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Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Secondary education

Do many schools play Lacrosse these days, especially state schools?

27 replies

PoodleChops · 14/01/2013 17:15

As the title says, really
I played lacrosse at my state GS and still miss it I still have my old wooden stick and black boots lol!
It wasn't all that common for state schools to play back in my day and because of that, we always had to travel hours and hours to play other teams. Nine times out of ten, it was always a private/indie school we played against.
Just intrigued to see if it's still played in general.

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thegreylady · 14/01/2013 17:24

boys play it at some Manchester schools I think

Hulababy · 14/01/2013 17:25

It's popular in a lot of the Sheffield schools, esp at secondary. DD has played it at her primary too.

I'd never heard of it when I was growing up. They didn't do lacrosse in Doncaster in the 70s and 80s!

LIZS · 14/01/2013 17:26

dd's (private) school does and there are plenty of opposing teams as well as at least 2 local clubs with junior teams.

Deux · 14/01/2013 17:27

They play it at DD's state primary.

Abra1d · 14/01/2013 17:28

My daughter's school only plays one state school each year.

Shame, it's a fun game.

Our local comprehensive does 'Lacrosse skills' but they never play matches. Seems pointless as there are no local clubs at all within about 45 miles.

tiddleypompom · 14/01/2013 17:29

All the local private schools (girls) where I grew up played it (Worcestershire). The local state schools started also (though known as 'pop lacrosse' using plastic sticks & balls). Not sure how popular 'proper' lax is now - i.e. wooden sticks, teeth guards, no rules, imminent danger.

Shame :o

LIZS · 14/01/2013 17:37

Sticks are aluminium now and mouthguards a requirement . The only rule seems to be you can't whack each other a la Endi Blyton !

PoodleChops · 14/01/2013 17:49

tiddleypompom ad LIZS
You both made me laugh out loud with your "whack each other" and "no rules, imminent danger"! How true!
We live a couple of miles from a university sports' field and they way they play lax doesn't resemble how we used to play it How I sniffed with scorn when I saw them for the first time, padded up to the max The only person who wore padding at my school, was the goalie. We never wore mouth or shin guards, we were well'ard
I'm so pleased to hear it's still played, whether at state or private.

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BadgerB · 14/01/2013 18:12

Quotation from I-can't-remember-where,
"posh girls' schools play lacrosse, VERY posh girls' schools play cricket".

Is it still true, I wonder?

beachyhead · 14/01/2013 18:14

Oh the feeling of a wooden lax stick whacked hard on a cold knuckle.... And the smell of linseed oil.... Aaahhh

LIZS · 14/01/2013 18:20

And I still haven't fully recovered from the cost of "lacrosse gloves" after I took pity on dd when the weather turning nippy - £31. Yes they're padded and leather but £31 worth!!

OldBeanbagz · 14/01/2013 18:23

LIZS your DD will need those gloves when the sticks start flying. A friend of mine plays and he broke his thumb playing lacrosse last year (that was wearinggloves too).

Think there's only one girls school in my area where it's played.

Milliways · 14/01/2013 18:38

DS's State Grammar school play - it is vicious! He saw some girls playing at a local private school and snorted "That's not lacrosse!". I think they onlt get matches against other private schools though.

Toughasoldboots · 14/01/2013 18:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Abra1d · 14/01/2013 18:46

They have to wear goggles now, as well.

snowybrrr · 14/01/2013 19:10

Our state grammar school does, but only because one of the PE teachers is a keen player

PoodleChops · 14/01/2013 19:17

beachyhead
Oh the feeling of a wooden lax stick whacked hard on a cold knuckle.... And the smell of linseed oil.... Aaahhh grin

OMG - that's what I tell my family!!! I regale them with tales of hands, bleeding and cut by the ridgid catgut but it's so cold that you don't feel the pain, until at least an hour after the game! Also, us "diehards" in the team, used to spend endless hours rubbing vaseline into the leather "thonging" to soften it up, in the vain hope that our cradling would be a bit more effective Our sticks were inspected by the Lax mistress and I so wanted to impress her with the state of my stick
Here's another memory; the pitch had millions of stud holes in it from muddy days, then you got a few frozen days in a row and you overturned your ankle cos a) the rubber studs made you unstable on solid ground and b) your studs got lodged in other studholes as you struggled to pivot away from a tackle!

We weren't even allowed to wear tracksuits bottoms unless it was pushing polar white-out . I can vividly recall my knees going all shades of red and purple, then burning like hell as they defrosted over the next few lessons indoors.
I love the speed of Lacrosse and I was always a little "gung-ho", so it suited me down to the ground. How I miss it. S'pose I could always start an "Old Girls' league lol! Anyone up for it?

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stargirl1701 · 14/01/2013 19:19

Yes. It is played in Perthshire & Kinross schools. Plastic sticks though.

wordfactory · 14/01/2013 19:20

The Lax tournies DD goes to usually have one or two state schools (one of them is fabulous BTW and always does well)...the rest are private.

I think the other comps in our area play hockey.

daisydoodoo · 14/01/2013 19:23

I played at my all girls private school. My middle children go to a c of e primary school (state) and they play lacrosse in year 6. Ds2 loves it so much hes joined a local team for training hopefully leading to a spot on the team.

They have an american teacher for lacrosse who is part of a team who have come over to promote lacrosse in this country.

beachyhead · 14/01/2013 19:24

The best bit was no pitch lines, so you could just run miles in any direction and behind the goalie as well... It was evil..

I didn't use Vaseline. We were given some thick gungy yellow stinky stuff to put on the leather. God knows what it was!
It's the only game I've ever played left handed, how strange is that...

freerangelady · 14/01/2013 19:30

I miss lax!! Played in a ladies league when I left school for a bit till I moved away. Shame it's not a bigger sport - IMO it's one of the best!

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PoodleChops · 14/01/2013 19:33

beachyhead

Here's another OMG - I'm a lefty Lax player too! I struggled in the first year because I'm strictly right-handed for everything else. I used to stay close to the other 3 left-handers in my class in lessons as I initially felt too awkward. I felt a failure and the mistress made us four feel pretty inadequate. It eventually dawned on me that it might be to my advantage though. From the second year, it all slotted into place and I was on the team through to Lower 6th.

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Suffolkgirl1 · 16/01/2013 16:10

DD's state grammar play, but find it hard to find other schools to play against. It seems popular at Essex uni as well.

PoodleChops · 16/01/2013 17:10

Suffolkgirl1 , it was Essex University where I saw the "padded-to-the-max" brigade ISTR that they used to play it at Bournemouth University, too.

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