Weekly Sports Roundup

U8 Rugby v Hereford Cathedral – Mr Atkinson 

After a successful outing at Winterfold last week, this was the boys’ second time representing the school. Hereford brought a strong team across, with some excellent runners. Our boys also had to play every minute, whereas they were able to bring on fresh legs at different points during the game. To compound things further, we had an injury, which saw us play with one less at times. However, the boys battled valiantly, performing well in an evenly matched contest. Charlie and Hugo, in particular, made some excellent, jinking runs and honours were roughly even by the end of the game. We look forward to continuing our evolving style in our upcoming matches.   

 

U10 Rugby v King’s Hawford – Mr Rowley 

On Wednesday the U10 boys faced off against King’s Hawford. With a week off fixtures last week, the boys had plenty of time to work on skills and tactics that they wanted to implement into the game and they did this to great success. The boys endeavoured to get the ball wide to score and to secure the rucks quickly and effectively. Player of the Game was Zack L for his 5 tries and the encouragement he gave to his team mates! 

 

U11 Rugby v King’s Hawford – Mr Jenkinson 

Nine very excited boys from the Under 11 A team travelled the short distance up to King’s Hawford on Wednesday afternoon (2nd October), to take on their A team. Having played alongside the boys from Hawford at Millfield the previous week, this was an opportunity to play against them in a full-length match. Captain Ben has recounted the match very accurately and eloquently from his perspective on the pitch, so do please read his captain’s report for further details about the match itself. However, it would be amiss of me not to add to his words and say just how well the boys played. 

Right from the start, when Archie scored a fantastic try down the left wing in the first two minutes of the game to take the lead, it was clear that this was going to be a very close match. And the boys didn’t disappoint. Everybody worked hard in defence to make their tackles and passed and ran well with the ball in attack. Despite conceding a couple of soft tries through one missed tackle, the boys didn’t let this affect them. Instead, they showed great resilience and determination to outscore Hawford in the second half, despite playing up the slope. The boys’ outstanding effort was summed up in the last play of the match though, when they put the handling drill that they had practiced in rugby club the day before into action; running straight in their ‘channel’, drawing the opposition’s tackler to create an overlap on the wing, before passing the ball through the hands to allow Leo to score a really well worked team try in the corner. 

Whilst the match highlighted a few areas for further development, all of the boys demonstrated great passion, effort and teamwork skills, and they should be very proud of their individual performances, along with their performance as a team. Well done to; Archie, Arlo, Ben, Charles, Harry, Jake, Leo, Uriah and Will, who all represented St. Alban’s so well. Thank you also to all of the parents who came along to spectate and helped to make it a very enjoyable afternoon all round. 

 

U11 Rugby v King’s Hawford Written by Ben John (Sports Prefect and  U11A Rugby Captain) 

Having played with King’s Hawford last week, It was thrilling to play them this week. The match got off to a brilliant start with Archie running half the pitch to score our first try. Will B impressed with his excellent kicking throughout the game. Charles N and Jake K were excellent in defence but unfortunately Hawford then scored a few tries. We didn’t lose heart and captain Ben J motivated everyone and the half time score was 5-3 to Hawford.

Despite running uphill in the second half KSA played with pride. Archie, Arlo and Uriah ran brilliant lines on the wing, nearly resulting in tries for the team. Harry D made a few brilliant rips for the team gaining valuable possession for KSA. The last play of the game, the boys passed it down the line to Leo who scored a textbook corner try for his first one for King’s! The score finished 8-5. The boys played great rugby and we were all delighted to have pizza for match tea.  

 

 

U9 Hockey Festival Match Report – Winterfold House Mrs Clark 

On Tuesday, the U9s travelled to Winterfold House for an exciting afternoon of hockey. Facing some tough opposition, the girls put in a lot of effort, displaying determination and resilience throughout. 

In the first match, Elodie worked exceptionally hard and her efforts were rewarded with a fantastic run-away goal, giving the team a strong finish. Maddie was tenacious all afternoon, making some excellent tackles and helping to keep the opposition at bay. 

A big well done to all the girls for their hard work and the impressive skills they demonstrated. It was a great day of hockey, and the team’s spirit and perseverance shone through. Keep up the good work, U9s! 

 

Winterfold House Cross Country Competition  Mrs Clark 

On Thursday, our school took a team of five boys and five girls to participate in the Winterfold House Cross Country event. This is always a popular competition, with around 50 children competing in each age group. As we walked the course, some of the children felt a bit nervous, but everyone was eager to get started. 

The sun shone brightly throughout the event, making for a beautiful day. The runners were tasked with completing a challenging 2.4 km course. 

We were particularly impressed with the performance of our Year 5 girls. Nell ran an outstanding race, finishing strong and securing 5th place. Both Thea and Romi were not far behind, finishing in 11th and 12th positions, respectively. Charles, Archie, Ben J and Uriah demonstrated true grit and determination to finish the course and really give it their all.   

A huge well done to all our students who took part – your hard work and effort truly shone through! 

 

U11 County Tournament – Written by Zara Walmsley (Sports Prefect) 

On Wednesday me, Flo, Emma, Sophia, Ariya, Skye, Madie, Phoebe, Georgia and Yifei took part in a hockey tournament, it was very challenging, but it was fun. We drew our first match, but then our next one against Hawford was a lot trickier, we lost 5-0, but we didn’t stop trying. Our final match was against Bluecoat, who drew with Hawford and were very strong. We worked so, so hard at that point and managed to draw with them. In the game Ariya got hit hard on the ankle with the ball but carried on. We all agreed that Ariya was our ‘player of the tournament’. We didn’t make it to the final, but we certainly had an entertaining hardworking afternoon.