There wasn't just action on the hockey and rugby pitches this week, the Shiplake College Boat Club had their first outing of the academic year at the Pairs Head of the River, with some fantastic results to show for it.
1st XI Hockey v Reading Blue Coat School
On Wednesday, the 1st XI girls hockey team travelled the short distance to Sonning to play against Reading Blue Coat School. Shiplake went into the match with a positive mindset and ready to work hard as we knew it was going to be a tough match. Shiplake started with the first push back and moved towards Blue Coat's goal, however the ball was intercepted allowing Blue Coat to move up into our D and score. Shiplake's defenders M Simpson, E Guironnet and L Worthington did an amazing job at defending the shots from Blue Coat, keeping the score low. Shiplake goal keeper A Hallam was given player of the match for her stunning saves throughout the whole match. Despite Blue Coat winning the match 6-0, the determination and team encouragement from Shiplake was fantastic and lasted the whole game. Well done to all who played.
Reported by Miss C Mordue
1st XV Rugby v St George's College
On Saturday morning the 1st XV boys played St George’s College on a very wet and greasy pitch. The match started well balanced with some strong carries from H Allan and T Mythen, but after some handling errors and lack of physicality in defence, St George’s capitalised on our errors causing us to go behind early on. However, Shiplake responded to this instantly with J Shortland converting a penalty putting Shiplake onto the scoreboard. With St George’s finding their feet in the game they attacked the Shiplake defensive line time and time again and due to a few missed tackles, they were able to score multiple tries back to back in quick succession. This set the tone for the rest of the half with Shiplake doing the majority of the defensive work with J Yulhanson-Hutchins and B Shouksmith putting in some big tackles. Unfortunately the second half did not start much better for the 1st XV boys as some nice hands to get the ball out wide meant that our opposition were able to score early on. But a quick ball off the back of the scrum with C Creighton running a hard line enabled him to get over the white line for Shiplake. Final score 8-45. As a team we look to build from our past disappointing form and hope to take this into a big week of training as we prepare to play University College School away on Saturday.
Reported by F Brown
3rd XV Rugby v Ranelagh School
The opposition were actually a combination of three schools, all playing under the name of Ranelagh, There were some very talented players playing for both teams. Shiplake had a breakaway very early on, but did not manage to secure the final pass. The opposition then scored 3 quick tries and dominated the match for a while. N McCarthy managed to score a couple of brilliant individual tries and S O'Brien led the way in defence throughout the match with some outstanding 'chop tackles'! The team kept going until the end and actually were on top, for the last 10 minutes of the match. Final score 37-17 to Ranelagh.
Reported by Mr M Griffiths
U16 Rugby v Halliford School
The U16s played a solid Halliford side on a sunny Wednesday at home. Having worked hard on structure in attack and defence and forward slow ball options, the boys took it to the opposition up front around the break down. The Halliford defence was solid however and Shiplake struggled to recognise early on the Route 1 with the forwards wasn't going to get the job done. Lack of depth in attack lead to numerous handling errors but Shiplake's complete domination of the breakdown ensured that the boys always has another crack. Despite threatening out wide through B Fundell and C Stewart, the score remained 0-0 in the first half.
Halliford came out of the blocks quickly in the second half and scored a try against the run of play, taking a lack-lustre Shiplake by surprise. The boys responded by starting to keep the ball and looking to threaten out wide where the space and weak tackling was. Whilst handling was still an issue, Shiplake pressure finally told in the form of two tries, including some lovely hands for the second. Domination of the ruck, lead by S Horn, was vital to the win. Much progress was made from the previous game but more work on attacking space and holding our depth is needed. Final score: 14-7 to Shiplake College. Men of the match: S Horn and C Stewart.
Reported by Mr J Reynolds
U16 Rugby v Merchant Taylors' School
Shiplake dominated the set pieces allowing the backs to take on Merchant Taylors' with strong and direct running. The first half was a closely fought affair, but after a score from H Down from a driving line out, we led 15 - 5 at half time. The second half saw the opposition come back with a spirited and well worked try, but in the end Shiplake dominated the final quarter. With three tries including one weaving 65m individual effort, S Horn was deservedly named player of the match. Final score: 48-10 to Shiplake.
Reported by Mr J Reynolds
U14A Rugby v St George's College
The customary U14A start of, "Let's see what you've got!" enabled St George's to get off to a flying start with a fairly instant 7 points. Once that salvo had been fired, however, Shiplake came to the party, scoring a well-worked try down the left flank after some punishing carries in midfield. The slippery surface made handling quite tricky and following a mistake by the opposition, the U14s kicked on to force a great field position and another score. Half time score: 10-7 to Shiplake.
Playing with the slope in the second half saw Shiplake picking up the pieces after gaining excellent field position and scoring within a minute of the restart. St George's picked up two tries (one a late consolation try) and Shiplake scored a converted try to seal the game. Full time: 22-17 to Shiplake.
Reported by Mr R Curtis
U14B Rugby v St George's College
We arrived on Saturday morning to St George's College after a long bus journey. After a good warm-up, we won the toss and decided to receive. The match started with some big tackles and some line breaks from St George’s with two tries that split past our defence. Shiplake had a couple of good chances as half time was close approaching and despite coming very close we couldn’t get the ball over the line. The halftime whistle blew. We reviewed our first half performance and we were ready for the rest of the game. At the start of the second half, some sloppy defending by Shiplake allowed St George’s in for a third try. With some hard tackling and running by N Scotchbrook, B Watkins and W Greaves, we were on their tryline. We took our opportunity to spread the ball wide and, with some good hands, B Watkins went over for a try. Final score: 19-5 to St George’s College. Man of the match was B Watkins for a try and numerous well executed tackles.
Reported by Mr E Olhausen
U14C Rugby v Merchant Taylors' School
A sensational game against Merchant Taylors' School saw the C’s first victory of the season, with K Askey and captain J Cooper both putting away a brace of tries, and H Palmer-Garrett converting three. The determination and development of the team was very much in evidence, with communication, passing down the line, and making use of space on the pitch all executed with aplomb and - dare I say - finesse. It makes me very proud as coach to see the boys' hard work in training sessions paying off, and makes early morning departures very much worth the time.
Our focus for this week is making tackles first time, something we will need to master in advance of welcoming Taylors' to Shiplake for the re-match next weekend.
Reported by Mr G Woolner
U13A Rugby v LVS Ascot
A great afternoon of rugby against LVS saw all Shiplake Under 13s playing against a spirited LVS with three 10 minute games being played. It would be fair to say that Shiplake scored the majority of the tries across the 3 matches but what was more pleasing was to see all the boys playing so well together. In particular N Rodgers deserves special mention with some incredibly silky running lines that resulted in him scoring a couple of tries.
Reported by Mr P Jones
U13B Rugby v Magdalen College School
We started the game in really high spirits and with an early try scored by A Siveter the team grew in confidence from an early stage in the match. Another spectacular try by A Siveter put Shiplake on the front but Magdalen College School (MCS) grew in confidence and some powerful runners ran some great lines and the score at half time was 2-1 to Shiplake. Another quick try by MCS levelled the scores at 2-2 but Shiplake rallied from this point and dominated the remaining last quarter running in a few unanswered tries. It really was a great team effort with everyone contributing, so it would not be right to single individuals out but G Forsyth should be commended for his amazing run at the scrum. The team should be very proud of its efforts as everyone put in a 'shift' with N Rodgers setting the standard with his high intensity tackling.
Reported by Mr P Jones
U13A Rugby v Lord Wandsworth College Tournament
A fantastic morning of rugby saw Shiplake U13A playing 6 games in a superb tournament at Lord Wandsworth College. The first game against Perins started fast and Shiplake held a narrow lead but unfortunately the game finished 1-1. The next game was against a strong Churcher's and we lost this game convincingly. The final game in the group stages was perhaps a game that the team will feel they let slip but we went into the second phase of the tournament with the target of winning all 3 final games. I am delighted to report that Shiplake achieved this target and played some fantastic rugby and we are all very proud of their efforts. Special mention should go to A Malcolm for topping the tackle count and for some very hard carries in all of the games.
Reported by Mr P Jones
U12A Rugby v Lord Wandsworth College Tournament
13 Year 7 rugby players traveled to Lord Wandsworth College to take part in the U12 rugby tournament. We played 5 games and won 4 of them. Every player displayed the TREDS characteristics. Handling was good on wet and slippery pitches and tackling was exemplary. The boys learned the importance of the defensive line and creating space for our wingers. Tackle of the day was made by C Rees; pass of the day by S Crehan-Mills and the try of the day was scored by F Coultas.
Reported by Mr N Brown
Pairs Head of the River (Rowing)
On Sunday the Boat Club competed at the Pairs Head of the River, racing from Chiswick to Harrods depository near Hammersmith Bridge. This event hosted 414 crews from across the country. A tailwind provided good conditions and fortunately the rain held off for the event. In total Shiplake College had 10 boats racing at the event which is the most we have taken to this event before. This race was the first race of the new season and for many of our rowers their first race pulling on the bumble bee to represent Shiplake College at a national event. The results across the club were exceptional with all crews performing very well against strong opposition. the exceptional performances of the day came from R Humphris and F Focosi in the double scull and R Ash and S Burnand in the coxless pair. R Humphris and F Focosi won the Junior 18 category and finished 5th in the entire race only being beaten by 4 senior men's crews. R Ash and S Burnand won the Junior 18 category in the coxless pair and finished an incredible 7th position in the whole event, which made them the fastest coxless pair of the day ahead of all the senior men's crews. The achievements from both crews is outstanding and one which they should be very proud of.
For our girls doubles it was the first time five of them had raced for the school and the first time most of them had raced on the Tideway. We entered three girls doubles which all finished close to each other and high up in the placings. Well done to A Gerecke and N Dunn finishing 2nd in the Junior 18 Intermediate doubles and A May Knight and I Blake Hurworth finishing only one second behind them in 3rd position. E Blois-Brooke and C Scott finished only 11 seconds behind our other doubles and placed 4th in Junior 18 Senior doubles.
Other results were
D Mulligan and M Van Der Linden finished 3rd in Junior 18 Championship doubles and 16th overall in the event.
S Hjortland Marks and B Brockway finished 5th in Junior 18 Championship pairs and 56th overall in the event.
D Hallsworth and T Boret finished 6th in Junior 18 Championship pairs and 60th overall in the event.
T Fox and A Wood finished 7th in Junior 18 Championship pairs and 113th overall in the event.
D Hillier and F Middleton finished 3rd in Junior 16 Senior doubles and 76th over all in the event.
A big thank you must go to Quintin Boat Club for allowing us to boat from their boathouse and offering us exceptional hospitality once again.
Reported by Mr D Currie
Other Results
2nd XV Rugby Won 17-8 v St George's College
U15A Rugby Won 32-12 v St George's College
