Wellington School reach dodgeball national final after dominant run

Wellington School brought two teams to the biggest National Dodgeball Championships it has faced, then turned the day into a statement of depth, control and finishing power. In Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, 20 schools took part, and both Wellington sides finished in the top eight nationally.

The A team set the pace immediately, winning all four of its group games. The B team was nearly as sharp, taking three of four to reach the quarterfinals as well. That meant Wellington had two squads still standing deep into the knockout rounds, a rare show of strength at a tournament built on short, unforgiving matches.

The B team’s run ended in the tightest kind of knockout game, a 7-5 loss to Chellaston School, last year’s champions. Harry Shea and Thomas Humphreys were singled out as the B side’s players of the tournament, with two Year 7 boys making a major difference to a team that played with obvious spirit and composure even in defeat.

The A team was different again. Built mostly around Year 7 students, it kept rolling through the bracket and finished the job with a one-sided win over Acklam Grange in the final. Wellington described the side as having “smashed their way” through to the championship, and the details backed that up: strong catches from Wilf Bryce-Kisby and Harrison Bowcott repeatedly shut down opposition attacks, while Finlay Proudlove and Benjamin Finney delivered the hits that turned pressure into control. Finney was named player of the tournament.

What separated Wellington from the field was not just one star but the spread of impact across the roster. The B team could lean on Shea and Humphreys. The A team, packed with younger players, had enough catchers and finishers to keep winning as the rounds tightened. That kind of depth matters in dodgeball, where one clean catch or one well-timed hit can flip a game in seconds.

The result also sits inside a programme that has been moving upward for years. British Dodgeball launched its under-13 secondary schools championship pathway in the 2022/23 season, with the first national finals held at Fenton Manor Sports Complex in Stoke-on-Trent. By the 2023/24 season, the regional events had expanded to 12 tournaments. Wellington had already been part of that rise: an earlier Year 8 U13 side went undefeated through local and regional rounds before winning the national finals 8-4, and that success sparked more than 100 Year 7 and Year 8 students turning up for the first dodgeball practice the next year.

Wellington’s latest run showed the same pattern on a bigger stage. Two teams reached the quarterfinals, one team beat the field, and the school left Fenton with the clearest kind of benchmark: a national title won by players mostly in Year 7.