Hockey stars make Yorks & NE finals

RIPON Grammar School’s U16 hockey stars have made it to the Yorkshire and North-East finals after a series of thrilling matches.

The girls finished in first place first both in the North Yorkshire County and Yorkshire and NE tournaments.

Joint captain Katie Wilkinson said: “We are very proud of the effort we all put in to achieve the success of getting into the finals.”

RGS played four teams in the latest round, beating Hill House 1-0, St Aidan’s 1-0 and Hymers 1-0, losing only to Wakefield Girls in a close match that ended at 3-2 after a last-minute goal.

“As a team we always keep our heads up and give our all until the final whistle,” said Katie.

“Our player of the tournament is Izzy Laybourne-Ribeiro as she stayed positive throughout the day and was very strong in defence, and well done to our top goal scorer, Lexi Ramshay. However, it was a whole team effort creating these opportunities.”

As captains, myself and Lottie Nicol feel we all played extremely well and everyone should be proud of themselves.

“We are all looking forward to the final and hoping for even more success. The whole team would like to thank Miss Gilfillan as none of this would be possible without our amazing coach’s time, effort and support.”

Miss Gilfillan said the girls’ performance was awesome: “They’re such a great group of girls to be involved with.”