In the first Sports Report of the Autumn Term, we catch up on the round of fixtures that took place over the weekend, as well as a story of individual success! In hockey, our Lower School girls took on Reading Blue Coat School while there were block rugby fixtures in a pre-season triangular along with King Edward VI Southampton and Portsmouth Grammar School. Additionally, we catch up with Year 10 pupil Bertie Lee and his fantastic season last year in athletics!
Lower School Girls’ Hockey vs Reading Blue Coat School
Both our Year 7 and Year 8 girls were in action over the weekend with four teams taking to the pitch in hockey 7s games against Reading Blue Coat. The Year 8 A Team played in an end-to-end match unfortunately lost 2-0; Player of the Match went to Amelie Mertes. The Year 8 B Team played with eight outfield players and no goalkeeper against a goalied Blue Coat team. Final score was 8-1 to the opposition.
For the Year 7 girls, this was their first time putting on the Shiplake jersey and it would prove to be a day to remember with both teams winning their matches. The girls won the first match 1-0 with a great goal from Audrey Edimoh which was assisted by Eva Merry who was playing in attack. Scarlett Owens played superbly well in defence and was clean in her tackles. A big thank you must also be said to Scarlett Spearing who went in goal for both matches. Player of the Match in this game was Audrey Edimoh. In the second match, the girls won 3-0 with Amy Longden scoring all three goals and being named Player of the Match. Mabel Reed-Ryan worked hard in the midfield and with Mandy Robb Hootkins determined to put the defence under pressure, it was a really great game.
Report: Mrs K Neill, Head of Lower School Girls’ Sport
English Schools’ Athletics
With the athletics season soon to get underway, we caught up with Year 10 pupil Bertie Lee who recently competed at the UK Schools’ Athletics Championships. Bertie writes the following:
My outdoor season in U15 hurdles comes to an end and it’s been a season of highs and lows. I am County champion for the second year in a row, this year breaking the Oxford Athletics Club record (which was last broken in 1977) and my proudest moment was sitting at Number 1 in the UK for a period of time with my personal best of 11.2 seconds over 80m.
However, I’m also learning that it’s not just my training that makes you a true athlete.
I’ve been working extremely hard this season in all weathers and travelling all over the county but sometimes it doesn’t always work out the way you hoped. Shiplake kindly paid for my entry free/travel costs to English Schools, and it was an amazing experience. We travelled and stayed together so we could gel as a team. I achieved the first step and won my heat on the Friday. In fact, my time meant that if I ran as well again in the final, I was on for a medal.
Sadly, on the Saturday, I got clipped by another athlete and due to my speed being taken away, I hit the last hurdle and fell.
However, I had to pick myself up as I was due to run in the mixed 4 X 100 relay. We won gold and broke the championship record. So at least it wasn’t a complete loss. This experience of staying for the weekend competition with my teammates was truly remarkable and I again thank the College for making it all possible.
I returned to Birmingham two weeks later to compete in the UK Athletics Championships and again I ran well in my heat and got through to the final. In the final though, I wobbled and had a false start, which I have never done before. So, with the next start, I naturally hesitated and was slow out of the blocks. I caught up and second place was on, but I then clipped the last hurdle which crushed my speed, and I squeezed through for third. I was disappointed with myself but later realised that it is all a learning curve.
I have learned so much this season. My times and techniques are improving, and I have a new coach who has supported me with this, and I am proud of what I have accomplished. After a short rest, I will be starting a new category - U17 100m hurdles - with a new hurdle height of 91cm. I will start training again soon and I am looking forward to all the challenges ahead.
Rugby Pre-Season Triangular Matches
On Saturday 7 September, our rugby teams were involved in pre-season triangular matches along with King Edward VI School Southampton and Portsmouth Grammar School. The 1st XV looked sharp as they hit the ground running against PGS winning 21-0, but then lost in a tight game to KES 12-19.
The 2nd XV had a great pre-season fixture against the Reddam House 1st XV. It proved to be a tough contest which Reddam managed to just pull away in, but it was a valiant effort from the 2nd XV and had a couple of handling errors gone the other way, the result could have been a lot closer.
The U16s had two competitive games. The first match vs PGS was full of individual battles where players were running into one another rather than trying to evade each other. Unfortunately, a turnover near the PGS line resulted in a clearance kick that was chased by their fullback to score in the corner - 5-0 PGS. The second game vs KES was a more challenging game with KES having three or four powerful runners that were able to break through our defences. A slight lack of organisation meant these mismatches were too frequent, but the boys showed great individual courage to keep the game a contest throughout the 30 minutes.
The U15As lost to KES 14-28 and the U15Bs lost both their games 5-17 and 5-22, while the U14As looked good in two comfortable victories against both PGS & KES with Shiplake comfortably in the ascendancy in both games. It was a similar story with our U14Bs beating Portsmouth 10-5, before losing to KES 10-20.
Flickr album: Sports Report 10 September 2024 |
Height: auto |
Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin
