Mill Hill Win The Inaugural Bowden Bowl

Paul Bowden reports:

14/03/22: After cancellation in 2020 owing to a hurricane and in 2021 thanks to Covid, and a further postponement this year, it was great to see the competition finally take place for the first time at Aldenham yesterday.

The Bowden Bowl is the "second tier" inter-school U15 team competition.

Unfortunately QEB were unable to take part owing to huge staffing commitments at a rugby tournament but it was great to see Mill Hill and Burford join the host school at the event.

The enthusiasm of the Burford team was evident despite the fact that they have only played for a very short time and they have to travel to Newbury for their weekly practice. They are still very inexperienced but they had a great day and competed well in some fine rallies. When they had completed their two matches, they stayed on and made good use of their extra court time.

The agreed format was that each pair would play three games against each of the other teams.

Aldenham were unable to field their strongest team whereas Mill Hill lost a player to Covid at fairly short notice. This meant that Mill Hill foreited all the points for third pair. So it came to the final match where the Aldenham team had to try to secure one game against the technically and tactically accomplished Mill Hill team Despite their best efforts, they were unable to secure that one point which meant that Mill Hill, though level on points with Aldenham, were the winners by virtue of their victory over Aldenham by six points to three.

A thoroughly enjoyable day with lots of smiles and not a cross word between any of the players and one which I hope will be shared by more schools next year. It is a great opportunity for Under 14s and Under 15s to enjoy a team competition.