Sports Report 22 September 2020

22 September 2020

Welcome to our first Sports Report of the academic year. Fixtures this term are looking slightly different due to the COVID situation, however our rugby coaches have run a successful Ready4Rugby Six Nations tournament over the past two weeks for Years 9 to 13, and our Year 7s had their first cricket fixture against Henley Cricket Club.

Rugby (Ready4Rugby Tournament)

Year 9 report provided by Mr D Miller

Scotland made Six Nations history this week - winning their first four games of the tournament. J McFarlane was fantastic from half-back - pulling the strings as the Thistles just edged out Ireland in a hard fought, 3-2 victory. Despite losing their opening game of week two, Ireland rallied superbly to convincingly beat Italy. A Siveter provided the moment of the match, with a fantastic line break. Italy did not give up though, with H Steel and G Prosser constantly proving down the left wing.

Year 10 report provided by Mr E Olhausen

A sunny Saturday morning on the Riverside pitches played host to week two of the Six Nations tournament. Some fast flowing, confident and creative attacking play by all sides provided plenty of entertainment and a number of high scoring games. Congratulations to Scotland who were the only team to win both their games, scoring 11 tries in the process. Ireland scored an impressive 15 tries over their two games. Stand out performances from L Burwash who, in Mr Lloyd's words, scored a "very special try", E Houghton who put in a high level performance and excellent support and running from M Dag and O Wrobel who both scored excellent tries.

Year 11 highlights provided by Mr G Miller

M Griffiths's skill set from number 10 was really pleasing to watch.
M Grundy displayed a superb defensive effort all morning.
N Floyd scored a filthy interception try and worked hard throughout the day.
R Logan's passion for the Scotland team and his feet are looking very quick.
R Wang's effort levels have been brilliant and his work on the wing is very impressive.
Flynn's work rate is, as always, brilliant - even when he's not allowed to rip the ball off people.

Years 12 and 13 highlights provided by Mr H Geyton

The final round of the Year 12 and13 competition saw England play Wales in a "winner takes all" match and Scotland played Ireland in the fight for 3/4th place. Ireland, with A Arnold pulling the strings showed huge guts and won their match but the points difference from last week was just too much to overcome and despite the win over Scotland, they were placed 4th, with Scotland 3rd. England, led by F Brown were in control for most of the match although a B Ferguson intercept kept the overall result in doubt until the final minutes.

Finally, the award for the best dressed referee went to Mr Miller who looked very professional in his Lions 2013 shirt.

Cricket

Well done to our Year 7 boys who played their first cricket fixture - a friendly against Henley Cricket Club.

Mr Tom Crisford, said: "It was a quite magical moment when Shiplake played its first competitive sporting fixture since lockdown in March and how fitting that it was our new boys in Year 7 on debut. It was great to see the boys representing the school and having fun. Mr McCraw will be excited to see what the future holds for these boys!"

Chris Ellison from Henley Cricket Club said: "On behalf of all the boys and parents in the Henley Year 6 team our sincere thanks for hosting this evening’s cricket match. I fully appreciate a great deal of work, consideration and safety planning went in to prepare for the game.

"Seeing the joy and excitement on all the boys playing for both teams certainly made it worth while. The ground in the evening sunshine looked amazing."