SPORTS

SPORT

MR ANDREW HOUSTON, DIRECTOR OF SPORT

This year will forever be remembered for Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns, and, although it would be easy to focus on everything that we couldn’t do and what we lost, I hope this article highlights the huge efforts of the pupils and the staff in giving so much to our sports programme during this period. Throughout the year, all sports had to work within year group bubbles and for the majority of the time were unable to play external fixtures. Yet we still managed to provide sport for all age groups during this time both virtually and in person. Even though external fixtures only returned in late May, each sport worked hard to provide the very best experience. This meant we ran more inter-House competitions across a wider variety of sports. This ranged from mixed touch rugby to 6-a-side cricket as well as regular girl vs boy netball matches.

With the Covid-19 restrictions, we introduced new options for the pupils, as well as adapting to play traditional Summer term sport in September and early October. It was the first time that we saw cricket, tennis, hockey and rugby being played at the same time of year, with the ground staff working incredibly hard to get facilities ready so that all the sports could happen simultaneously.

We had House matches across: Fives, hockey, a mix of touch rugby and football (at half time the game changed) and touch rugby sevens; and golf, badminton and climbing competitions. The hockey and rugby club continued to provide a wonderful mix of sessions for all abilities with football also being offered during the week alongside rugby. It was good to see so many staff supporting each other and all pupils of all abilities received weekly sessions from the directors, specialist coaches or heads of the sport. The swimming team competed in a new internal Aquathon (a mix of swimming and running which was won by Jamie Tappin). The School introduced a CranFit option for both boys and girls with our traditional Junior cross country also being able to take place with West and Loveday coming out on top. A high-performance programme was also introduced for the Upper Fifth and Sixth Form, which included a series of workshops and seminars on sports psychology, performance and nutrition.

The Lent term saw us back into lockdown with no pupils on site. Throughout this period each sport worked hard remotely to provide pupils with virtual skill and fitness sessions around their lessons as well as individual programmes to follow. CranFit went virtual with a daily midday 30-minute workout for all the pupils, staff and their families to join in together as one live community. A series of high-performance interviews were produced discussing all things sport with Olympians and professional sportswomen and men across a wide range of sports. On our return back to School, the pupils went back into a Lent programme including netball, hockey, rugby sevens, football, swimming, Fives and CranFit. All these sports played House matches across all the year groups and even though the pupils were only in School for 19 days, I was so proud of the staff for putting on so many events and internal competitions for them.

The Summer term saw us finally playing external matches after 16 long months away. It was slightly ironic that the first match back had to be abandoned halfway through because of rain, but the relief to be playing again was massive. Our greatest achievement all term was putting out full teams in all our sports at all age groups. We were able to run over 10 different sports this term including climbing and riding. Across all our summer sports, every pupil from all age groups participated even during the two exam periods. This during a period of centre-assessed academic grades was something that we can be very proud of indeed.

On top of the return of external fixtures, we also were able to have a full programme of House events including golf, cricket, an U18 Monday Night Football tournament, mixed touch rugby, tennis, athletics, and cross country to name just a few. The House Cross Country saw over 240 pupils taking part during the first few weeks of the Summer term with Mark Walker and Eliza Wheeler both winning the Senior boys’ and girls’ events whilst Charlotte Barr and Milo Roe won the Junior event.

The pupils and staff once again threw themselves into the programme and we achieved some wonderful successes in many different areas. Our U15 Girls and the U14 Boys cricket teams reached their respective finals of the County Cup. The U14 A-C cricket teams had a wonderful season including a clean sweep of victories against Whitgift. Girls cricket continued to grow with regular matches across the U14, U14 and 1st team age groups. We also managed some softball fixtures with a large number of girls playing their first-ever cricket matches. The 1st XI made up for the lost time by having a brilliant season. Yousef Majid took five, five-wicket plus hauls during the season with 8 wickets in one match for only 15 runs! The side played both 50 over and two-day matches, with the team winning all the longer formats of the game with only two narrow defeats. The girls’ 1st XI cricket team played the MCC in a wonderful match which was my personal highlight of the term. Our U16A cricket side also played in the National Cup tournament as a result of winning the Surrey Championship a whole two years earlier.

The tennis teams proved highly successful with victories across the board at all age groups. With over 200 pupils involved it was great to see the club in such great health. The House matches were all played in wonderful spirit. The Girls’ Junior Tennis was won by South and the Girls’ Senior Tennis by Rhodes. The Boys’ Junior Tennis being won by East, Boys’ Senior Tennis by North.

The Senior girls were unbeaten all season and our mixed doubles team won the prestigious Sevenoaks invitational in late June which was a huge highlight across all sports.

Golf continued throughout the three terms and although the majority of matches had to be cancelled, it was great to see our Junior sides able to compete in mid-May. Louis Wilkinson won

SCHOOL SPORT COMPETITIONS

MICHAELMAS TERM

Boys’ Fourth Form cross country: Loveday Girls’ Fourth Form cross country: West Lower Fifth House Fives: North

Upper Fifth House Fives: East Senior House Fives: Loveday Lower Sixth House football: Cubitt/South

Junior Girls’ House hockey: South Senior Girls’ House hockey: Rhodes House Rugby/Football Competition: East House rugby sevens: East House touch rugby: East

LENT TERM

Fourth Form Fives: North/West

Junior House football: East

Senior House football: Cubitt

Boys’ Junior House hockey: Cubitt Boys’ Senior House hockey: Loveday Junior House netball: South

Senior House netball: Rhodes

SUMMER TERM

Boys’ House athletics: North Girls’ House athletics: West

Boys’ Junior House cricket: Loveday Boys’ Senior House cricket: Cubitt Girls’ Junior House cricket: West

Girls’ Senior House cricket: Cubitt

Clem Williams Trophy: Archibald Prior E.W. Swanton Bat: Thomas Lawes

Boys’ Junior cross country: East Boys’ Senior cross country: Loveday Girls’ Junior cross country: South Girls’ Senior cross country: Rhodes Boys’ Junior golf: Loveday Boys’ Senior golf: Cubitt Cronk Salver: Louis Wilkinson

Boys’ Junior tennis: East Boys’ Senior tennis: North Girls’ Junior tennis: South

Girls’ Senior tennis: Rhodes

EVERY PUPIL FROM ALL AGE GROUPS PARTICIPATED EVEN DURING THE TWO EXAM PERIODS

the Cronk Salver trophy during the Summer term. There was a wonderful OC vs Staff vs Upper Sixth match during the last week of term in celebration of the new tee box hole information plaques that were kindly donated by the OC Golf Society. Fives continues to go from strength to strength with 45 pupils now playing the game as their major sport in the Michaelmas and Lent term.

The riders took part in the NSEA National Eventers Challenge and Jumping with Style Championships, winning the National Novice JWS title and finishing runners-up in the Intermediate. Tara Moore from Cranleigh Prep School won the individual novice title. They have gained qualifications already for the 2021 National Championships for Dressage, JWS and Show Jumping. Issy Hollidge, Lucy Le Mesurier, Tara Moore and Georgia Stephens have all qualified for the Pony Club National Championships and Tara has been selected for the South East U18 team for the British Eventing Championships. At the end of a shorter eventing season in 2020, Darcy Zander completed her first International 3* event, while Kristina and Annie Vitek both represented the Czech Republic in Equestrian at a Nations Cup and have been selected for the European championships even though they still have three and four years left at School respectively. Darcy Blaze Marcus (again at Cranleigh Prep School) represented GB in the International Dressage at Wellington.

Our athletes performed superbly well during the season. Our home event at Horsham athletic track and our House Athletics event being two standout occasions. West and North won the Girls’ and Boys’ competitions respectively in what was a close and superb meet. We also had five athletes attending the Surrey Open Trials at Kingston during the season, which was an amazing effort from them.

Internally we also launched our high-performance netball programme, which will start in September at Junior and Senior levels. We continued with CranFit, which incorporated a variety of live and virtual fitness exercises. Pupils have also taken part in a variety of shooting events that have included air rifle, .22 target rifle and the 7.62mm target rifle. The team were lucky to get to Bisley and shoot against the OCs for the first time since 2007 and this will now be an annual event. Ruari Barbour-Smith won the Welford plate for the highest scoring pupil. This year also saw the introduction of Target Sprint. The swimming team continued to train throughout the year, and it was wonderful to see Sophie Moore coming eighth in the National U16 breaststroke rankings. We were delighted to welcome three new sports specialist staff to the School. Miss Hannah Jones joined the cricket staff and is currently the Captain of the Surrey women’s cricket team and one of the youngest qualified female coaches in the country. Miss Charlotte Masters joined our netball coaching team and she is currently involved in the Surrey Storm U21s who are part of England Netball’s Elite Athlete programme. Mr Phil Burgess joined as interim Head of rugby and will be returning in September as the new Director of rugby after retiring from England and the Great Britain Sevens team.

Even though a vast number of international tournaments and squads were postponed we were delighted that Will Freear was selected for the 2021/22 England Alpine Squad. Ben Gaze and Pippi Spawforth both got selected for their respective England U18 squad in hockey whilst Olly Witts was training at England U21 and U23 level. Annie and Kristina Vitek both represented Czechoslovakia in equestrian.

We also saw individual success across several sports away from School. Tom Lawes and Yousef Majid both played Senior Surrey cricket this summer for their 2nd XI (joining last year’s Captain George Ealham at this level). Oban Baird, Jack Bemelmans, Jake Golding, Toby Kemp and Josh Tusler all represented Harlequins or London Irish at the elite academy level. A large number of hockey players represented local clubs in the absence of School matches with Joe Caine, Ben Gaze, Liv Gibson, Mattie Hamilton, Sienna Keijsers, Georgia Lawes, Pippi Spawforth, Alice Walton, Eliza Wheeler and Olly Witts all representing either Surbiton, Guildford or East Grinstead 1st team in their end of season tournament. Tessa Shahbo and Alice Walton both gained hockey scholarships to top American universities while Josh Tusler signed for Ealing Trailfinders in the rugby championship while continuing his studies at Brunel University.

As you can see, Covid-19 impacted so much but real praise should go to the pupils, the coaches, support and ground staff for their huge efforts and positive attitude throughout. I can’t thank the staff enough for the hard work that they put into coaching and planning. Often those plans had to change and then change again, but I know that the pupils are immensely grateful for all their efforts. The last few words must go to the Upper Sixth leavers, who continued to set a wonderful example even during a year that must have been incredibly challenging with so much lost for them in terms of representing us in fixtures and competitions.

WE RAN MORE INTERHOUSE COMPETITIONS ACROSS A WIDER VARIETY OF SPORTS

SPORTS COLOURS AND AWARDS

In a year that was dramatically impacted, the School was delighted to award the following their sports colours for their leadership, performances and attitude towards their sport.

Athletics: Matilda Gough, Alexander Hughes, Cameron Reader, Mark Walker

Climbing: Louis Cookson

Cricket: William Bovill, Archie Freeth, Ruairi Johnston, Luca La Costa, Thomas Lawes, Maximilian Martin

Football: Benjamin Cregeen, Archie Freeth, Robin Greenstock, Milo Haggas, Luca La Costa, Harvey McBrien, Jude Reynolds, William Wilkinson

Golf: Louis Wilkinson, William Wilkinson Charles Petter, Felix Rodriguez, Mark Walker, Oliver Witts

Girls’ hockey: Heather Andrews, Lucy Atkin, Madeleine Atkin, Isabella De Villiers, Florence Esplen, Matilda Gough, Isobel Lock, Tessa Shahbo, Phoebe Smith, Alice Walton

Netball: Heather Andrews, Jessica Edwards, Elizabeth Holyoake, Sadhbh Stingemore

Riding: Jessica Edwards, Darcy Zander

Rugby: Max Campbell-Harris, Benjamin Cregeen, Henrique Da Silva Gabriel, James Patient, Joshua Tusler

Skiing: Phoebe Smith

Squash: Dillon Francis, Thomas Lawes, Benjamin Murphy

Swimming: Jeremy Davis, Theodore Vaughan

Girls’ tennis: Lucy Atkin, Madeleine Atkin, Charlotte Tickel

Boys’ tennis: Jacopo Bounous, Dillon Francis, William Grant, Charles Petter