U15 Junior Grand Prix round up (15th and 16th February) - Urmston double up with girls’ and boys’ successes

A total of 16 boys' and 29 girls' teams competed at nine different venues, each striving to head up their respective pools.

In the girls’ section, played on Sunday (16th February), Gold Pool A hosts Richmond A continued their successful campaign, mirroring their performance from the first Grand Prix by defeating all three teams and maintaining a perfect record.

As their matches progressed, Richmond found their rhythm and, in their final match of the day against Wapping Wildcats A, they secured a dominant victory, winning 25-17, 25-6, to claim the top spot and edge out the East London side, who finished second.

South Bucks and Bristol placed third and fourth respectively in a highly-competitive pool.

In Gold Pool B, hosted at Ashfield school, it was Urmston Grammar A who emerged as the front-runners. 

Their path to victory, however, was anything but simple with two of their three matches going to a decisive third set, both of which they managed to win in hard-fought battles.

The battle for second place was very close, with three teams finishing level on two points after winning one match and losing two. 

Hosts Ashfield Vipers, secured second place due to a superior points difference of +2, edging out MK City, who finished third with a -24 points difference.

Leeds Gorse Orange took fourth place, just behind MK City due to an inferior set difference.

In Silver Pool C, Newcastle Staffs demonstrated their strength on home turf, decisively defeating Urmston Grammar B, Wirral and AST Volleyball to claim all six points and top the standings.

Second-placed Wirral secured two out of three victories, overcoming third-placed AST Volleyball and fourth-placed Urmston Grammar B in straight sets.

Silver Pool D, held at Ashcombe, was an extremely tight affair, with all four teams having at least one match pushed to a third set. 

Sevenoaks School, Ashcombe Dorking, and VBDC all finished the competitions with two wins and one loss, earning four points.

The Kent side narrowly finished at the summit due to having a higher set difference than both Ashcombe and VBDC.

The battle for second and third came down to the head-to-head between the two sides - after they had finished on the same overall points, set difference and points difference - with the hosts just holding the edge.

In Bronze Pool E, Richmond B finished at the top of the standings, winning all three of their matches. 

However, their path to victory was not without challenges, as two of their matches went the distance, but their resilience helped them over the line in each case.

The two sets Richmond dropped were taken by second-place The Boswells School and third-place Weymouth, highlighting the competitiveness of the pool.

Boswells defeated both Weymouth and Team Sideout in straight sets to clinch the runners-up spot.

Manchester Marvels, hosts of Pool F, triumphed on their home court, finishing top of the pile in a competitive pool. 

Meanwhile, in Pool G, the smallest pool of the weekend with only two teams competing, ENVC got the better of Wapping Wildcats.

Richmond hosted Pool H, but it was South Hants who came out on top, leading the standings with some impressive displays.

Saturday (15th February), saw the boys' teams take centre stage, with Urmston Grammar A topping Gold Pool B by a clear margin, conceding only 70 points in winning all three of their matches.

Their dominance was underlined in that no team in their pool managed to score more than 15 points against them in a set as they secured a total of 150 points at the same time.

The key match was their 25-9, 25-14 victory over second-placed Leeds Gorse Orange, who themselves, triumphed in straight sets against Monkseaton, who finished third, and fourth-placed MK City. 

Newcastle Staffs (pictured above) hosted a three-team Silver Pool D tournament, with both of their opponents coming from Urmston Grammar.

Staffs showed no signs of nerves, convincingly defeating both Urmston Grammar B and C to secure a flawless 100% record.

Urmston Grammar B finished second after overcoming their clubmates in a tightly contested match (25-20, 25-23), leaving Urmston Grammar C in third place.

Volleyball England would like to thank all hosts venues for overseeing matches.

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