Barton Peveril Sixth Form College Alumni Emma Payne of University of Bath and Ellie Harding of University of Birmingham found themselves on opposing teams in the Netball Semi Finals of the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) National Cup on Wednesday 8th March.
Both Emma Payne of The Toynbee School and Ellie Harding of Meoncross School studied at Barton Peveril between 2017 and 2019 and were members of the Elite Netball team as part of their Q-XTRA programmes, which they took part in alongside their A Levels.
Despite attending different universities, Emma Payne who studies Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Bath and Ellie Harding who studies Chemistry at the University of Birmingham were reunited on Wednesday, where they played to reach the BUCS Netball Final for their respective university teams.
BUCS is the national governing body for Higher Education sport in the UK. The majority of universities across the country have teams from all different sports that compete each week, typically on Wednesdays.
The semi final took place in Bath, where the University of Bath’s first team and University of Birmingham’s first team played in hope to reach the final on the 22nd March. Hundreds of spectators watched the match, with over 2000 also watching an online stream of the game. The game went to extra time and had a final score of 64-57 to Bath.
Barton Peveril Alumni, Emma Payne will take part in the Final of the BUCS National Cup at the end of the month against the University of Loughborough.
Alix Christopher, Teacher of Sport and PE at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College and TASS Dual Career Coordinator spoke about the game:
“Well done Emma and Ellie! and Congratulations to Bath who came away with the win from what sounds like a closely fought game and extra time!”
