July 2019
WYCOMBE HIGH SCHOOL
SPORTS BULLETIN Summer 2019
Hockey
Welcome to the Sports Bulletin, a half-termly update of our students’ sporting achievements. Go to the Sports website for details of fixtures and follow us on Twitter @WycHighsports
Jemima Copeman (Y12, T1) has had a another brilliant year filled with multiple sporting achievements. As a high level athlete and national standard hockey player, Jemima decided to focus on just hockey this year..and what a year it has been! As well as representing WHS as part of the indoor hockey team she has also ended the year with nine U16 England caps over the summer vs Germany, Belgium, France, Ireland, Scotland, Holland & Spain, including a bronze medal at the Six Nations / European Cup. Well done!
Individual Success Netball Congratulations Abi Layng (Y9, B6) whose Eagles U14 netball team came 3rd in the Club National finals which were held at Worcester University Arena, a fantasic end to a phenomenal year. They qualified unbeaten for the South Regional League, having played the best teams in south of England they qualified in the top spot, again unbeaten.
Having already played the best netball teams in the country, in the finals the team were finally beaten by Bury, denying them a place in the final against Oldham. The Northwest, for some reason, have the best netball clubs in the country. However, 3rd best under 14 team in the country is still a great achievement (they are a small club by national standards, Maidenhead based). Eloise Brindle (Y11, C5) was selected for the GB WJ16 Coxless Four on Monday 1 July. She will be attending Abi is the team captain and has been their sole goal the GB Rowing Team Junior Camp from Tuesday 9July shooter for the last 5 years, she has done exceptionally to Wednesday 10 July and will compete against France well with great and highly consistent shooting stats in on Thursday 11 July. this very pressurised position. A great achievement especially as she is only 5ft 9 (short in GS terms!), most Eloise (coxed by her sister) won The West End ARA of them are 6 footers! trophy at Henley Women's Regatta in a hard fought race against Kent School USA. With a last minute Charlotte Simpson (Y9, C6) who is also an push, they broke the course record for WJ16 Coxed exceptionally talented player, who plays GA, is also in Fours. An outstanding achievment ! The final is the same team. Abi and Charlotte have a great available to watch on YouTube: attacking partnership in the club. They have both committed to hours of training for this, including a huge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6hJzZbypYY amount of shooting practice, strength and fitness training, all whilst managing their school work and extra -curricular commitments. Well done girls!
Rowing
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Volleyball Izzy Tucker (Y10, C4) is one of eight women who has been asked to participate in the Elite Showcase for beach volleyball at Canary Wharf on Friday 12 July. Izzy has also already raised £240 for the charity ’My AFK’ that the event is raising money for, a huge honour to be part of, we are very proud of you!
Team Success Athletics Year 8 Well done to the Year 8 athletics squad who won the District League this year. A great achievement and also considering the torrential rain at the last meet. They came second in the District Tournament so well done to all.
Staff Success Weightlifting & CrossFit The past few months have been busy for PE teacher Miss Harris, not only has she balanced her role at WHS with running her business, CrossFit Aylesbury, but she Year 7 has also been competing alongside some of the The Year 7 athletics team have had a great season. strongest and fittest athletes in the world. They came second in their League only missing out on 1st by a couple of points, a tough ask after Sports Day June saw Miss. Harris qualify for and compete in The and third at the District Tournament. We have lots to British & International Weightlifting Championships, a build on and are looking forward to next season. selection event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She placed a respectable 8th in the womens 64kg class with competition from not only the UK but also as far as Japan and the USA. The following month saw Miss Harris travel to Paris for The CrossFit French Throwdown, a fitness competition that tested elements from paddleboarding and long distance running, to weightlifting and gymnastics. This event saw athletes come together and attempt to qualify for The CrossFit World Championships, which will take place in Wisconsin later this Summer. After a challenging 9 events in blistering 40 degree heat, Miss. Harris came out in 35th place – a fantastic effort! A big thank you to Helen and Alan for all their coaching this year and to Mrs Lomas for her support at meetings. ESAA—Round 2 The athletics teams have done exceptionally well to have all made it to the ESAA Round 2. It was a very hot day but that didn't stop them performing their best. The girls all tried their best and many finished their events with personal bests and top 3 finishes which is an outstanding achievement. This sadly wasn't enough to get through us through to the national finals, but they should all be proud of what they have achieved this year and how far many of them have come!
Bucks School Games
Cricket
On Thursday 4 July 2019. WHS took 3 teams to the Bucks School Games represent the Wycombe District in Y7 Football, Y7 Rounders and Y9 Rounders.
Congratulations to our U13 cricket team who beat Wycombe Abbey in a friendly with Aashni Manek (Y7, B2) and Tilly Fellows (Y7, C7) getting player of the match for fielding and batting respectively.
We travelled to Stoke Mandeville Stadium, which is the home of the Paralympic games, where we watched a fantastic opening ceremony. This highlighted the core values of the games, which were respect, honesty, passion, determination, self-belief and team work. We we also got to meet England netball Captain Ama Agbeze, an amazing experience.
Well done also to this brilliant, talented team of cricket stars who got to the final at the U13 @BerkoSport invitational at Berkhamsted school and came runners Rounders up against a strong Belmont Mill Hill Prep side! This The year 9 rounders team consisting of Keshni Manek, team were superb against some really strong competition from across Herts, Beds and Bucks. They Caitlin Ireland, Molly Finn, Charlotte Simpson, Lara Vicientini, Nina Cook, Riya Kapadia, Swetha Babu, Abi also got some fantastic coaching from ex-England Layng, and Alexandra Stowers, competed in the School Captain Charlotte Edwards who signed all of their bats! What a treat for them! Very well done Sophie Midwinter Games Rounders Competition, with a very positive (Y8, N1) for the MVP award too podium result of 3rd place, which we liked to call the Rose Gold award! We started off with a very convincing win and continued with them throughout the afternoon. Where overall we won 5 out of 7 games narrowly missing out by half a rounder for the win! The whole team played exceptionally and we were very proud of our success. Well done! The netball players battled in the heat with some outstanding play against the top netball schools in the county but unfortunately did not place.
Football Seven schools were selected to take part in the Bucks School Games football tournament. The girls started the day well with a 2-0 and 1-0 win in their first 2 games. They sadly couldn't find a goal but defended well as a team in their next 2 games which both finish 0-0. In the final 2 matches they won 5-0 and 2-1 with a last minute winning goal from Tilly Fellows! This meant they came second which is a fantastic achievement and played amazing football throughout the day. Well done!
Tennis Tennis Schools Competition Results U15 B Team Played 4 league games in which the team won two and lost two. U13 A Team Played 5 league games and won 4. U13 B Team Played 2, won 1 and lost.
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Sports Presentation Evening
Boodles
Article by Keshni Manek (Y9, B6)
Article by Maya Dunkin (Y9, P2)
This year, the annual Sports Presentation evening was held on Friday 21 June. The evening was set to be an enjoyable one, with awards for a whole range of sports, as well as a guest speaker: Maggie Alphonsi. The evening began with a welcome from both Mrs Cromie and Miss Snook, who both gave brief overviews of the sporting year at Wycombe High School as well as thanking everyone for their contribution to sport this academic year.
Our week at the Boodles tournament has been amazing. This year we were told, only a couple of days before the event, that Novak Djokovic was playing. The standards were set high! I think it would be an understatement to say we all had an amazing time and loved every part of it.
Soon, the awards began, starting with Netball. Each sport was introduced by the respective captain, and then awards were given for most improved player and player of the season for each age group. After sport specific awards, Miss Harris moved on to present the half colour awards, of which there were forty six this year! The most there has ever been-the standard of sport must be improving! Mr Evans then presented the full colour awards, most of which went to students in years 11, 12 and 13. The final awards to be given were exceptional performance awards, team of the year, and Sportswoman and sports leader of the year, the last two won by Phoebe Grey and Jess Harrison. Next to the stage was Maggie Alphonsi, a rugby player for England’s women’s team, who helped lead England to victory in the 2014 women’s rugby world cup and in Six Nations, seven times. She was also the first ever former female player to commentate on men’s international rugby, and the first ever former female player to become a columnist for a national newspaper. She spoke about how she got into rugby and her success story. The whole room was listening intently throughout as she spoke with such passion about how to set goals for yourself in order to fulfil your ambitions. She was a truly inspirational woman who spoke with humour and confidence, and I’m sure everyone in the room felt inspired as they left that evening. Before the evening was truly over, Miss Snook announced raffle winners and lead a game of heads or tails, with a twenty pound prize for the winner. The event was closed with thanks to everyone who attended, as well as to the students and staff who were part of the WHS sport family 2018-19. Overall, this academic year has been a fruitful one for the Wycombe High School PE department!
On Monday 24 June after school the team went to have a look around Stoke Park and get a feel for the grass court. We also got given our Adidas kit which looked stunning. We all felt extremely proud wearing it to school the following days. To be a ballgirl for some world famous tennis players was an incredible experience and a memory that will stick with us forever. There were players like Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Grigor Dimitrov, Karen Kachanov, Denis Shapalov, Fabio Fogini and Liam Broady. Most of which continued to go on to Wimbledon. And although some of it was hardwork and at times pressuring, you couldn’t help but have an amazing time! This year, Keshni and Freya both got to play on the court with the star tennis players racquets! You also make new friends and get closer with people on your team and have an enjoyable week. “I love Boodles and I don’t want to leave on Saturday!” – Keshni Manek “I love ballgirling for some of my favourite players!” – Rufaro Chikwanda “ I will definitely try out for next year again!” – Emily Ng “I’m so happy I got this opportunity and would
Sports Day 2019
Overall results
Media Team Report
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
The following report was written by Caitlin Felsted (Y10) who made up part of the Sports Day media team.
Year 7
Pankhurst
Austen
Bronte
Year 8
Curie
Bronte
Nightingale
In Wycombe High, Sport’s Day is an event like no other. The whole school gathers together for a day off-timetable to compete in a variety of track, field, and miscellaneous activities. This year’s theme for sports day was ‘throwback’, and saw sack races, welly-wanging events, a three-legged race and a collection of throwback songs (provided by Mr Mackerras, as always) that were like a tidal wave of flashbacks to everyone’s primary school days.
Year 9
Austen
Curie
Bronte
Year 10
Parks
Bronte
Curie
Year 12
Nightingale
Austen
Parks
Overall
Austen
Parks
Bronte & Curie
The day began with a beautifully choreographed opening ceremony. First, the parade; the house captains ran out first, decked out in fabulous house-themed costumes. Then came the sports captains for each year group and house, followed swiftly by the year 7s, kicking off their first sports day of many with tumultuous applause from all houses. Next came the junior cheerleaders, senior cheerleaders, year 9 samba band, and the dance performance group. The performers, as ever, were perfectly timed, with awe-inspiring moves and tricks, and precise rhythm, and the never-before-seen samba band was stirring up a lively beat across the school field. Throughout the day, students were able to visit the Charity Village, situated behind the house pens, where various tutor groups were tasked with running fundraising stalls for their house charity. The plethora of stalls gave students plenty to buy, with the Nightingale stall sporting the ingenious idea of a hallowe’en-style donut-eating competition, which was soon sold out.
Fundraising After the success of the charity village last year, the development ambassadors and house charities decided to run another bigger and better charity village for Sports Day 2019. Featured stalls this year included throwback mocktails, sweets, homemade cakes, face-painting and a photobooth! This year we raised a phenomenal £1,188.29 ! Almost double the amount from previous years—thank you to everyone who contributed towards running a charity stall and purchased items on Sports Day.
The most loved events of this year’s sports day were undoubtedly the themed ‘throwback’ events. Chaos ensued when the sack-race began and three-legged-race was no different. Broken ankle bands, flailing year 10’s, and falling face-face first into astro-turf, these events were just as exciting and entertaining as last year’s ‘Commonwealth’ themed events. Not least because Nightingale year 10 destroyed the competition in the three-legged race, of course. Though that does have a slight impact.
Adventure Visit
For the first time, the Year 10s and 12s were treated to some exhilarating fun in Devon with our inaugural adventure visit! Students did sea kayaking, stand up paddleboarding, indoor climbing, raft building, team building and most fun of all, coasteering along the beautiful Devon coastline! Coasteering As with every year, students were left gasping at the 1500m involved lots of high jumps from rocks into gorgeous, warm while the athletes flew ahead, the 100m relay was intense and and clear sea! It was brilliant fun whilst also being challenging a close call, and high-jumpers leapt as though their feet were and the students clearly had a fantastic time, so much so that we will definitely go again! springs. Among the best were Nightingale’s Emily Gillespie and Daniela Grice, both year 10, who achieved gold in both their races as they flew past their rivals. While Nightingale may not have won Sports Day of 2019, the house is full of hope and expectation for next year’s events and budding athletes, as well as (perhaps grudging) congratulations for this year’s winners, Austen. Overall, races were won and lost, records were broken, and students got house names burnt down their legs. Another successful sports day at Wycombe High marked the end of a brilliant year of school, and the start of a hard-earned summer holiday. 5