The 4th and final round of the 2023-24 VE Grand prix round of competitions. Eight teams involved in two pools of 4, Wirral are in the ‘A’ pool. 

Venue Woodchurch HS

This is effectively the Northern T2 final and our chance to show we’re good enough to challenge in T1 next season.

Team: Katie Leppington (capt), Eisha Chahal, Helena Hinch, Abi Larway, Lily Hogan, Lily Prosser, Gaby Liu, YanXi Chen, Imi Newall, Emily Foster

Results: 

Wirral v St Bees won 2-0, 25-8, 25,13

Wirral v Telford won 2-1, 26-24, 16-25, 15-6

Wirral v Newcastle Staffs won 2-0, 25-16. 25-10

The competition overall was a little disappointing, billed as a northern champions play-off but turning out to be pretty much a rerun of round 3 but with the addition of Telford. 

We had a strong team out and decided to use the games as a work out before the Lisbon tournament in June. The games against St Bees and Newcastle Staffs were predictable wins but we had a pretty good work out against Telford, who made up in fight and obstinacy for what they lacked in skill and control. The match was an interesting challenge, Telford kept scrambling the ball back forcing us to find ways to hit winners. We scraped a win 26-24 after being behind 24-21 in the first set, lost the second, but took the 3rd set reasonably comfortably.

It gave our team a chance to work on establishing a proper 5-1 system with Eisha setting, Gaby opposite and Helena excelling in her new role of libero. There were some great rallies, some terrific recovery play from both sides, and good attacking play from our girls with Abi and Katie outstanding. There’s still some way to go but the girls are making the transition from a group of players to a team, and a team with an appetite to learn and develop.