Report from Matthew Waldie
The EPA Junior Qualifiers for the World championships in September was held last weekend, at Burnham, near Slough.

Unfortunately, the event had been postponed by a fortnight, so our full Eastern Region team were unable to play. However, Harry Waldie, from Rayne Swan PC, joined forces with Jessica Shoesmith from Anglia and Meredith Young from West Midlands to compete as a Combined Team.

They played four matches against a strong field, with two of the opposing teams, from Southern and Chiltern regions, having represented England previously.

After a slow start against last year’s winners, where they had problems finding either length in pointing or line in shooting, losing to 3, the team started to pull together and find some form in their second match. In a hard-fought contest, including some impressive shooting/pointing at over 12 metres, they only lost to 12.

Perhaps bolstered by this performance, they then took on the team from Anglia, which had just beaten both the former international teams. They performed well, not being afraid to play an attacking game, and almost turned the outcome of the tournament around - again only losing to 12 in the end.

Finally they met the very strong Chiltern side. This experienced team was in fine form, pointing to an 8 metre coche and shooting out anything near it. Although they were not cowed by this, they could only score 3 at the finish.

All in all, a great experience for Harry and his relatively young team mates (14 & 11). Despite not having won a game, they could be pleased with their performance and they all had an enjoyable day “on the piste”.