On 26^th April, the LEH Dining Hall was transformed into a beautiful evening reception to celebrate the achievements of the LEH Sportswomen from the last year. The evening began with a champagne reception followed by Mrs Budd’s introductory speech and presentation. The presentation highlighted the year’s achievements across the schools many sports alongside photos of the past season.

A delicious three course meal was served to all the guests, with the Captains of each sport delivering a superb speech to the Dining Hall, describing the individual achievements from across the year groups.

We welcomed Eboni Usoro-Brown as our guest speaker (England Netballer and Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist). She assisted Mrs Budd in handing out the awards for the year including Colours and Individual Awards. This year, Mrs Budd introduced her own award, The Tilbury Cup (in honour of her Maiden name, referencing her father who she attributes her sporting ability and passion to). The Tilbury Cup is awarded to someone who is an inspiration to others, especially the younger girls at LEH. They have been dedicated and committed to sport at LEH from IIIrds to UVI, both in participation and contribution. They are an all-round sportswoman, a passionate supporter, who has truly put their heart and soul into Sport at LEH. The first Tilbury Cup was awarded to Olivia (UVIB).

After the awards presentation, Eboni took to the stage to deliver an inspiring speech about her journey to becoming a National Netballer as well as managing her studies to become a Solicitor. She spoke of her earlier days discovering Netball and the trials and tribulations she encountered on the road to representing England. Alongside this, she told her story of how academia was just as important as her dreams and aspirations for sport, and how she managed to achieve both through determination, focus, and having an attainable goal.

The girls and parents thoroughly enjoyed her talk, with Mrs Hanbury delivering a vote of thanks after, with Head Girl Jessica giving flowers to Eboni. The night finished with a tribute from the girls to Mrs Budd (to her surprise!) and her career here at LEH, as well as a thank you and flowers.

The night was enjoyed by all and truly a fabulous way to finish the sporting year where once again, LEH Sport has had resounding success in a multitude of sports across every age group. Congratulations to all our sportswomen for a wonderful season, and a huge thank you to the UVI and Sports Captains who have led the way during the season. We wish the UVI the best of luck in their future endeavours.

By Miss Meakings – Teacher of P.E.

 

A huge thank you to the The Mintridge Foundation who put together this amazing video showing all the action and highlights from The Sports Dinner 2019.