The Papers of Elizabeth Bellamy

Correspondence and administrative papers concerning the organisation of the annual All England Women's Lacrosse Association National Schools Tournament. Contents typically include notes on divisions of responsibility, minutes of meetings, programme of fixtures, sample letters sent to schools inviting participation in the tournament, correspondence with venue hosting the tournament, notes on events management, correspondence with individuals invited to present cups to winning teams, notes on organisation of helpers and umpires, arrangements for First Aid, list of schools participating in tournament, list of players selected for Junior England, Scotland and Wales teams, record of winners, results sheets, score sheets, letters of appreciation and details of expenses.

Elizabeth Bellamy served on the Executive Committee of the East Women's Lacrosse Association from c.1994 until 2011. From 1996 until 2001 she served as one of four joint organisers for the annual All England Women's Lacrosse Association National Schools Tournament.

The first Schools Tournament was held at St. George's School, Harpenden in 1944 at the end of the Spring term. It was a small one-day affair with twenty teams and included an exhibition match by international players. In 1947, owing to growing demand, the tournament was moved to Merton Abbey, London and had become a two-day event. It continued to grow in popularity and eventually led to matches being played over five days and a waiting list of schools wanting to compete.
The name of the tournament was changed to the National Schools Tournament in 1978.
In 1980 a National Schools Championship was introduced and was the final for the winners and runners up in the senior competitions from the National Schools Tournament; the twelve leading schools of the National Schools Tournament competed for the Schools Championship Trophy.

The records for the organisation of the AEWLA National Schools Tournament were presented in five large ring-binders, one for each year of the tournament from 1996 to 2000. An appraisal of the content of the files revealed that it did not differ significantly from year to year and so the decision was made to retain (in full) just one year of records to illustrate the activities undertaken for the organisation of the tournament. The year chosen for complete retention was 2000. A sub-set of records were retained from the correspondence and papers of the 1996-1999 tournaments: notes of meetings, list of schools participating , list of players selected for Junior England, Scotland and Wales teams, record of winners, results sheets, score sheets and details of expenses.

The papers were gifted to the University of Bedfordshire by Elizabeth Bellamy on 22 August 2012, under Accession No. A2012/008.

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