It's an action-packed Sports Report today as we catch up on a number of sports and stories. There were block rugby fixtures over the weekend, hockey games for our senior girls, a cup game for our senior boys' footballers, and our rowers were out in full force in Dartmouth. We also catch up on individual sporting success stories from equestrianism, tennis, and rowing.
Rugby
U16A vs Windsor Boys’ School
Of course, this was not the result the team wanted but a valuable learning experience as the side continue in this new chapter. Apart from a flurry of four tries in the last 15 minutes, mostly when Shiplake were down to 14 players, and a very influential opposing centre, this was a decent contest. The side are developing their ability to know when to keep it tight in the forwards and when to move it wide. A Crane was named as the referee’s most influential Shiplake player while his brother, M Crane, also showed the way with his work rate. There were tries for T Ridout after some superb tight ‘pick and goes’ from the forwards and D Litchfield scored from No.8. J Zacharias was also very secure at full-back.
Final score: Shiplake College 12-50 Windsor
Coaches: Mr A Dix & Mr J Cooper
U16B vs Windsor Boys’ School
Windsor’s formidable combination of power and pace made for a tough contest on a sunny New Field. It was Shiplake who made the early ground, but a long kick and chase from their 22 put Shiplake on the back foot and Windor scored the opening points. Shiplake won a scrum on their 22 and D Litchfield took the opportunity to ‘pick and go’ on the blind side and popped the ball to I Doherty to score. The physical contest continued in the 2nd half, but Shiplake dug in and worked hard to drive the ball forward. Strong running from subs J Morgan and J Zacharias set up I Doherty twice more to take a well-earned hat trick and victory became inevitable. Whilst this team know they can be more creative in attack, tackling was impressive throughout and the team worked hard for their shirt, so there was much to cheer from the jubilant home crowd.
Final score: Shiplake College 17-7 Windsor Boys’ School
Coaches: Mr S Gower & Mr D Bradley
U15A vs Windsor Boys’ School
Shiplake came up against a very physical WBS side. Shiplake were put on the back foot straight away seeing Windsor run in a try in the first 5 mins. Shiplake came back with some hard running from B Oliver and D Siddiqui. Shiplake built momentum allowing S Crisford to score in the corner after beating three defenders. Shiplake were always points behind until the last 5 minutes where B Maskell charged over the line from the base of the ruck. O Woodward had the opportunity to successfully kick the conversion to make the score equal and the kick was made, and the game ended in a draw. Fantastic determination from all Shiplake players to keep coming back after WBS kept increasing the lead.
Final score: Shiplake College 26-26 Windsor Boys’ School
Coaches: Mr J Wheeler & Mr K Heaney
U15B vs Windsor Boys’ School
While the scoreline is tough, there was a huge effort from the U15Bs today, and big improvement in our attack from our first game. We showed shape, speed and intent to go forwards. There were impressive runs from the start from S Cripps, C Gibbings and A Bowater-Rubio, with L Tate reacting well. Windsor got a couple of early tries in, but we returned with strong runs from S Cripps and Z Miles. We had a penalty in their 5, but handling let us down and we didn't score.
Windsor came back and almost scored, but an awesome try saving tackle from C Cooper caused a knock on. Following on, we had some powerful runs from Z Miles, C Gibbings and J Pearson leading to our first try!
Unfortunately, am injury to our side resulted in three converted tries, and the Shiplake boys struggled to be upfront in the contact and let the opposition break through. We kept our heads up and came back scoring a great try, led by A Bowater-Rubio, before a ball down the line was taken on and scored by T Jomar.
Final score: Shiplake College 17-50 Windsor Boys’ School
Coaches: Mr A Gingell & Ms E Povey
U14A vs Windsor Boys’ School
Another good result for the U14As. It was a great game, very competitive, with hard running and strong tackling and a real willingness to keep the ball alive from both sides. However, Shiplake took their chances, and produced some excellent phase play to win 22-7.
Final score: Shiplake College 22-7 Windsor Boys’ School
Coach: Mr M Hindley
U14B vs Windsor Boys’ School
With this being the boys' first competitive full contact match of the season, it was not a bad start. The boys dominated right from the kick-off, scoring two well worked tries down the right flank. The boys then went down to 13 players for the rest of the match to make it a fairer contest. However, the momentum never stopped with the likes of O Thorpe and O Houldsworth able to run through about 3/4 defenders before going over for the try. The boys kept the intensity up right till the end and were very impressive in getting the balls out of the rucks quickly.
Final score: Shiplake College 56-0 Windsor Boys’ School
Coaches: Mr P Jones & Mr E Canning
Hockey
Girls’ U18A vs Leighton Park School
On Wednesday 18 September, the senior girls played Leighton Park in their first league game. The game was close throughout with equal chances for both teams. There was outstanding attack from A Godfrey, T Gillard, L Dix, B Sauboua, A O'Shea and F Rait. However, although our attack was strong, Leighton Park scored a goal in the 1st half. We didn’t let this get us down we kept our spirits high and got out heads back into the game. During the 1st half, we saw some strong tackles from T Nicholson who played an outstanding match, as well as A Flower, I Woolfrey, O Clarke and M Spooner in goal. Before the 1st half ended, Leighton Park scored another goal making the score 2-0 at halftime. During the 2nd half, Shiplake kept their heads high and worked together as a team with some of the best play we have seen during this match. The final whistle blew with the score ending 2-0 to Leighton Park. The girls played so well despite the score with Player of the Match awarded to T Nicholson, Players' Player to I Woolfrey, and Coach’s Player to L Dix. The team is ready to face the challenges of Reading Blue Coat next week and we are going to come back even stronger.
Report: S Pendlebury, Girls’ Hockey Captain
Coach: Miss A James
Girls’ U18B vs Leighton Park School
On Wednesday 18 September, we played Leighton Park School in our first 2nd XI hockey match of the season. The match got off to a strong start for Shiplake with some particularly strong defending from A Richardson and M Rider. Although the Shiplake girls all put in such incredible effort, Leighton Park managed to score in the first quarter, however because of the incredible support from our coach Mrs Dunn, we continued to keep spirits high. The girls proceeded to work strongly as a team and our play greatly improved during the last two quarters where we frequently took the ball from Leighton Park’s possession due to some effective tackling from A Holden. Our well-deserved Player of the Match went to I Davies-Shearing who played exceptionally well today and although the match ended with Leighton Park beating us by 4-0, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and put in such amazing efforts! The girls are really looking forward to upcoming matches and a big well done to everyone who played today! Thank you to our coach today, Mrs Dunn.
Report: R Dewar, Girls’ 2nd XI Hockey Captain
Coach: Mrs F Dunn
Football - Boys’ 1st XI vs Dunottar School
The game began quite frantic with neither team really dominating possession but a fortunate bounce after a long ball forward from Dunottar, saw their striker gain a yard of space before cooly slotting the ball into the corner of the Shiplake net. This seemed to settle us as we then began to play very courageous football, with passes played in behind the defence causing them all sorts of trouble. On the 29th minute, C Nash-Steer played a perfectly weighted through ball onto the speedy A Siveter who touched it around the keeper before being brought down NFL style in the box resulting in a penalty. A Mullens fired the penalty into the top right corner, leaving the goalkeeper no chance. The game remained quite cagey from both sides until half time.
Dunottar really came out of the blocks in the second half and within 10 minutes of the restart found themselves 3-1 to the good. This is when it looked like it could've become a cricket scoreline but two wonder saves from GK J Lucking kept Shiplake's hopes alive. On the 65th minute, A Mullens regained possession by intercepting a pass and played a brilliant through ball behind the Dunottar defence for a well-timed run by L Spence who latched onto the ball before slotting in our 2nd under the keeper. The remaining 15 minutes saw Shiplake begin to pile on the pressure but resolute defending from Dunottar made it impossible for us to squeeze in an equaliser.
Unfortunately, we bow out in Round 1 this year but to a worthy opposition. The team can all hold their heads high after a truly commendable team performance.
Coach: Mr A Gingell
Rowing - Head of the Dart
On Saturday 21 September, the senior rowers headed to Dartmouth to race 15km at the Head of the Dart. The race started at Dart Totness Rowing Club and finished at Dartmouth. This event was used at an early season teambuilding exercise with a bit of competitive rowing thrown in. In total, Shiplake had seven crews racing; a boys’ and girls’ eight, two girls’ quads, a boys’ quad, and a boys’ coxless and coxed four.
In an exceptional effort, the first four finishers were all Shiplake crews with the boys’ eight completing the race in 42 minutes 42 seconds and setting a new course record while at it! The girls’ quad was the fastest women's boat of the day. All crews raced exceptionally well and dealt with the difficult costal type conditions. We would like to thank Dart Totness for their very kind hospitality, making us very welcome and even cooking breakfast for us before racing!
Report: Mr D Currie
Individual Sporting Success
Equestrianism
Well done to Year 11 pupil Jack Dag who was part of a team that competed at the world-famous Blenheim Horse Trials PC90 Eventers Challenge. He and his teammates jumped at 9.30am, and held 1st place for over 7 hours, but were beaten by the very last team to jump at 5.00pm. Congratulations on your silver medal, Jack!
Tennis
Well done to Year 8 pupil Archie Humphreys who has been invited to play up two years and join the U14 county tennis squad for Buckinghamshire.
Rowing
Well done to Year 10 pupil S Lee for reaching the A Final of the Open J14 1x category at the new British Rowing Junior and Senior Club Championships in July.
