13 minute read
Sport
Athletics
Even Covid couldn’t stop Churcher’s students from running; Mr Daniel was to thank for the remote “Couch to 5km” and such was the uptake that he regularly had up to 50 runners training on a Wednesday before school upon our return. That so many students were disciplined enough to be ready to start running at 7am was testament to their dedication and enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, that was the limit for cross-country, but some students were able to enjoy the track and field season. Across the junior and intermediate events at the South East Hampshire Championships, 14 students qualified to represent the South East team at the Hampshire Schools’ Athletics Championships, the biggest number from any school in the region!
The year finished with Sports Day for each year group on consecutive days, and its new format was a fantastic advert for athletics at the school; it was incredible to see so many students participating and a fitting way to end the year.
Mr K McGuire
Cricket
A wise man once wrote, “Cricket is a glorious game of uncertainty and no one should make it lose the charm of uncertainty by making it predictable.” This year has delivered more than our fair share of uncertainty, mainly in the form of the weather and, of course, Covid; we have had to work incredibly hard to get games played, especially as schools would suddenly be unable to fulfil fixtures due to Covid outbreaks. However, seeing the fields full on a Saturday has made all these other challenges pale into insignificance.
Boys
The Seniors have enjoyed a solid year, playing eight games (including representing the school at the National Cup at Bradfield), winning four and losing four. There was also a Senior 2nd team for the first time in many years and it indicates that our strong pyramid base and success in encouraging participation is clearly working.
Meanwhile, it was a tough year for the U15 side this year, coming up against some excellent teams. However, the boys were incredibly committed and great fun. This age group is very much a stepping stone into the world of Senior cricket and many of them will be knocking on the 1st XI door in the not too distant future; a particular mention should go to Fergus Weatherhead for his 56 against KES Southampton and to Dom Porter for his 73 against Ryde.
The U13s have been a delight to work with: enthusiasm, effort and energy, mixed with a dedication to training and match days, together with some talented players has been a terrific recipe! Unfortunately, we lost in the semi-final of the cup against a team who had one very strong player backed up by two other strong bowlers and although we really created some pressure, the truth was we didn’t score enough when we were batting and lost by just one run. From one match where we gave away over 50 extras to then playing local rivals PGS and conceding just six was a real moment of growth for the As. They continued to develop and on the last match of the season managed to beat Salesian U14As, a team which included some big, powerful boys. The Bs beat PGS at a bit of a canter and won all of their fixtures through the season.
The U12s season saw the year group have their first ever Churcher’s College fixtures against other schools. The first game took them a bit by surprise, having been beaten by a well drilled KES, but they rose to the challenge as the season went on. To say they were enthusiastic would be a huge understatement with 50+ boys regularly turning out to practice with a real buzz in the air every time. So focused on trying to improve their individual skills, week in and week out, the boys were queuing up to play in the fixtures and we really look forward to seeing how they develop next year.
Girls
The girls’ commitment to cricket in the lower years has been outstanding and they have made remarkable progress. The U15s have had a fantastic season: in both batting and fielding they are a force to be reckoned with, and this led to two convincing victories against King Edward VI and Ryde.
At U14 level, attendance at training, at Churcher’s Development League and at inter-school fixtures has been fantastic, frequently having over 25 girls involved. Huge improvement in their bowling and batting technical ability has now initiated the transition to hard ball. Two excitingly close fixtures against Ryde and KES were the highlights of the season, with top performances coming from Rosie Bruce, Bella Gaunt and Elise Millington.
We have also seen excellent participation from the Second Year; their enthusiasm and motivation for the sport was inspiring to work with. Regularly on a Saturday we would have 36 players for A, B & C teams. Although we didn’t have too many competitive fixtures against other schools, the girls have taken this opportunity to develop their game play and tactical knowledge brilliantly and there is a significant amount who are ready and raring for hard ball fixtures next summer.
M R Maier
Hockey
Girls
We welcomed a First Year that really engaged and bought into their hockey. Participation numbers for internal matches were exceptionally high with almost the whole year group consistently in attendance! To compensate for the lack of external
fixtures, we adopted various themes to our weekend matches, such as the FIH Pro League with pre-decided teams adopting a nation, their colour, playing style and even learning some of the hockey specific language!
Boys
We had just three weeks of hockey during Games, but unfortunately were not allowed to have any Saturday activity due to Covid. However, those three weeks passed in the blink of an eye and it was clear that many were delighted to be back. In the final Games week we played House hockey with a new format for the U12s and U13s comprising two mini matches between Houses with combined scores. This resulted in more engagement and participation and will now remain as a permanent fixture to the programme.
Churcher’s Champions Festival
The introduction of the Churcher’s Champions Festival proved to be another success with the boys playing a rugby tournament at the same time the girls were playing a hockey
tournament. Scores carried over from the two sports – tries were a point, as were goals in hockey. Teams adopted a sporting Old Churcherian: Team Pedder, Chambers, Rodber, Cairns, Pocock & Tuffin. It proved to be such a success that we ran a second Festival in the Spring Term to compensate for the continued lack of external fixtures.
Covid Hockey Club
During the lockdown period after Christmas we started a remote hockey club over Teams, led ably by our Senior Captains and Vice Captains, with skills, tips and tricks galore! We even finished with some hockey specific yoga from an external instructor.
Mr P Beard
Netball
The pandemic brought with it lots of challenges, ensuring that no day was the same and we all had to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, continuously adapting like never before. This was true for our Chucher’s netballers, too, and despite the setback of a netball season in lockdown, the girls continued to show commitment, determination and resilience through online initiatives aimed to encourage learning, training, and wellbeing for all in our Churcher’s netball family.
Throughout lockdown, the extracurricular club met on a Thursday lunchtime and frequently had over 45 members attending across all year groups. Each week offered a new and fun-filled focus; some of the highlights were an interactive netball quiz, Churcher’s Netball Bingo, Captain’s Takeover with Katie Harris and Isabelle Brower and the Ramseyer sisters led a fantastic fitness session. The sock shooting championships also created quite a stir with 48 competitors faced with the challenge of shooting 15 pairs of socks into a bin five metres away. The knockout rounds concluded just as we returned to school, and congratulations to our overall winners, Charlie Williams (1G), Mia Clark (5C) and Izzy Harris (5N).
In February, Saracens Mavericks Superleague player Jo Trip delivered a remote netball fitness session. More than 50 girls from the First Year to the Upper Sixth took part in a 60-minute circuit session which included footwork, cardio, muscular endurance and muscular strength - there were lots of red, sweaty faces and high intensity activity! Jo then kindly took part in a lively Q&A session, giving insightful and inspiring answers and sending out a really important message: with many setbacks in her playing career, she has not always been selected for a squad, but she never gave up. She sat on the bench for many years, and understands that other people may be better than her; however, this did not stop her training as hard as she could to be the best she can be. An inspirational lesson for our young netballers from a true professional.
Mrs K Higgins
Rounders
We had a handful of fixtures and even managed two rounders festivals, so all in all it was a good season under the circumstances. The festivals involved U12, U13, U14 and U15s and on one of them we had some 90
girls participating, which was quite a sight to see! The highlight of the competitive season was an away trip to Ryde with the U13B team, which we narrowly lost but managed to find time to sun ourselves on Southsea beach with an ice cream whilst we waited for the Hover!
Mrs L Snowball
Rugby
Returning to school post lockdown with a multitude of Covid protocols was certainly a daunting task for all involved. However, once again both students and staff were amazing in their positive, determined and enthusiastic response to the difficult situation placed in front of them.
Just before the start of the new school year, the rugby staff arrived for preseason training to be greeted by swarms of students ready and eager to get started on their rugby, including 60 students for whom this was their first taste of Churcher’s rugby. It was fantastic to see on average 40-50 students per year group take to the fields and express themselves on the sporting pitch, particularly after so long in lockdown and away from their teammates. These fantastic numbers were to continue throughout the Autumn Term.
Once again, Covid wreaked havoc on school life; we were unable to play other schools for fixtures, we played no contact rugby and there was a mini lockdown in November. However, students were not to be deterred and Saturdays saw the boys participating in the Churcher’s Rugby Cup. Each year group bubble had its own individual tournament and the boys were put into sets for a five week period. The tournament was a great success and saw some closely contested league tables. The main focus within the tournament was on speed of play, quality of skills under pressure, teamwork and game scenario adaptation. This was promoted through a different touch game variation on each Saturday. Games such as Fiji Touch, Bounce Touch and a superhero week enabled the boys to experience a wide range of games of touch that continued to stretch them both physically and mentally. There were fantastic performances from all year groups and it was a real pleasure to notice a strong development of core skills such as passing and receiving of the ball, along with some outstanding individual skill expression over the term.
During the term and on the last weekend before the Christmas break, the boys joined forces with girls’ hockey for a combined Churcher’s Champions Festival. This was a great competition and a fantastic opportunity for students to experience a competitive festival atmosphere. Students were put into teams named after old sporting Churcherians and they competed for top spot in rugby and hockey leagues. Prizes were awarded and both pupils and staff had a brilliant day.
Throughout the term there have been over 250 boys participating every Saturday and their enthusiasm and ambition every week have created a fantastic atmosphere, in what has been a difficult rugby term. The pupils should be commended for their efforts.
Mr B Skirving
Swimming
The swimming pool has been a hub of excitement since we have been allowed to return to the water post lockdown. Our club swimmers welcomed some training time in the school pool before public pools reopened and our development and competitive sessions saw swimmer numbers soaring, particularly amongst the First Years.
With separate House galas for the First and Second Year, it meant twice the fun! Some excellent individual performances from Charlie Stevenson (1G), Isobel Jordan (1R), Max McIntyre (2C) and Ruby O’Reilly (2D) saw them come away with trophies and in Max’s case, a school record too! The First Year gala came down to a single point with Drake stealing the victory from Grenville and in the Second Year competition, Drake were victorious once again!
We were so fortunate to be able to compete in the Henley Classic Open Water Swim again this year, an event that has brought Churcher’s so much success in the past. With a team of swimmers from the Third, Fourth and Fifth Years, Lower Sixth, staff, parents and even Old Churcherians, this year was no different. Churcher’s not only remained champions and retained the Senior Schools Cup with top four performances from Henry Plewes, Tom Hogg, Lewis Jordan and Alex Sandberg, but also achieved a clean sweep winning the Junior Schools Cup, too (top four finishers: Felix Brockdorff, Lottie Jackson, Kitty Hogg and Alex Paton).
Mrs K Higgins
Tennis
Tennis participation has skyrocketed during the pandemic and at Churcher’s we are reaping the rewards of this increased interest with some significant results – our U16 boys beat Seaford 9-0 and the U17 racked up an impressive 8-1 victory against the same competitor.
From our youngest competitors, the U12 girls beating Ditcham Park 5-1, right through to our Upper Sixth playing their final matches representing the school (with standout performances from Skye Bardoe and Ben Rowley), tennis continues to thrive at Chucher’s. Our U14 girls played an unbeaten season and our mixed U15 team won the last game of the season against Worth. Bearing in mind it was the first season for both our U12 and U13, the results bode well for tennis as these young players move up through the school.
Our annual parent-pupil competition continued, although the Open Day on which it usually takes place did not. Indeed, it proved a real success, with more than 50 pairs playing across all year groups. After meticulous planning and flawless execution, the weather was almost perfect and there were some very polished performances from parents and pupils alike.
Overall, it has been an impressive season with all 15 courts full for after training on Wednesday and Thursday evenings... the scene of some quality tennis, excellent attitudes, improving strategy and tactics. Churcher’s tennis is going from strength to strength!
Mrs T Jenkins
