The U16 girls T2 Grand Prix at Frodsham was reduced to two teams when Whitley Bay withdrew so we agreed to provide a Wirral team to make up the numbers for a better competition. We couldn’t field an U16 team on the day so we included one overage player alongside one U15 and four U14 girls.

Team: Yan Xi Chen, Imi Newall (both over-age), Olivia Stewart, Natsui Yamamoto, Victoria Adesina, Ella Benjamin, Piruthya Sivakumar

Opponents: Frodsham, Salford

It was embarrassing how much better our team was than the opposition. We decided from the start to use only one over-age player at a time but even so, and despite having two year 9s who had never played on a full sized court before, our girls won every set easily, even meeting a target of keeping Frodsham down to 10 points in the first set. Although she is still in year 10 Liv stood out head and shoulders above any of the opposition players, and newcomers Ella and Piruthya moved and passed better than almost anyone on the opposing teams - and these were VE U16 Grand Prix entries.

Well done girls - but what a sad state English Volleyball is in if Frodsham and Salford are representative of national Tier 2 playing standards.