2007-08 | 2006-07 | 2005-06 | 2004-05 | 2003-04

August 2005 - Manchester Tournament

A Holyrood Rainbows team travelled down for the Manchester 4th annual Tournament and booked in to the luxury, no-star, Millstone Inn Hotel, (where some of the rooms even had windows!)

At the tournament the next day we found ourselves in quite a tough group, but were grateful that all the teams were a bit friendlier than last year. Although we held our own in a lot of the earlier matches, we didn’t win one until the last draw match with DJ Ladies when we got 6 goals to their 1. High on winning, we found ourselves in the plate competition round up against Preistnall 2nd.

They proved a tougher opponent but we still stormed to victory 6:5. Now in the Plate quarter- finals we faced Priestnalls 1st team. Unfortunately that is where our winning streak broke and they gained a 13:3 victory. We did however, have one more burst of victory, with the winning of a bottle champagne for Karen and a bottle of cherry liqueur for Kath in the raffle. We finished off the day with a Thai meal and cocktails, then, exhausted we headed back to the hotel. All in all it was a great weekend. Special thanks have to go to Annie Bryan and Tania Matthews who umpired throughout the day. Also, thanks to the nice lady from Netball Scotland who helped us out umpiring when we were stuck. Finally, we are immensely grateful to Virgin Trains for booking so many of us on a non-existent train to go home - not amused.

August 2005 - Jog Scotland 5KM

Three of the Holyrood girls donned their "wee tartan kilts" and their training tops to join in the fun in the JogScotland 5km run on Thursday 14th July. The sight created some attention (and therefore good publicity for the club!) including a wee mention as the girls crossed the finishing line and many comments about Highland Dancing!"

May 2005 - End of Season BBQ and AGM

The weather (and therefore, turnout!) wasn’t as good to us as it was last year, but we still had a fantastic time at our annual end-of-season sports afternoon and BBQ.

The Edinburgh Northern boys were so generous in letting us have their clubhouse from 12pm onwards which gave the “girls in the kitchen” time to prepare the salads etc. before we had our AGM in the warmth and comfort of the clubrooms.

Throughout the afternoon we played some softball, touch rugby and petanque and enjoyed the hospitality put on by the Rugby Club (ie. cheap alcohol!). After feeding the crowds with a sizzling barbeque, Quizmaster Pennie took the groups through some slightly NZ-biased trivia, awarding the winning team some of our Holyrood t-shirts ... and the boys who won them seemed pretty pleased!

May 2005 - CENA Tournament

Holyrood entered four teams into the annual CENA tournament on Saturday 21st May, at the Pleasance with some great successes.

After a tough morning of three 30-minute games, there was a short break before the Cup and Plate semi-finals. Thankfully, there was an hour's break when CENA held their AGM, before the finals.

Holryood Yellows and Whites faced each other in the Plate Finals and after a close-fought game where the Whites (with the help of a few extras) made the Yellows work hard, the Yellows triumphed and took home the silverware.

Holyrood Reds played a difficult semi-final against the University team, but a one-goal win saw them through to the Cup Finals, where they faced old rivals Edinburgh Onyx. Unfortunately their winning streak had to end, and Onyx won the CENA Tournament Cup for the second year running.

April 2005 - Laser Quest

A select group of Lara Croft wannabes (and Shell's rather tasty brother) pitched up for some gun touting in a dark dungeon off Dalry Road. Much mayhem and screaming at man in scary mask ensued. Needless to say tasty brother won . . . twice but The Shark was pip (squeaked) at the post . . . once. Best out of three, Shark?

April 2005 - Mixed Tournament

Kelda ran a very successful Mixed tournament on Sat 2nd Apri. Of the nine teams that entered, 7 were from Holyrood, including “Clint’s Sheilas” – a team from ex-Holyrooder Emma Davies who came up from Leeds for the day.

An ENC team won on the day after a tight final with Lorna’s team “No Antipodeans”, with Andy Gray of the “No Antipodeanss” winning Best Male on the day.

Beluga had been booked for some wee drinks afterwards and from what I’m told, everyone had a great night (yeah, yeah, I was there too but I just don’t remember much of the night!).

A big thanks to Kelda for running such a brilliant day, and thanks also Anna Gray and Kerry D’Mello who ran the administration on the day and to Anna Rattray and Tenae Francis for helping prepare the sandwiches.

The event was successful and raised approx. £350 for the Breast Cancer Campaign who Kelda is running the Edinburgh Marathon in support of.

March 2005 - Bowling and Karaoke

A few of the Holyrood girls took over two lanes at Fountainpark on Friday 11th March – Ten Pin Bowling. After an hour’s wait for the lane, which was happily endured with the free drink, the teams got bowling. They saw a few strikes (not only from the shooters either) and despite Annie’s spectacular fall, everyone had a good night.

March 2005 - Evelyn Beattie Quaich

Yellow's Report

The Yellows (with the help of Greens defender Jenny) faced some tough competition at the Evelyn Beattie Quaich on Saturday 19th March. Whilst everyone wandered who the team was in the smart new skirts, Holyrood showed them that teams from Edinburgh can put up a good fight!

The Yellows played two tough, but close games against Claremont and Linwood, losing narrowly to both teams but fought back against Glasgow Uni to beat the Western students by six goals. Unfortunately we did not make it through to the Finals, but we had a fun day and played some great netball - particularly Fran's outstanding shooting.

Red's report

Holyrood Reds played in the Evelyn Beattie Quaich on Saturday March 19th. In spite of some strong team play against clubs from Aberdeen, Refrewshire and Glasgow, the team bowed out of this tournament.

December 2005 - Christmas night out

	The Christmas Night out started with the majority meeting at EH1 on the Royal Mile for pre-dinner drinks and handing over Secret Santa gifts. From there it was a short stroll to Viva Mexico, where we had a long table waiting for us. A couple of jugs of cocktails were "on ice" and we all enjoyed some tastes of Mexico, whilst deciding on dinner.
The food was good and there were lots of laughs as the Secret Santa gifts were unwrapped. There are some impressive imaginations in the club with gift ideas from thongs (!) to water pistols and can you believe chocolate! After dinner, the crowd headed onto Beluga to finish off the night, with some dancing and more cocktails.

November 2005 - Scotland vs South Africa

On a cool, wintery Friday night the Scotland Open Netball team played a strong South African squad at Kelvinhall, in Glasgow. Four Holyrood girls took the opportunity to see international netball, and thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the South African shooting and their strong defense outclassed the Scotland team, and the visitors won 51-39. It was great to see such a high standard of netball - maybe we will see a Holyrood girl on the court next time!!

November 2005 - Corporate Decathlon

Netball became an important concept for a number of businesses on 20 November 2004…

Thanks must go to Anna Rattray, Viv Munk and Judy Anderson who put a lot of work into making the day a brilliant success which raised awareness of netball and CENA within Edinburgh.

October 2005 - Scottish Cup

This year we have two teams entered into the Scottish Cup – the Reds and the Yellows. The Prelim Tournament was held on Sun 24 Oct in Glasgow, proving there is tough competition out there (especially from the West teams). 

The Reds came third in their group, ensuring success in getting through to the second round of the Scottish Cup. The Yellows fought hard and gained some good experience but unfortunately did not make it through, so will only be playing in the Evelyn Beattie Quaich this year.

Support the Reds in their Scottish Cup tournament on Sun 14 November at Meadowbank Stadium. Support the Yellows in the Evelyn Beattie Quaich on Sun 12th December.

October 2005 - Glasgow Tournament

Holyrood entered four teams into the Glasgow National Tournament, held on Sun 2nd October in Kelvinhall. We had mixed results from the teams, but I’m sure everyone had a great time and appreciated the experience anyway.

Whites:
Holyrood Whites with the addition of one Blue (thanks Leanne), spent the morning playing matches against Scotstoun A team ( Glasgow Div 1 Champions ), East Kilbride and the Southsiders. Unfortunately, we had an injury early on and lost Dianne, who stuck with us and cheered us on through the rest of the day. The matches against the Scotstoun and East Kilbride were really tough and we were delighted to have scored against Scotstoun A with their National Squad players and the fact that they went on to win the overall competition. In the afternoon, we played matches to compete for the plate. We found ourselves in a group against Holyrood Reds and Greens and a team called Caledonian East Kilbride. By the afternoon session, we were starting to work quite well as a team and had a really close match against the Greens, losing by only 2 goals. A great day was had by all of the team, even though there hadn't been many victories.

Reds:
After a slow start to the tournament with defeats in the group stages by Kirkaldy, Scotstoun 2, Internationale and Coatbridge, the Red's were put into the plate section of the competition. In the afternoon everyone picked up their game and the Red's went on to win every match in the group stage of the plate. An exciting semi-final saw a fantastic defeat by the Red's against rivals Kirkcaldy with some outstanding shooting by GS Viv and GK turned GA Rochelle. Despite leading at half time, the Red's narrowly lost to Coatbridge in a tense repeat of last year's plate final. So the team left with silver medals and all that was left to be said to Coatbridge was 'See you in the final next year!'. low start to the tournament with defeats in the group stages by Kirkaldy, Scotstoun 2, Internationale and Coatbridge, the Red's were put into the plate section of the competition. In the afternoon everyone picked up their game and the Red's went on to win every match in the group stage of the plate. An exciting semi-final saw a fantastic defeat by the Red's against rivals Kirkcaldy with some outstanding shooting by GS Viv and GK turned GA Rochelle. Despite leading at half time, the Red's narrowly lost to Coatbridge in a tense repeat of last year's plate final. So the team left with silver medals and all that was left to be said to Coatbridge was 'See you in the final next year!'.

Yellows:
Despite the early morning (and the late night in some cases!) the Yellows rolled out a fantastic performance on Sunday, beating all three teams in the opening games, to see them top the league table at the initial stage. As such, they became the only Holyrood team to make it into the Cup round. The task was daunting, to say the least, but the Yellows equipped themselves well, showing great team spirit and determination. Of the four games facing them, the highlights for the Yellows including narrowly missing out on victory in the opening game, and beating the Scotstoun B team in a hard fought contest. All players performed to a very high standard, although special mention should go to Judy and Vaila, seconded from the Greens, who adjusted to playing in the Yellow team exceptionally well.