the tie with Kent coming out winners after a 6-5 victory.
In the Under 17s competition, the standard was again very high with many players already having experienced playing in the National League. Teams from Kent, London, Norfolk and Cambridge took to the court and as with the Under 11 and 13s competitions it was the same story with the final game of the day between London and Kent determining the winners. Although London beat Kent 5-4 it wasn’t quite enough to overturn Kent’s bigger goal difference from the morning match with both teams being tied on 10 points. The result ensured that Kent went home with 3 Inter-Area titles!
Both days were very well supported by friends and families of all the teams, which made for an excellent atmosphere. Thank You for your support!
As with all events of this nature, they wouldn’t happen without the officials that gave up the weekend to referee all matches and without the superb organisation of Sally and Lol More, thank you to all!
