School teams demonstrate sportsmanship during Kindness Week

U8 Football vs Winterfold

The U8s played Winterfold in a hugely competitive fixture, in which the wind and the natural slope of the pitch certainly added interest and spice. The boys played some exquisite football, linking up from defence through midfield, and hitting the attack with some excellent through balls. Cassian W performed well in goal, but then came outfield in the second half and scored a memorable solo goal after ghosting down the left flank of the pitch. Our thanks go out to Rupert T, who also put in a brave and resilient shift in goal replacing Cassian W.  As ever, Tom H and Josh R were a driving force in midfield. This was a good day’s work by all.

U9 Football vs Winterfold

On Tuesday, the U9 boys enjoyed a highly competitive football fixture at Winterfold. It was a gloriously sunny afternoon, and the boys demonstrated superb progress in their ability to keep possession in attack, playing with increased consistency of decision making and passing skills. Austin and Charles both scored fine individual goals, but the highlight of the afternoon was the Player of the Match performance from Freddie. He worked tirelessly without the ball, pressing the opposition and making super tackles, as well as finding teammates with accurate passes when in possession.

U10 Football v King’s St Alban’s and Winterfold

Both of our U10 teams performed well against strong opposition from King’s St Alban’s and Winterfold. They showed particularly good touches in their first games, but found playing upslope against strong teams with an excellent press attack more difficult the second time around, and were not able to play with their normal flair. All boys demonstrated great resilience and showed how much they have progressed over the football term.

U11 Football vs Winterfold and RGS The Grange

Mr Hodgkins’s U11 football team played as part of a triangular fixture with their counterparts from Winterfold and RGS The Grange in this Wednesday’s matches; the games were a useful  preparation for next week’s ISFA regional competition at Clifton College. The boys worked really hard throughout the afternoon and played well as a team, ensuring that they applied the passing triangles that we have worked on when in possession of the ball. Will N was excellent in midfield and both he and James contributed well with good goals, but the star of the show on Wednesday was Teddy with his goalkeeping performances. In both matches, he consistently pulled off impressive save after save to frustrate our opponents’ attackers and keep them at bay.

U11 Football v Winterfold and RGS The Grange

The Under 11 B Team produced their best performance of the term in their fixture against Winterfold on Wednesday. The quality of their passing and movement was fantastic and allowed them to dominate possession and territory for the majority of the game. In what was a fabulous team performance, it is hard to single out individual players, but an exception must be made for Ben L, who produced the best sporting performance of his time at Hawford. His concentration at the back didn’t waver, and he made countless tackles before moving the ball on to his midfield counterparts. The boys thoroughly deserved the 3-0 score-line and we hope this performance sets them up for their final football fixtures of the term next week.

U10 & U11 IAPS Swimming

On Thursday morning, 17 pupils from Years Five and Six travelled with Mr Hodgkins and Mrs Butt to Millfield School for the regional IAPS swimming competition. Competing against twelve considerably bigger schools, the King’s Hawford swimmers continued the pattern of punching significantly above their weight that has been a consistent trend across all sports over recent years. The event started with incredible successes for the Hawford relay teams, with second place finishes in the Medley Relay for the U10 boys, U10 girls and U11 girls, as well an a hugely impressive winning performance for the U11 boys’ team, with a winning distance of nearly 10 metres. This was backed up by similarly commendable displays in the Freestyle Relays, with the U11 boys winning once more, whilst the U11 girls finished fourth, the U10 boys finished third, and the U10 girls secured another second place result. George C, Arthur, Iza, Holly and Darcy all competed as relay specialists and performed admirably.

In the individual races, the King’s Hawford pupils continued to swim above and beyond expectation, and it was lovely once again to witness the encouragement, support and camaraderie that the children always display towards each other.  This led to two brilliant sixth place finishes for Millie and Charles, an impressive seven third places from Pippa, Sammy, Harry G, Teddy, Hattie, James and George O, in addition to two superb second place results from Thea and Harriet and an outstanding victory for Harry C in the U11 50m backstroke.

The children all had a fantastic day, swimming in a wonderful and challenging pool. The experience will help them all in their continued swimming development, but a special mention should be made of the U10 squad, who did incredibly well, especially given that IAPS increased the U10 race distances from 25m to 50m for the first time this year.

We must now wait to find out if any of the children have swum a fast enough time to qualify for the National Finals in the Summer Term.