Boys' sport round-up

Kevin Smith, Head of Boys’ Sport, rounds up the sporting news.

Hockey Season

Good coaching plays an integral role in the delivery of hockey at an early age. Our staff both motivate and encourage the boys and the general standard has risen quite significantly over the past couple of years.

What an excellent hockey season for the 1st VII boys and one full of ‘firsts’. Our first unbeaten season at 1st team level and our first qualification for the IAPS national finals and our first victory over Cranleigh, who are as strong a school as you can play on our circuit!  All three of these show the quality within this group of players. Yes, the season is short but we have packed lots of hockey into a short period of time. From start to finish the boys have worked incredibly hard and made some excellent progress. We scored 33 goals in 7 games, not including the tournament play which shows how potent we are going forwards. We conceded a total of 10 goals, giving us a very healthy goal difference of 23 for the season. Colours were awarded to Dill Howell, Ed Timberlake, Toby Barton, and the joint captains, Zubin Chinwala and Barnaby Lawford.

The 2nd team also had a great season scoring a total of 27 goals and conceding 8. Eden Littlefair was clinical in the D throughout the season scoring 13 goals in 6 appearances. Henry Langford has some stand out performances against Churchers and Cranleigh, he controlled the midfield well and showed huge development as a hockey player. Luke Skinner was solid in defence and communicated really well with the players in front of him. A fantastic six weeks from the boys, finishing the season undefeated.

The 3rd team played 6, won 5, lost 1, goals for 27, and conceded just 9. An outstanding season for this group was notable for the commitment, selflessness, and devastating attacking hockey. The boys were a pleasure to coach and they also had a lot of fun. What incredible depth of hockey talent we have.

The U11 boys worked really hard throughout the season producing some good results with the stand out being a 5-0 victory over Highfield. They certainly have the potential to play some nice hockey but as a team they needed to work on their consistency. The Canford tournament saw us draw the plate final 2-2.

The U11B and Cs battled tirelessly in each game, despite coming up against some challenging opposition. They played with determination, and will have learnt the importance of teamwork, awareness of space and positioning, communication and not giving the ball away. Charles Curry threw himself into each game, and was MVP twice.

The U10s played a variety of fixtures including a big tournament at Charterhouse, playing U11 teams as well as some very competitive matches against U10 teams on our circuit. All matches were well contested with the boys playing with great determination and fortitude. The general level of skills was high although goal scoring was an issue. This was highlighted in our final game, playing really well in the first half and scoring none. We slightly went off the boil in the second period but managed somehow to score four. Lachlan Franks, Fergus O’Connell, Alex Langmead and Tommy Osborne were the stand out players.

The standard of play in the both B&C teams was very pleasing with Ollie Bonn, Rohan Down and Olly Wilson dominating matches. 

We have a very talented group at U9 level with the A team remaining unbeaten in school matches and also winning the Seaford tournament. With Walter de Laszlo and Noah Clarke in defence we rarely conceded. Johnny Kitchin and Rafferty Matthews were inspirational in midfield creating many goal scoring opportunities.

The U9B team developed their understanding of hockey this term, specifically working on positioning, stick skills and passing techniques. Adi Symington, Charlie Keville and Arthur Rountree have stood out from the crowd, but all of the boys contributed in each match that they played.

The C team played a couple of fixtures on grass and Astro and our boys gained valuable game time against varied opposition. The Seaford “Quicksticks” tournament was great fun and we managed to come away with only one loss in five games which based on the opposition was a superb result. There is strength and depth in this sport and this augurs well for seasons to come.

Rugby 7s

We played a number of 7s tournaments but the pinnacle of the season is the Rosslyn Park event  for the annual National Schools 7s tournament. At their age grade, all RFU sanctioned tournaments are simply played as ‘round robins’ with no knock-out stages or winners so you are put in a group with five other schools and you all play each other. We were blessed with fantastic weather and the boys all played some excellent rugby. We adapted well to the challenges in front of us and it was a wonderful way to end what has been a great season for the squad.

Real Tennis

Toby and William entered the U14 Real Tennis Nationals and ended up finalists, an unparalleled accomplishment in recent years. 

Swimming

We are still waiting to find out if anyone has qualified for the IAPS National Finals in June. We attended our last gala of the term for U9-U12s and went to check out Windlesham’s new pool! It was a great gala with an individual medley for people to try too. We won 191-179. MVP was Emily Stewart.

In addition, we had our much anticipated junior and senior inter-patrol swimming galas. The results are as follows:

Cross country

The Highfield Cross Country for U9-U13 boys and girls, which was just before half term, finished in success particularly for the U12 and U13 boys teams who were then rewarded with ‘Team of the Week’. Additionally, we had the inter-patrol cross country:

Junior (Y3&4)

• 1st Tigers
• 2nd Otters
• 3rd Panthers
• 4th Owls

Intermediate (Y5&6)

• 1st Tigers
• 2nd Panthers
• 3rd Owls
• 4th Otters

Senior (Y7&8)

• 1st Panthers
• 2nd Tigers
• 3rd Otters
• 4th Owls