Sport
Football 1st XI
next season will see similar or even greater success for KGS football. Ralph Harvey-Kelly, U6MJR
2nd XI
P16 W8 D4 L4 The top sides in modern football share similar traits: a good youth system, someone who scores 15+ goals a season, good cup runs and the ability to win games even when they are not playing particularly well. The KGS 1st XI this season was no different. With Ronald and Mr Gwynne moving on, Ahmed Mittoui, once a player at Crewe Alexandra, became our third coach in two seasons. He worked to impart his own style of football on to the 1st XI this term, and the first sign of its impact was our goal in the second game of the season against Alleyn’s: after roughly twelve passes, starting with our keeper, we had the ball in the back of the net, having lobbed the Alleynian keeper. In that game, the starting line-up consisted of six graduates of the Mr Gywnne U16/3rd XI academy from the previous season. The core stalwarts of the defence were Matt Maginnis in goal and the two centre-backs, Ben Dreux and Maxim Dutton. Peter Alvey added some steel to the defence and Arjun Rao, who was always at training, was a regular at left-back. Captain Ralph Harvey-Kelly and Rex Hopley sat in front of the back four, and were key to the team’s defence and attack, with Tom Currey and Alex George either side of them, pace was not in short supply. James Gawn played behind Miles Watson. James scored 15 goals, all of which were well taken and valuable to the team. Miles’ work rate was always worthy of praise, putting their defence under pressure whenever they had the ball. After great wins against Harrodian and Royal Russell and solid performances against Boxhill and Hampton, the autumn term was rounded off with a home cup tie vs Dulwich College. It went the distance to reach penalties and although KGS did not come out on the right side of them, we still gave the crowd something to cheer about having led for more than half the game. After Christmas, we somehow got drawn against Dulwich again in the second cup competition, away this time. It ended in the same result: Dulwich going through. We then put those two results vs Dulwich aside and registered five consecutive wins against Sutton GS, Royal Russell, Ewell Castle, Caterham and RGS Guildford. All were hard fought battles, coming from behind away to Sutton and the team showed a solid defensive performance collectively to hang on to a 1-0 win away to RGS Guildford. The attitude of the boys this season was commendable and they should all be proud of their efforts. Hopefully
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KINGSTON GRA MM AR SCHOOL 2015
This was as effective, talented and creative a side as has ever played for the 2nd XI. At least half the team could consistently pass the ball accurately and with the correct weight. Initially, however, there was something missing because of my belief that pace was necessary up front. Alas, we were not scoring goals. It was only when I remembered the elegant and effective Teddy Sheringham that the obsession with speed was jettisoned and the decision was made to put our own slowcoach – Alex Graham – at centre-forward. Alex has no acceleration but he has a beautiful feint and the ability to hit the corner of the net with a one stride shot. Uniquely, too, he could hold up the attack and wait for the pace of Rishi Manuel to arrive supported (once he had recovered from his goalkeeping broken thumb) by the hair-banded Daniel Savvides. We were blessed in having a passing spine running right through the side. Central defender Nick Fordham was elegance personified while Alborz Farahati had genuine vision and understanding with his forwards. Both too, astonishingly, began to tackle opponents. Of course, it was not just skill which made us a good team; we had the usual, necessary and brutal muscle of Nick Semple and Middlesex rugby player Hugo Delattre to rely on when boots were flying around. It was good to see Lower Sixth Formers Gajan Prabhaharan and Owen Paterson transforming themselves into reliable defenders and to admire the stamina and persistent, although always legal, aggression of Hari Clarke. As always, it was a pity that a number of Upper Sixth Formers faded away when we moved into the cold at Old Cranleighans, but nevertheless the contributions of the huge Lucca Colarusso were massive in every sense of the word as was the brio of Tim Shipley. We missed George Parrott and he us, once first team supremo Ahmed realised that our 2nd XI thespian could indeed “Bend it like Beckham”. However, the highlight and player of the year for me was Rahul Patel. Last season he had been a reluctant defender, whilst this season he was an extremely reluctant goalkeeper (“Half a game only, Sir. No more!”) until he produced the greatest,