Before the end of the Spring Term, pupils and staff came out into the sunshine to support students, teachers and support staff in three very important fixtures, the Inter-House Netball Tournament, College House v Staff Football Match and Gilson House v Staff Football Match.
Inter-House Netball Tournament
On Monday 29 March Gilson competed in the Inter-House Netball Tournament. This was a highly anticipated afternoon and the sun was shining. Each match was a length of six minutes, the girls were very efficient and moved skilfully in order to secure a win. Overall there were a total of 10 games, the first match was Burr v Everett with a final score of 2-1 to Everett. This was closely followed by the next game of Skipwith v Orchard, where Skipwith secured a win of 7-3 with a pretty impressive play from the girls, especially Beatrix May and Emily Pendlebury. Next followed Burr v Welsh with Welsh taking the lead 4-1, and Skipwith v Everett with a massive win from Skipwith 8-0. Orchard v Welsh followed this, with a close score of 3-4 with Orchard winning! It was then onto Skipwith v Welsh - a tough game and very close between the girls with Welsh taking the win 3-6. The last game was Burr v Orchard where Burr took the win 6-1.
The final ranking order was Orchard in fourth place, Skipwith, Everett and Burr joint second place with eight points each. And for the win in first place was Welsh with 12 points. Very well played from the girls in Welsh in particular Megan Hadfield and Abi McCarthy. A very well done goes to all the girls in Gilson especially the players of the match in each team. Thank you also to Mrs Settle and Miss Mordue for organising the afternoon and umpiring the matches.
Match report by Antonia Tunnicliffe
College v Staff Football Match
On Monday 29 March, the College House boys turned out for their final, and some say toughest, football match of their Shiplake careers against the mighty Staff XI. The game was off to an entertaining start when the staff managed to bag an early goal courtesy of Mr Geyton. This put the College House boys on the back foot from the off but, they started to get into their stride and create a few opportunities. The staff, however, remained strong going forward and when Mr Geyton went down for a penalty, they thought they were starting to run away with it. However, keeper Ben Ferguson had other ideas! Ben pulled off a terrific save to deny the staff a two goal advantage. This energised the boys even more and pushed them forward and it wasn’t long before College House had an indirect free-kick in the staff’s box. Ollie Cole rolled the ball forward and Kai O’Hare struck a hard and true low shot that defeated the wall to level the score. The game was end to end with both sides creating several good chances, but the staff were the only ones able to convert in the form of Mr Littledale with a fantastic top corner finish to end the half 2-1.
The second half started with the College House boys keen to level the score but missed chances weren’t helping. The staff also struggled to convert. Success came when James Burgess and Kai O’Hare took a quick corner which led to James finishing nicely to once again level the score. The rest of the game was tight with College House piling on the pressure but were unable to find a winner.
GOLDEN GOAL
Both sides were struggling with tired legs but no one eased up with the game on the line. The staff came close with several corners and when Josh Hazell slid the ball across the face of the goal for College House, for a brief moment everyone thought the game was won. However, the opportunities weren’t converted and the game went down to penalties.
PENALTIES
With both sides converting all of their first five penalties, it went down to sudden death. Ben Ferguson pulled off another amazing penalty save to put the game in the hands of College House’s final penalty taker. Up stepped Harry Bayes who neatly tucked the ball into the bottom corner to win the game for College House.
It was a great game for all and a great way to finish off the Shiplake footballing careers of the Year 13 boys. Thanks must go to Mr Geyton, for organising the event, Mr Dix and Mr Howe for refereeing the game, and to all those who came out and supported. We now look forward to the Staff v College House cricket game in the Summer Term.
Match report by Kai O’Hare
Girls v Staff Football Match
At the end of last term, Gilson’s new found footballers took on a team of female staff in a tough staff v student match. With football only introduced as an option for sport this year, the girls were excited to put their training to the test by playing in their first ever match as a team. On the hottest day of the year so far and with a large proportion of the school watching, it’s safe to say the pressure was on.
With 27 girls volunteering to play, it was a challenge to get everyone on the pitch so three Gilson teams were created; one playing against the staff and two against each other during half time. At the end, a huge friendly match was played using a mix of all student and staff teams.
The girls got off to a great start demonstrating brilliant teamwork that allowed them to score a goal in the first ten minutes. Training had really paid off as players looked for space, controlled their passes and kept their heads up. Enthusiasm and sportsmanship was shown throughout the match as the girls supported and showed respect to every player on the pitch. A high level of skill was shown from players such as Megan Hadfield, Eva Harris, Antonia Tunnicliffe and Amy Selwyn. Abi McCarthy also made some great saves as goalkeeper.
Despite only having one training session, the staff team also played brilliantly, with Mrs Farrell and Miss Pye bringing their competitive spirit to work the ball down the pitch with Miss Gregg, Ms Tanner and Dr Prata. As the Gilson team gave away a penalty in the second half, Dr Prata was able to score, bringing the final result to 1-1.
The match was enjoyable for everyone involved and the many spectators were certainly provided with an afternoon of entertainment. Both teams should be hugely congratulated for their effort and enthusiasm brought to the game and due to the result of a draw, I’m sure a rematch is definitely on the table… Also, the girls would like to say a massive thank you to Mr Littledale and Dr Prata for running the girls training sessions and again to Mr Littledale for refereeing the match and ensuring everyone had an afternoon to remember.
Match report by Laura Pasmore
Flickr album: Sports Report 20 April 2021 |
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