A SQUAD from the Malvern Angels youth team travelled to Old Lemingtonians RFC to take part in the first match of the newly formed West Midlands U16 Tag League on Sunday.

The teams were split into two pools and they played against each other to produce a pool finalist. The finalist out of each pool then played against each other to produce a winning team.

The Malvern Angels, under the captaincy of Charlotte George, played well as a team and won all 5 of their games in their pool.

Considering that at least half of the team were new to the team this season, and for many of them it was their first Tag game, then it is a tribute to the players and coaches who put in the time and effort during the training sessions.

The final was played against the Mid-Warwickshire Comets team which Malvern put in a sterling effort to come out of the closely played match, winning it 6-5.

The league, which consists of 12 teams, will meet once a month to play, keeping the tournament style to the day which means that the teams get to play many matches and make it a full and exciting day.

Amanda Kirby, the coach for the team, was thrilled with the result, she said "They all played brilliantly and the more experienced members of the team worked well with the new players to ensure everybody enjoyed it.

"Sophie George and Laura-Jane Bartlett showed their experience on the pitch well and were particularly inspiring for the younger members."

Loraine Madsen, the chairperson of the Malvern Angels said: "It is a really good result and they have set the standard for the Senior side

" They are going to have to work really hard to make sure that they can keep up with the performance of the youth side.

"The only down side to this victory is that we have set a high standard for the rest of the season, so rather than having something to aim towards for the youth, we will have to work hard to stay at the top, because from there, there is only one way to go, but we are confident in the players and the coaches to maintain these high standards, and as long as the players are enjoying it, that's all that matters."

This was the first major win for the Angels since their formation in September 2001, demonstrating that the club is building and starting to achieve the results that were projected two years ago.