Michael Syddall pupils reach national dodgeball final, finish runners-up

Pupils from The Michael Syddall Primary School turned five straight years of county and regional qualification into their best national run yet, reaching the National Dodgeball Finals title match in Kettering and finishing runners-up. It was the first time the Catterick Village school had ever got past the group stage at nationals, and this time the pupils won both their quarter-final and semi-final before falling to the four-time defending champions.

That progression mattered because it was not a free pass through the bracket. Michael Syddall had to survive the group stage, then beat elite opposition twice in the knockout rounds to get to the final, a level the school had not managed in previous national appearances.

The path to that stage runs through county championships, regional championships and then the national championships, with British Dodgeball listing entry fees of £70 per team at each step. British Dodgeball describes itself as the sport’s national governing body in the UK, and that structure has given primary schools a clear ladder from local entry to national contention.

Michael Syddall has been climbing that ladder for a while. In a 2024 Northern Regional Dodgeball Finals report from Stanhope Primary School, nine county-winning teams plus a B team were chasing National Finals places, and Michael Syddall beat Stanhope’s B team 9-1 in group play before Stanhope’s A team edged it 6-4 in the semi-final. That sort of regional grind is part of what made the national breakthrough so notable: the school kept reaching the same stages, but this time it converted the run into a place in the final.

Deputy headteacher Neil Saunders called the runner-up finish “a huge achievement” and said the school was “incredibly proud” of the pupils’ dedication and performance. The result adds to a growing record for the school, which was visited in October 2024 by Rishi Sunak, who joined a dodgeball session and said the team had been national school finalists for the third year in a row.

The school also said it had been named British Dodgeball Primary School of the Year, won a Youth Sport Trust award in 2023 for outstanding primary practice in PE, sport and activity, and collected an English Schools’ Football Association girls’ team of the year award. This latest run gives Michael Syddall a sharper national benchmark: the pupils are no longer just making the trip, they are finishing one win away from a title.