SportssupplementMT17

M I C H A E L M A S 2017

RADLEIAN SPORTS SUPPLEMENT

BADMINTON P5 W1 L4 C2 Team from: James Chelton, Yang Yi Hew, Robert Revell, Shepphard Li, Mark Lertiendumrong, Kevin Zhang, William Milne, Wilfred Pease and Frederick Younger The Michaelmas 2017 season was a time of rebuilding, after the departure of the bulk of the squad, and an influx of new blood in the 6.1 and lower down. Matches were often nailbiting affairs, with fixtures

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against Oratory and Bradfield going down to final rounds in matched pairs after complete balance till then, and in both instances the day did not go Radley’s way.

Other opposition proved at times too strong, such as Rugby, and an improved Oratory team. But there were moments of great Radley promise throughout, never more evident than away at Bradfield for our only victory this term.

Committed play, sideline support

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Master in Charge: JM Ambrose Coach: B Woodcock Captain: JOL Chelton

and cool heads saw the boys come through convincingly. Thanks must go to Bev Woodcock, our new, ex-forces, coach, who has proved an uncompromising guide both to those just starting out and to those already competent players who needed the technical refinements that he has brought. Foundations are being laid for next term and the years ahead.

JM Ambrose

BASKETBALL This was another very enjoyable term of basketball, even though the results might suggest otherwise. The squad has really gelled into a competitive unit, and although we lost all four matches, three of them were much closer than would seem.

The highlight, perhaps, was against Bradfield away. They are an exceptionally good team, coached as they are

Master in Charge: ME Walker Coach: P Finnegan

by professional players from Reading Rockets, and yet we very much held our own. We lost 68-53, but the result could have been very different had things gone our way.

Two fixtures against Abingdon were also close, but ended in defeat, as did our final game against Eton. The latter were far too strong for us and ran away with it somewhat: 80-33.

Despite these defeats, team spirit remained high, and I thank the boys for their efforts in the face of adversity!

ME Walker

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RACKETS

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Master in Charge: KM Willis-Stovold Coach: J Rock Captain: H Foreman

It was a hugely positive term on the rackets court and it has been particularly exciting following how quickly the new Shell intake have picked up the game. Indeed, we were able to play a number of Shell fixtures over the course of the term, the first time in some years.

Whilst there have been various combinations of pairs played from G. Acheson-Gray (f), E. Alder (j), J. Duncan (j), M. Garson (c) and T. Thame (e), the Shell pairs remain unbeaten at this stage and all five went on to play at Queen’s in the National Singles Championships, a year young.

included one of the games of the tournament where a number of match points were seen off by both players before Max eventually held on for victory.

At Junior Colts, M. Jardine-Brown (k, R) and D. Stone (j, R) have cemented themselves as the first pair and have shown real potential following good wins over Rugby and St. Paul’s.

They along with A. O’Donnell (g, R) also performed in the same competition at Queen’s. Max had a particularly good run, which

The First pair of Harry Foreman (e, 6.2) and Harry Purton (6.1, h) are currently unbeaten at this stage of the year with memorably nailbiting victories over Eton, Harrow and Wellington as three of the highlights. They have benefited, certainly in terms of their doubles, from playing regularly those from

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The Colts pair of E. Crowston (d, Fifth) and T. van der Meerschen (j, Fifth) have also had a particularly encouraging term and both followed up this form on the doubles court with solid performances in the competitive Incledon-Webber Cup at Queen’s.

Edward eventually bowed out in the quarter-finals following some impressive performances.

the Oxfordshire area who have more experience in the game. In addition, we welcomed back a number of Old Radleians towards the end of term for an impromptu tournament followed by watching Bigside against St. Paul’s. Sadly at Queen’s, they did not fare as well as they would have liked in either the Renny Cup or more prestigious Foster Cup (top 16 in the country).

However, their focus now becomes the National Doubles at the end of the Lent Term. N. Batstone (h, 6.1) did however win through a couple of rounds in the Renny having only picked up the game this term, which bodes well for the future.

Overall this was a successful term, particularly with regards to school matches and the growing pool of talent as more boys pick up the game and work harder at it. Roll on 2018.

KM Willis-Stovold

REAL TENNIS Invitation School U18 Singles Sunday 3rd December 2017 Group A: Batstone, Vleck, Thomas Group B: Bristowe, Purton, Crowston Group C: Yorston, Flynn, Smart A Grade Three preliminary groups were won by the three top seeds (Ned Batstone & Benedict Yorston of Radley and Freddie Bristowe of Wellington), though Batstone was shocked by Charlie Vleck (Wellington) as he started slowly, but still qualified on games as Vleck then lost to Huw Thomas (Portsmouth GS) in the final game.

Bristowe was 0-3 down to Harry Purton (Radley) in similar fashion before recovering. Benedict Yorston’s path was rather smoother as he demolished both Flynn (Hayling) and Smart (Eton). Harry Purton then lost second place to Ed Crowston (Radley) in a final game thriller, but played well to win his final group, beating Thomas and Smart fairly comfortably.

Master in Charge: APW Bishop Coach: MF Dean

Vleck won his secondary group to claim fourth place overall with solid wins over Crowston and Flynn, whose splendid battle just fell 6/5 to Will Flynn.

The top group saw a final triumph

by Ned Batstone, who beat both Yorston and Bristowe, against whom the final match of the day was won 6/3 by Ned, though neither man played quite their best. Arguably the best tennis of the day was in the set won 6/3 by the very talented Bristowe against Ben Yorston, who was really rather unlucky to only finish 3rd overall. Batstone’s determined approach, though, and ability to maintain his focus was probably crucial and brought him a well deserved title.

B Grade Preliminary groups were won by Rags Kanwar, (Wellington) who beat George Bishop (Radley) and Bastien van der Zwalmen (Clifton) in two very well contested games.

Bishop beat van der Zwalmen for 2nd spot.

Max Wetton (Radley) won the second group beating Jack Chesser (Clifton) and the talented young Max Jones (Hayling), who threatened a serious comeback from 1-5 down to reach 6-6 before losing 6/8. Oliver Jameson won group 3, beating Orlando Mallinson (Wellington) and Max Jardine-Brown (Radley), the latter from 0-4 down. JardineBrown managed to recover his form, though, to beat Mallinson for 2nd place.

The final group was very closely contested, though. Kanwar played two fine sets but lost both 5/8, leaving Wetton and Jameson to contest the title in the final set of the day. Wetton came through in the end by 8/5 after trailing 0-3 and 2-4 in the early stages. His ability to maintain a cool head under pressure and to keep the ball on the floor was just enough, but more will be heard from young Jameson in years to come.

MF Dean

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RUGBY 1ST XV P11 W2 L9 Tries Scored 31 Team: George Dillon-Robinson; Felix Lumley; Lucas Sopher; Will FarrerBrown; Zac Nearchou; Wesley Brolly; Tiger Beck; George Redmayne; Keir Howard; Patrick Hayes; Paddy Langdale; Lachie Neville; Murdo Blythe; Angus Tufnell; Henry McCoy; Alfred Mawdsley; Felix Milne; Caspar Muir; Nico Rooth; Rory Betley; Rory Marshall; George Marshall; Milo Daly; James Skinner; Dom Anwyl-Jones; Ethan Clarke; Ollie Friend; Toby White; Marcus Stalder; Ben Moss; Jasper Toor On Sunday 27th August, the Bigside squad met at Heathrow Terminal 5, ready to embark on their weeklong tour to Treviso, Italy. With a new Master in Charge and the

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prospect of a new playing ethos, it was a comfort to be heading to familiar surroundings. In truth, the foundations for the tour were laid during the Lent and Summer terms.

The inception of the Rugby Academy saw on average 20 boys involved in a development programme focused on skills, decision-making and game specific fitness. Alongside 45 minute pre-tour sessions held twice a week, it became clear that a huge amount of hard work had gone into the challenge before them. Most importantly, the boys were excited about rugby.

The Treviso tour is a well-oiled machine, tried and tested for many years, thanks to RMCG. A top quality hotel provides the base, walking distance from the Benetton Treviso training ground. Three days hard

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training were balanced out with a day trip to Venice. Upon arrival, the boys walked through the beautiful hidden streets of the floating city to St. Mark’s Square. Here, there were two pictorial challenges: a picture without a single person, yet clearly identifiable as Venetian and a caption competition. Jasper Toor’s simple photo (below) showed he had truly grasped the challenge.

Tiger Beck put his photoshop skills to good use and replaced every boy’s head in the team photo with that of the Master in Charge. ‘What would we do with a team of Nick Woods?’

Not score very many tries is the answer that springs to mind.

The expectation of fine weather throughout was somewhat dampened by two almighty thunderstorms. The first one caused

Master in Charge: ND Wood Coaches: TC Lawson and LJ Clogher Captain: P Langdale

us to temporarily abandon training and run for cover, the second led to a match played in truly English conditions - good practice for the coming term. On the final night of tour, Radley played against a Dogi ‘A’ and ‘B’ XV. These two teams, made up of the best players from the Treviso region, always provide stiff competition. Zac Nearchou, with a nose for the try line bagged himself a brace of tries. As if that wasn’t enough, when the backs were too slow to kick a penalty to touch, Zac stepped up. Zac’s ability to locate the try line so effectively would be the story of the season as he scored in almost every game, ending the term as the team’s top try scorer.

All done with a beaming grin, in love with the game of rugby. A devastating ball carrier and tackler, Zac thrives in the physical battle,

as well as displaying his offloading capabilities.

The Michaelmas term started a few days after the tour party’s return to the U.K and the first Saturday of term saw a Probables vs. Possibles trial match on Bigside. This provided further opportunity for non-tourists to stake their claim. Glorious sunshine welcomed Eton to Radley on Saturday 16th September. Eton were battle-hardened after playing three games pre-Radley and looked the more fluid of the two sides, scoring two tries in the first half.

Radley looked dangerous with the ball in hand, using the conditions to their advantage to spread the ball wide and offload away from the tackles. This ambition was rewarded with a try to Zac Nearchou from the lineout. The lineout would prove

to be a huge area of success for the team during the term. Tiger Beck and Keir Howard provided the aerial support for the Eton game although, sadly, we were to lose Keir to a hand injury in the second half. This was a real shame as he had worked incredibly hard over the previous year to transform himself into a 1st team contender. Keir remained focused on his rehab and fitness – an excellent example of how to handle disappointment. Tiger Beck would emerge as one of the players of the season, a tireless competitor, towering skyscraper in the lineout and counterrucking specialist. Having started Radley in Midgets 6, Tiger’s journey is inspirational and proof that hard work really does pay off.

On Tuesday 26th September, while the rest of Radley played against

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St. Edward’s, the 1st XV played their 1st round Champions Trophy fixture against Berkhamsted.

Both teams looked to chuck the ball about and produced a highly entertaining encounter. In the end, Berkhamsted walked away with a 32-17 victory. It was pleasing to see more opportunities taken, with Radley crossing the whitewash three times. Toby White’s try, after some slick interplay between forwards and backs was remarkable, mirroring the progress Toby had made during the summer term. Blessed with natural pace and rangy athleticism, Toby has an effortless running style, reminiscent of a certain Iain Balshaw.

Using his long reach, he was often able to keep defenders at bay, ending up as one of the most prolific try scorers of the season. Unsure as to whether or not he was going to play rugby this year, Toby can walk away from this term with his head held high for his contributions to the team.

Tonbridge were up next, but not until 12 days later. The bodies were wellrested but the lack of rhythm was

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evident. Tonbridge are traditionally one of our strongest opponents. They are a team that look to play rugby and the match always promised to be a high-scoring encounter. Radley were leading the match at two different points, including with fifteen minutes to go. The greater experience and nous of the men in black and white proved the difference ultimately, as Radley fell 24-34. Jasper Toor threatened on counter-attack all afternoon, a potent attacking force who thrives on broken field play. His efforts were rewarded with a fine try. Jasper noticeably developed into a more rounded player this term, epitomised by his three try-saving tackles against Cheltenham. He is the kind of player that isn’t quite sure what he will do next and has the natural athleticism to back it up.

Rory Betley, wearing the number 10 jersey for the first half of term, ran the show well against Tonbridge.

Rory made good progress during the term, developing his distribution and kicking game well.

After a very relaxed first half of term,

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the boys returned after Leave-Away to be faced with 8 matches in five weeks.

First up, on the 4th November, Radley travelled to Sherborne. This historic fixture between the two schools lived up to its reputation. Radley controlled the majority of the first half and, apart from ninety seconds of madness early in the second, controlled that too.

However, after two fantastic pieces of play by Sherborne, Radley were 28-12 down after 40 minutes. To put this in perspective, the score was 12-7 to Radley shortly before half time. At this point, Paddy Langdale’s strength of leadership came to the fore. He rallied the troops around him and from that point on, Radley were in control. Paddy’s leadership has been first rate throughout the last year. He dominated in the number 6 jersey, yet was equally happy switching to second row mid-match to allow other players game time. Paddy was inspirational throughout the term – the first name on the team sheet who set extremely high personal standards and expected others to follow. He thrived in the added responsibility.

This Master i/c couldn’t have wished

for a finer captain in his first season.

In the end, Radley lost 24-28, with both teams scoring four tries and the conversions proving the difference.

George Redmayne made his Bigside debut in this match. George earned his place through a string of standout performances for the 2nd XV and, despite looking a tad nervous as the game kicked off, grew immeasurably during the match. This culminated in a sublime kick-off receipt and charge down the field to give us the platform for our fourth try.

The following week was dubbed ‘The Week from Hell’ as three games in 7 days loomed: Marlborough, Cheltenham and Abingdon. Add to that the fact that the 1st XV were yet to win a game. Marlborough had run Sherborne close, with a similar margin separating the teams. After a tight first half, Radley dominated the majority of the second half, running in three tries in a short period. The pack dominated throughout, providing a solid platform for Alfred Mawdsley.

Having joined Radley at the start of term, Alfred took a couple of games

to find his stride. However, once in full flow, he was immense, gleefully looking for work, fending, offloading and putting in enormous defensive shifts. Much like Zac Nearchou, one of Alfred’s major strengths is the space he can create for others. Marlborough came back into the game during the final quarter, mainly due to Radley indiscipline. The resolve of all 15 players was a joy to behold. Tackle after tackle, in particular by the back row duo of Lachie Neville and Murdo Blythe, limited Marlborough to a single try in their ten minutes of territory and possession. Lachie is a fearless tackler, a classic 7 – looking for work, aggressive at the breakdown and comfortable with the ball in hand. His contribution off the bench in the sodden Abingdon match was exceptional and it was a great shame to lose him to injury. Murdo was consistently excellent all term.

Happy to play anywhere required, to give his all for his team mates, he proved a top drawer role model for those to come. It was fitting that Murdo’s adaptability and hard work culminated with a fantastic score in

the final game against Oundle. Radley were able to hold out until the final whistle, with a 31-19 win.

Four days later, it was back to the grind. An extended 1st XV squad travelled to Sixways, home of the Worcester Warriors: a magnificent occasion to contest the Jamie Waters Cup. Both schools bussed students in to support the match and the atmosphere was electric. The few hundred boys and girls from both schools sang their hearts out all match. The Cheltenham XV would go on to an unbeaten season and it was an opportunity for the 1st XV to test themselves against the best, eventually losing 0-24. Alfred Mawdsley was tireless in his efforts to get the team moving forward.

Ethan Clarke worked his socks off to get over the gainline and must have felt like he was chasing shadows at times, given the quality of the Cheltenham back line. However, this did not deter him as he is a very very physical player with an elusive running style that makes him hard to bring down. Ethan’s centre partner,

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Milo Daly, tackled everything in sight. After strong performances in the trial match and for the 2nd XV, Milo made his first appearance off the bench against Berkhamsted. A robust centre who tackles anything that runs down his channel, Milo is an intelligent rugby player, able to hit good support lines and defend well in one of the most challenging positions. With continued work on his distribution, Milo will be a real handful next season. Rory Marshall, only making his second appearance, proved that he has the skills to operate under intense pressure. With improved decision-making and clarity of thought, Rory’s control of a game will be hard to break.

The lessons in game management from Sixways seemed to have sunk in. Three days later, Bigside travelled to Abingdon and, amidst atrocious conditions, managed to grind out a 5-3 win. This was no mean feat, having lost out to Abingdon for four years running. Radley’s only try

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came in the first half after sustained pressure in the opposition 22m.

Zac Nearchou’s sensational offload allowed Felix Milne to dive over from close range. Felix faced stiff competition for the number 9 shirt at the start of the season. Through consistently strong performances, Felix made the shirt his own. He has a long, accurate pass of both hands, is very physical for a scrum-half and runs clever support lines off some of the ball carriers around him. Felix is of the classic French number 9 mould – able to mix it with the forwards physically, marshalling them around the pitch, controlling the game and never shy of an offload. With the half time score at 5-3 and playing uphill, into the wind, Radley were up against it in the second half. Step up Lucas Sopher and Felix Lumley.

Lucas has improved dramatically over the last nine months. Always technically proficient in the set piece, Lucas plays like an extra back row forward: equally at home with the ball in hand in wide open spaces as

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he is in the dark arts of front row play. To see someone make such huge improvement through his own dedication is enormously rewarding as a coach. Felix Lumley started the term in the 3rd XV. Working his way up on the back of a handful of strong games, Felix was a late replacement to start the Sherborne game. Faced with a behemoth of an opposite number, Felix went about his work quietly, providing an excellent platform. Felix pushes his body to the limit and never stops working for the team – a player you can always count on.

In a relentless schedule, only 5 days elapsed before the arrival of Bedford. Pre-match disruption in the form of changing in Socials led to a below-par warm up and a slow start.

Bedford scored three tries in ten minutes, going 17-0 up. At this point, the boys rallied and decided they weren’t going to be embarrassed on their home patch. 3 tries apiece was the result for the remaining

60 minutes. This game was marred somewhat by the injuries to Caspar Muir and Dom Anwyl-Jones. Caspar was unfortunate to twist his ankle on tour and spent the majority of the term in a battle for fitness. Once fit, Caspar worked his way into the team, making his debut off the bench vs.

Marlborough. He dealt with his injury woes with grace and determination and it was the team’s loss not to have Caspar’s accurate service and good basic skills on offer for more of the term. Dom Anwyl-Jones had been working for 18 months to recover from a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Proving his worth at 2nd XV, Dom made his debut off the bench vs.

Cheltenham and brought physicality, aggression and passion to the 1st XV shirt. After some brave defence, Dom caught his shoulder in the wrong position and was to end up off games for the remainder of term.

rearranged St. Edward’s match on Tuesday 28th November, the first day back at school. Radley looked the rustier of the two, with Teddies making a fast start. Teddies were 12-0 up after ten minutes: one piece of individual skill and a fortunate bounce left Radley staring down the barrel. A beautifully engineered try against a blitz defence brought Radley back into the game. Ollie Friend, starting the season on the wing, only to miss a large chunk through freak hand injuries, stepped up to the plate at outside centre. Ollie was exceptional in attracting the last man of the blitz defence and able to get the pass away. A natural ball handler with a gliding run and sneaky change of pace, Ollie was a real threat in attack. His evasive skills were apparent in the St. Paul’s game, with a jinking run and strong finish against a sea of defenders.

A much-needed exeat couldn’t come soon enough. However, the respite was short-lived as it was the

Ollie’s opportunity had come due to the injury to vice-captain James Skinner. Thankfully, James was fit

again for the St. Paul’s match. James found himself on the wing for the final few games, somewhat out of his comfort zone. James’ strengths as a rugby player are equally applicable to winger and with more space to work with, James grew in confidence through the St. Paul’s and Oundle matches, proving dangerous in attack and broken field play. The more James looks for work, the more space will open up for him on the field. After a rather porous defensive effort against Bedford and Teddies, the boys had worked hard on their tackle technique before St. Paul’s. Radley defended their goal line for two extended periods during the game. Firstly, the fitness requirements to make that many tackles was mightily impressive.

Fitness overall, in large part down to the James and Warren, the strength and conditioning coaches, has been a huge boost this year. Secondly, the presence of mind to want to play with turnover ball, having just endured a soul-sapping defensive set was testament to the brand of

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rugby Radley is developing. Wesley Brolly’s willingness to make repeated tackles epitomised his application and endeavour from the moment he decided to come on the Italy tour. As accurate as Andy ‘the Viking’ Fordham, Wesley provided the team with excellent lineout ball, a strong scrum and a big heart. He tackled everything that ran at him, scrapped on the floor and pushed himself far out of his comfort zone.

The final game of 2017 was against Oundle. On a cold, clear December afternoon, the two teams took to the field. For many, their final opportunity to pull on their school rugby shirt.

Despite the inevitable fatigue of a long term and a congested fixture card, both teams played with ambition and flair – a real credit to themselves. Radley controlled the majority of the game and, at 28-14

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up with eight minutes on the clock, looked set for a memorable victory.

Sadly, Oundle masterminded three wonderful counter attack tries as Radley kicked possession away: a tough lesson on how to control a game through keeping hold of the ball. George Marshall, who had started the season at 12, had made a welcome return from injury against Teddies and continued to bolster the midfield options. George is a natural distributor, reading the game exceptionally well. He puts other players in space, works well in defensive systems and has a knack for making good decisions. Radley failed to get the final pass away, but, on one occasion produced a fifty metre passage of play, using the full width of Bigside many times over and playing exactly the style of rugby the boys have been working so hard to master. George was instrumental throughout.

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Overall, this season has been one of exploration. The boys have been exploring a completely new brand of rugby, a brand that requires high levels of fitness, skill and physicality, as well as comfort in making pressurised decisions. This season has been enormous fun, on the whole down to the effort of every single player involved. Even the results that went begging can’t taint the feeling that this particular team have started the school off on a long, successful journey.

ND Wood

RUGBY

2ND

P9 W6 D1 L2 The Radley 2nd XV of 2017 has been characterised by toughness, physicality, commitment and determination. Whilst our rugby has at times been a little lacking in finesse, we have given everything on the field and the 2nd XV has represented Radley with real pride in every match that we played. For this reason, the 2nds had a season to look back on with a real sense of achievement.

The season began amongst the heat, mosquitoes and then torrential rain of Treviso, where many players who featured in the 2nd XV this season took part in the pre-season tour.

The squad started to come together during an excellent, productive week of challenging training and enjoyable off the field activities. We went into the match against Eton in the first week of the season in a buoyant mood, keen to capitalise on all that hard work with a good performance.

Sadly this was not to be and we ended up salvaging a draw from an extremely scrappy performance in a match we should have won comfortably. There were some positives though, Lachie Neville and Milo Daly earned call-ups to the 1st XV, where they would stay for the rest of the season. Rory Marshall and George Redmayne also began very strong runs of form that would see them selected for the 1st XV by the middle of the season. If the measure of a strong 2nd XV is the number of players who win promotion to the senior side, we were on the right track.

We were disappointing again away at St Edward’s Oxford the following week. A very slow start and an error-strewn performance left us staring at defeat when a strong final ten minutes saw us finally put some phases together and score 14 unanswered points to win 19-7.

Thanks to some timely interventions

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Coach: LJ Clogher Captain: N Rooth

by Ethan Clarke running hard in the centre, Thomas Parr hitting some sublime lines from fullback and a good finish from Dominic Anwyl-Jones, we came away with a win. These were another three players that would eventually gain selection for Bigside, with Clarke and Anwyl-Jones making important contributions later in the season.

Unfortunately for Parr, injury prevented him from doing the same.

This match also allowed Marcus Stalder, usually a scrum-half and hitherto part of the 3rd XV, to show some really deft footwork and pace when pressed into playing on the wing by injuries. He would go on to push his way all the way up into Bigside in that position.

Ironically, it was in our first defeat, at home to a very good Tonbridge side, that our season really got going. It was in this match that the stubborn and abrasive style that would come to characterise this team began to establish itself. We could have easily buckled when Tonbridge started very strongly or at the start of the second half when we conceded two tries, and allowed them to run away with it comfortably. Instead we refused to lie down, and the match ended with us roaring forward. We were desperately unlucky not to be able to get a winning score, another five minutes and we would have had the win.

George Redmayne, Rory Marshall and Ethan Clarke were again outstanding in this match. There were also very good performances from Wes Brolly, William Redley and Charlie Robertson, all of whom would get better and better as the season went on. Felix Lumley was another player who started to build up some consistently impressive performances which saw him holding a place in the 1st XV team by the end of the season.

Unfortunately, these three matches were all the competitive rugby we had during the first half of the term, and it is a shame that the 2nd XV

only played nine matches in total.

After Leave-Away, we travelled away to Sherborne and comfortably put away a very decent opposition team by 20 points to 5. We picked up where we left off against Tonbridge with very stout defence and some really good work at the breakdown which allowed us to retain the ball for long periods, eventually allowing us to completely overpower the opposition.

Dominant, powerful wins followed against Marlborough, Abingdon and Bedford, with the latter two being played out in dreadful conditions. These performances were characterised by strong defence, central to which was Matthew Chapman who was a brick wall throughout the entire season. This earned him the label of the Brad Barritt of Radley from his teammates, whilst for those of us who are a little bit older than that, he was reminiscent of Scott Gibbs. “Chappers” played every minute of every match for the 2nd XV this season and added a dimension to his game with a couple of strong performances in the back row as well as occupying both centre berths. Another player who featured in both the forwards and the backs was Angus Tufnell, who excelled throughout the season. Also a fearsome tackler, Tufnell showed his ability as an astute reader of the game, giving him an uncanny knack of appearing in the right place at the right time. He was a great asset to our attack such is his ability to pass and offload smartly to create space for others. An offensive move never ends with the ball in his hands.

Wes Brolly also started to stand out during this period. He started the season a little uncertain of his role in the team but got better week-in week-out and added a lot to his game by really buying into what we were trying to achieve as a squad.

Patrick Hayes was a very consistent performer, working very hard around the field and doing a lot of damage with ball in hand.

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The team as a whole was impressive in these three wins, which meant we had four on the bounce as we approached the match against St. Paul’s. These performances cemented our status as a team that worked hard for each other on the field, bravely out our bodies on the line and were extremely difficult to beat.

However, our attacking play remained somewhat blunt. With a few notable exceptions, we were too reliant on “one-out” runners taking the ball to the line on their own and running straight at the most powerful parts of the defence. This was imposed on us in some matches by the conditions we played in, but was still a little disappointing given the amount of time we spent on attacking shape in training and that we set out this year as a whole club to play a more expansive game. It must be said that had more 2nd team regulars bought into what we were trying to achieve in this area, there would have been more promotions to the 1st team.

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Our limitations in attack meant we were always vulnerable to coming unstuck against a team strong enough to stop our big carriers on the gain line. So it was against St Paul’s, where we very much looked like a team without a plan B. There was no lack of endeavour, but we were contained comfortably and put under enough pressure that our errors told in the end, meaning we went down 17-0 in a scrappy game. In this we were not helped by several players being unavailable, some for very good reasons; a couple of injuries in the first team and Oxbridge interviews, whilst other absences were less commendable.

Thankfully, we still had one match left to finish the season on a more fitting note and we did just that, dominant once more in a victory against Oundle, the 19-5 scoreline probably somewhat flattering to our opponents in a slightly disjointed match.

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A final tally of six wins and a draw from nine matches is perhaps the statistic that will attract the eyes of most observers, but I feel this really does not tell the full story of this season. I would also point to the number of players who featured for the 2nd XV this season and went on to be promoted to Bigside as another real success. This was a team that combined the purposes of providing a challenging proving-ground for promotion to the first team with being a successful team in its own right, and did both very well.

I would like to thank all the parents who provided positive and encouraging support for all the team, every week, in all weather conditions.

It means a lot to the boys to see you there and your company is much appreciated. Thanks to my colleagues Nick Wood and Tim Lawson who have worked tirelessly throughout the season to produce structured, purposeful training sessions of

the highest quality for the Bigside Squad from which 2nd XV players have benefitted hugely. Thanks also to Nico Rooth and Patrick Hayes for their leadership within the team as Captain and Vice-captain for most of the season. Lastly, and most of all, thank you to all the boys who have represented the 2nd XV this year with so much pride and commitment, it has been my pleasure to work with you.

Players: Wesley Brolly, Matthew Chapman, Rupert Curtis, Milo Daly, Archie George, William Irons, Rory Marshall, Ben Moss, William Nicholson, William Redley, George Redmayne, Nico Reid Scott, Charlie Robertson, William Robson, Elian Rosswag, Marcus Stalder, Angus Tufnell, Dominic Anwyl-Jones, Rory Betley, Myles Browne, Freddy Campbell-Gray, Ethan Clarke, George Dillon-Robinson, Will Farrer-Brown, Patrick Hayes, Keir Howard, Felix Lumley, Henry McCoy, Lachie Neville, Thomas Parr, Max Richardson, Nico Rooth, Stash Samoilys, Fergus Wilson.

LJ Clogher

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RUGBY 3RD XV P8 W2 L6 Team from, in order of number of appearances: M Martin-Zakheim, F Mosedale, M Browne*, F CampbellGray*, F Gilliat-Smith, R Curtis*, J Dobby, B Hannaby-Cummins, D Lodge, N Reid Scott, A George*, O Binks, S Samoilys, N Greville Williams, W Nicholson, A Martin, E Rosswag, J Beardsworth, S Prentice, P Sayer, M Stalder, H Anderson, H Day, T Southwell, T Parr, W Robson, M Siow, M Richardson, J Barclay, R Crawfurd, G Egerton-Warburton (* denotes award of Thirds Colours).

The 2017 season turned out to be a challenging one for the 3rd XV. With only two fixtures in the first half of term, the team struggled to maintain momentum and then found itself facing more battlehardened teams. We kicked off against Eton, and led throughout until tries in the dying moments of each half saw the opposition prevail 10-14. Tonbridge then proved as strong as they have in recent years, frequently breaking through our midfield and dominating us in a 12-46 loss. Leave Away was then followed by the away Sherborne

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fixture, later in the term than usual. At half-time the score was 14 apiece with our pick and drive game succeeding better than their offloading approach and both coaches expecting the match to go Radley’s way. It turned out very differently, with a few missed tackles leading to Sherborne nudging ahead. The team then had a disagreement with the referee; not only was one player sent off for voicing his judgement inappropriately but the team collectively gave in and Sherborne ran in two tries unopposed to win 42-14. It was a low moment and one that the team had hanging over them for the rest of the season as they sought to restore their reputation. Marlborough visited the following week and beat us 0-17, but reputations were partly restored away at Abingdon in the following fixture.

The team watched the opposition carefully, discussed and altered their approach deftly and came away with a dominant 3-33 win.

The Bedford and St. Paul’s fixtures both resulted in defeats (12-19 and 7-20) but revealed a team that would not give up; indeed, they reversed the momentum of the St.

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Coaches: TCH Norton, OD Wills Captain: AG Campbell-Gray

Paul’s fixture, controlling the last third of the game. The final fixture was against Oundle and, with most injured players back, the team was one of the strongest we had put out. It was a terrific fixture with the lead changing hands many times until Oundle knocked the ball on only two metres from our try-line in the final play, leaving Radley with a satisfying 34-29 win. A number of players deserve special mention – Freddy Campbell-Gray took on the captaincy after the Sherborne fixture and did an excellent job in rebuilding the team ethos; Archie George gave us his all and many hard-fought yards every game until rightly promoted to the 2nds; Myles Browne remained dependable as top-scorer at fly-half including the slowest interception try you would ever see; Rupert Curtis matured into a highly capable pack leader and line-out caller; Nico Reid-Scott finally got fit and wowed with 4 tries (as a prop) against Abingdon; Monty Martin-Zakheim captained the first three games and played all the rest and will have learnt a lot; Fergus Mosedale was everdependable out-of-position at hooker.

TCH Norton

RUGBY 4TH XV I expect it will be many years till I have such an enjoyable successful season, with such a determined, joyful bunch of students. Although there were a great many stars in the team, it was because we played as a team, that we were so very successful. We played wide, expansive running rugby and were never shy of being inventive. We did, however, have a clear plan for each game. Having an overall strategy means that everyone is able to anticipate play, and steal distance or time or both. Some tactics were not expected at fourth team level - the 15 man rolling maul being one example.

Our only losses were tight games made particularly tight on those occasions due to injuries in teams above or players attending university open days. Who knows what would’ve happened otherwise? Giles Elmhirst and Hamish Gordon were the captains for the season. Both very different in style, but both equally effective and thorough in execution.

An amazing season with all but three games won! Yet we managed it when a total of 32 players played for the team in the course of the year. All the matches were played in the best possible spirit of the game.

It was well worth the gamble to be inventive this season and led to some of the best free flowing rugby I have seen in a long time, culminating with Radleians coming off the park with huge grins after thoroughly enjoying the experience! It was the very best of seasons which I will always remember with great fondness.

Below is a snapshot of a few player qualities (not in any particular order):

Coach: WOC Matthews Captains: G Elmhirst, H Gordon

Hamish Gordon (Captain for the second half of the season): Captain and leader of the pack.

Tenacious, determined, fierce tackler. Tackled well above his weight! Such effort, such determination. A well respected captain who led by example. With such focus, he will do well in life after Radley. Thanks for your help and support Hamish.

Giles Elmhirst (Captain for the first half of the season): Captained and played extremely well before injury took him out for the season. There was so much more to come from Giles as well….

Great vision, a great step, a great boot. Many, many yards were won through his boot!

Matthew Siow: The most improved player this season. What more can you ask for?

Harry FitzPatrick: Every team needs a man who will put his body where God himself would fear to be. He regularly appeared with the ball from the bottom of a melee - running like an enraged bulldog when everyone else had assumed the ball was lost.

Felix Adams: Reliable hard worker in the forwards. Always in the thick of it.

Hard yards and tough rucks and mauls are achieved by a group of team players like Felix. Always positive and committed.

Sebastian Prentice: Raging bull on steroids - I had cause to look the other way just prior to some of his contacts!

Tom Neill: Fierce and underestimated by the opposition every time - then he

had them! A fast and strong runner.

Jack Barclay: Big, strong, fearless, committed, disciplined in a tight game. A very strong ball carrier.

Douglas Wyrley-Birch: Skilful in all aspects of forward play - always did the right thing.

Very hard to stop. Determined and solid!

Zak Kary: An excellent tackler, sniping runner, not afraid. Played his best rugby at scrum half getting stuck in no matter what the size of the opponent while organizing our forwards.

Theo Spreckley: A great 10. Great kicker from hand, whether for position or a crossfield kick. Exploited space well and distributed the ball extremely well all at pace. He has great acceleration. Inflicted misery on opposition teams with his excellent positional kicking. Could take a knock or two!

George Egerton-Warburton: How fast? Great pace and finishing skill without the defensive skills that some wingers occasionally suffer from. I think it’s Cheetah, Thomson’s gazelle, Greyhounds then George in order of fastest land mammal?

Henry Anderson: ‘Super Centre’. Broke through so many tackles, always getting over the gain line. Ran lines that the opposition could not counter, at speeds that they could not catch!

As a result scored many great tries.

Archie Barrow: A solid centre who with hard running and excellent lines penetrated defences. Strong in

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defence no matter the size of the opposition. Exactly what you want from a centre.

Tackled ferociously. What more could you possibly want from a scrum half?

Robert Crawfurd: Very fast on the wing, but it was his change of pace and direction that oppositions failed to be able to deal with. Determined and had great ball retention in contact.

Jude Dobby: Silky smooth runner who always made yards running back the ball when kicked deep. Extremely safe under the high ball and was reliable as the last man on the park defending the try line. Also perfectly capable of kicking out of hand.

John Peers: Great awareness of space on the pitch. A good ball carrier and a tenacious tackler!

Edward Newall: Fit, strong, with an eye for the ball and getting to the right part of the park at the right time. Determined, and full of enthusiasm. Great with the ball in hand.

Jess Beardsworth: The Dan Lydiate of the team. No one got past Jess. No one. If you want to know how to tackle, look no further.

Blake Hannaby-Cummins: Fit, strong and direct in his running lines. Every Rugby team needs players who arrive at the breakdown first, otherwise you can’t secure possession.

Patrick Sayer: Provided safe quality ball at pace.

Had the habit of making sniping runs at exactly the right time.

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Freddie Barlow: Surprisingly fast (I think it is his long legs and seemingly effortless upright running style that conceals his actual pace). This is what caught oppositions out. Long runs from deep happened every single game, with oppositions seemingly unable to get close to Freddie!

Ollie Binks: Fit and strong, a great ball thief and carrier of the ball. Incredibly effective player. Positive and determined throughout.

William Lennon: Did the hard yards without complaint. Always good humoured and always gave his best. What more do you need?

Richard Greenlees: Winner of the most ferocious tackler in the backs award. One tackle saw his opposition being knocked back

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with the ball 20 yards! Broke his collar bone in one such tackle and played on to the end of the match.

Ran hard and straight - very hard to put down with ball in hand. Where will next year take him?!

Tristan Southwell: Fast - a winger with an eye for the ball and a running style that oppositions found difficult to stop in contact if they ever caught him!

Moved up to higher teams.

William Dunhill-Turner: Unfortunately Will’s season was cut short through injury. With more game time and perhaps a little less communication with the referee, his natural strength and good ball awareness would have translated to moving up to higher teams.

Alexander Martin: Played a few matches for the 4ths and proved himself to be committed, skillful and gutsy. Angular, fast and strong. Runs great lines.

Nico Reid Scott: Nico had a knack of appearing from rucks with the ball?! A wrecking ball, weaking havoc with oppositions as they had real problems in tackling him. He was moved up around half term. Where will he get to next term?

WOC Matthews

RUGBY 5TH XV P6 W3 L3 First up the Eton game. What a game of rugby to start the season. With two evenly-matched teams, the result could have gone either way: indeed Eton were leading 19-21 right up to the closing minutes. But the Radley squad kept their heads and Dom Woolf scored the winning fourth try in the left-hand corner in the final seconds, after a sustained period of Radley pressure. Full credit to both teams for such an excellent game.

This was very much a squad effort, with 22 boys involved. Nonetheless, special mention should perhaps go to Matt Dawson for captaining the team so capably - especially given that we were 14-0 down after fifteen minutes; Henry Carson for scoring the superb

Coaches: CM Bedford, A Cunningham, BR Knox Captain: M Dawson

breakaway second try that put us on near-level terms; Ee-thern Ship for scoring the third try and for being such a brave and incisive runner throughout; and finally, full back John Peers who, in addition to scoring our first try, was a brilliant tackler throughout and undoubtedly made several try-saving tackles as the ‘last line of defence’.

touchline right on the Tonbridge tryline. Brilliant defending by Tonbridge.

Indeed Tonbridge did not seem to miss a tackle or make a knock-on throughout the entire match. They were a really well-drilled team and hats off to them.

Next match, Sherborne away. Radley looked to be running away with things after ten seconds, when Second, Tonbridge, also at home. This Angus Parker went over for the first was ultimately a convincing defeat, as try of the match. However, a strong the score-line suggested. Nonetheless, ‘Gentlemen’s’ XV from Sherborne the Radley side performed better than clearly showed the important lesson that final score might suggest: with that one shouldn’t extrapolate too Dom Deely, in particular, putting in far into the future from such a short a spirited performance and scoring time interval and, despite some good a well-taken try. We could have had moves and well-organised rucking, two further tries: as, on two occasions, Radley went down 19 - 5.

Radley backs were pushed into the

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Stowe, away, was a last-minute fixture that we were happy to take on. We had a very friendly welcome and the warm-up was a game of football against the opposition. The result of this was a sign of things to come, Stowe winning the football 1-0. The fixture was a lot tougher than we expected, however at no point did the team take a back seat. An early try

by Xavier Coughlan was truly a team effort, with the team completing 12 phases and moving the ball from one end of the pitch to the other. Rocco Chu was ‘Man of the Match’ for his relentless tackling. However there were also impressive performances from Toby Crawford and Harry Stone.

We were beaten by a better team but played with great spirit to the end.

Bedford arrived with 11 players (soon to go down to 10 due to injury) but thanks to Harry Stone, Kit Merrill, Harry B-J, Ollie Daly and Tom Warner playing at least part of the game for the opposition, an entertaining afternoon was had by all, especially

by Radley who registered a crucial morale-boosting win. Tom Johnston and Dom Woolf scored two tries apiece; John Fu, Matt Dawson and Archie Browner also scored tries.

Man of the Match was Tom Johnston who, in addition to his two tries, also kicked five conversions.

The final match of the season, on a cold December Saturday, proved another classic. We were up against an unbeaten Oundle side, who never seemed to miss a tackle. Despite a fine try from Henry Wiggin, we were 7-17 down at half-time. But the Radley side showed magnificent commitment in the second half and, despite an injury to Angus Parker, scored three tries, to finish 22-17 winners. Dom Woolf scored our second try; Dom Deely the third, leveling the Match at 17-17, with around ten minutes to play. There was then a lovely moment when Fred Sholarin, one of the most improved players of the Season, burst through to score the winning try, with around five minutes left. This was a spirited victory against a strong Oundle side and a fitting way to end the Season.

Well done to the squad.

A Cunningham

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RUGBY COLTS 1 P9 W1 D1 L7 We returned from a summer off and after week of training getting some fitness back and gelling as a team, we went into the first game against Eton fuelled with intent to start the season with a win.

It started off with a good contest for the ball among the forwards, with the Radley pack dominating the scrums. Jake Elliott adapting well to his new role at outside centre. We went down a couple of tries but fought back with two of our own. It was all to play for at half-time. We started the second half brilliantly with Sam Perez-Quane capitalising on his dominance in the scrum, and we went over again. Unfortunately, our fitness levels were not quite up to scratch and Eton pulled away in the latter stages of the game.

After a rather too relaxing Exeat weekend, we returned to a game

against St Edward’s, which w went into physically and me unprepared. It was a tight a with two of our backs, Henr Crone and Jamie Miesegaes running good lines against opposition. However, Teddie showed more desire to win they came out on top. This w probably the most disappoi performance of the season.

After a two-week rest from matches, we travelled away Tonbridge. Having beaten th by a try last year we were a of the task that lay ahead. W started the match off well, only two points down at ha after Richard Butterworth h made some astonishing tac keep us in the game. We con some soft tries in the secon that put the game out of re which did not reflect the ru the game. Jude Wakeley had aggressive performance ma the hard yards and defensiv and was a very impressive o

we entally affair ry s the es and was inting

y to hem aware We being alf time, had ckles to nceded nd half each, un of d an aking ve hits open

Coaches: SH Dalrymple, SJA Perkins, W Beattie Captain: F Dreyer

side throughout the season.

We now had a home game against Sherborne, after nearly a month off rugby. We played with great structure in the first half, running the team patterns we had been practising the week before. There was ankle injury in the first half to Freddie Nielsen, but he heroically had it strapped up and played on in great style making big hits. Harry Young also performed well putting in a shift at front row. However, simple mistakes led to a few easy tries for Sherborne who came out on the better side of the score.

We were now desperate for a win. We went to Marlborough determined to turn our fortunes around. The game started well. We dominated the lineouts and Will Jack went over for an early try. We continued with this sustained

pressure waiting to capitalise of any Marlborough mistake. It was tight in the second half but in the end a quick decision and snipe from Jack Sykes put Will Jack over again to secure a hard earned win.

We then had the local derby against Abingdon, who were unbeaten.

Everyone went into the match physically prepped for a tough game. We conceded some soft tries early on with Abingdon finding space out wide. We managed to steady the ship with Hoddinott dominating the ruck area. We then re-grouped at half-time and hit back with a couple of tries, with a Beck charge down and gather to run the length of Bigside to score under the posts. To finish the game so strongly with a draw in second half against a good side was satisfying.

Next up was Bedford away. With a cold wind coming across the pitch it was clear it was going to be a gritty game. The match started

slowly with neither side scoring.

Bedford then started to come into the game and scored a try. After half time we came out with more intent with Louis Giffard-Moore making good carries and Tim Ojo using his quick feet to make yards.

We scored once and then they responded. We scored another try after an accumulation of phases and a good chip through for Crone to score. Sadly, the referee abandoned the match with a few minutes remaining due to a small coming together of players, which was a shame as both sets of players deserved to battle out to the end for a result.

Needless to say, we were pumped and ready for the game against St Paul’s. We started well but could not convert pressure into points. It was a closely fought match until they went over just before half time. Our front row paring of Arthur Wills and Hector Thorneycroft were having great games, winning us the scrums and making an impact

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around the park. We then conceded a try early on in the second half and the game slipped out of our grasp. This was a frustrating afternoon for both sets of players with inconsistencies around the contact area.

Oundle was our last match of the season and the last opportunity for us players to play together as a year group. Oundle hit us with a couple of early tries through their big centre causing us problems.

After a slow start, we then scored two tries in quick succession. Our fly-half, Sam Richardson, was running hard lines and finding territory. The score was 14-12 going in to the second half and we had all the momentum. We spent the next twenty minutes camped in their half but failed to cross the whitewash and take advantage of our dominance. They then scored a try against the run of play. We hit back with only minutes to go.

We were creating chances and everyone was emptying the tank and giving their all. Unfortunately, we knocked on over the line and failed to execute under pressure.

A sad way to end the season and definitely a win that somehow escaped us.

Whilst the results do not make for good reading, many of the matches were very competitive and we were not outclassed by anyone. The team developed well over the season, gaining a much better sense of structure and the style needed to win Senior rugby matches.

All players showed strength of character and trained well every week and everyone has improved their skills no end. An exciting future awaits us.

Fred Dreyer, G Social

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RUGBY COLTS 2 P8 W4 L4 Team From: F Barlow (Captain), B Berry, R Butterworth, G Clackson, H Crone, H Glassey, O Green, S Hack, S Hughes, F Lindblom, T Macnaughtan, Z Martin-Zakheim, T Ojo, S Palmer-Tomkinson, D Pleydell-Bouverie, W Power, O Reed-Daunter, H Rugman, A Senior, D Sun, T Vincent, S Waller, H Ward, W Way, R Woods We are delighted how Colts 2 have finished this challenging season.

It was a tough start, despite the great weather. Having only two games before Leave-Away meant that it was tough to get up to the standard. It did not help that both Eton and Tonbridge had played more games and had some excellent players. We also played six of our eight games away from home. For some reason, it did sometimes take time for the boys to get going. We were particularly disappointed with our Marlborough performance as we felt that we backed off from the contact and we lost our way of playing the game. The boys were much more aggressive for the St Paul’s and Oundle fixtures. The score at St Paul’s was painful and, in my mind, does not reflect the game or the desire for the boys to win.

It was so encouraging to see the boys organising their own game of touch at the start of training, whilst we negotiated with the coaches of Colts 1 and Colts 3 for players. A number of the boys in the list above had games for Colts 1 as there was a fair amount of movement due to boys playing well and covering the inevitable injuries. We are very grateful to Colts 3 for releasing so many of their players and to the boys themselves. All of them stepped up to the plate and made the positions their own. Harry Glassey, as captain of the very successful Colts 3, deserves special mention

for his willingness to play but we are also grateful to Ollie Green, Sam Hughes, Freddie Lindblom, Zachary Martin-Zakheim, Will Power, Alex Senior, Sam Waller and Will Way. Ollie Green is a formidable runner; with a bit of space he can make significant metres. Zachary Martin-Zakheim is not the largest rugby player but he makes some of the biggest tackles. He also has a great step that makes him elusive.

Sam Waller has a good eye for a gap.

The backbone of the team featured Frank Barlow, skippering the side from scrum-half, with Bertie Berry, George Clackson,

Coaches: DJ Pullen and KM Willis-Stovold Captain: F Barlow

Tim Macnaughtan, Oliver ReedDaunter, David Sun and Harry Ward featuring in all eight games.

Frank’s leadership matured as the season passed; he really took advantage of the opportunity and the team certainly worked hard together, bonded well and very much enjoyed the last game of the season at Oundle. There was some excellent attacking rugby, featuring off-loads and direct running. The defence, after a soggy patch, stiffened up, and some of the biggest hits of the season were made.

David Sun loves the game in the front row, ably supported by Harry Rugman, Sam Hughes and, for the first half of the season, Rupert

Woods. Bertie Berry and George Clackson made up the engine room, working hard around the pitch and running the lineout.

Oliver Reed-Daunter, initially a centre, ended up in the back row with Harry Ward. They both used their pace and skill to wreak havoc. They were supported by Sam Palmer-Tomkinson who also featured in Colts 1.

ground once he had hands on the ball.

We have very much enjoyed coaching this group of boys. They were always eager to play with ball in hand. We hope that many of them will work hard on their individual skills and we look forward to seeing them playing for the Senior teams next year.

Dan Pleydell-Bouverie and Tim Ojo also had games at Colts 1. They both thoroughly deserved their chances to shine. Tom Vincent marshalled the troops from flyhalf, before an injury prevented him playing the last two games.

Tim Macnaughtan was a flying winger who also made plenty of

DJ Pullen and KM Willis-Stovold

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RUGBY COLTS 3 P10 W6 L4 Colts 3 have had a good season; the improvement over the term has been excellent. As a squad, we must put our good progress and fitness down to the hard work of Jane Morgan (A Social PHM) who came out and did fitness sessions every Thursday. Some sessions were harder than others, but the boys were excellent at going for it whenever asked. With our superior fitness, we won some very tight matches during the season. Some of our more notable wins were the very tight 7-5 win against Marlborough – Will Power (d) being instrumental in that game, our 36-21 win against St Edward’s Schools’ Colts 2 was impressive, Ollie Green (c) getting a brace of tries and a very tight game

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against Bedford which we won 24-14 on a bitterly cold afternoon – Hipolit Hodges (d) dominating up front and scoring two tries. We have also had some tight losses, it was a shame to lose by just ten points to Eton and St Paul’s but we were competitive in both of those fixtures.

At the other end of the scale, we have had some big scoring fixtures that have seen our point tally hit 301 for the season (conceding 200). Three big wins against Oundle, Abingdon and Sherborne boosted those statistics.

We need to make some mention of our top scorers – Ollie Green (c) finished with 7 tries for the season and Jack Metcalfe (e) scored 6 but our top scorer by quite some way was also our captain, Harry Glassey (f).

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Coaches: TRG Ryder and REP Hughes Captain: H Glassey

Harry led from the front and finished the season scoring 60 points whilst picking up two man of the matches on the way.

All the hard work put in throughout the season definitely paid off and it was nice to finish the season having fielded 32 different players from across a good year group.

Player of the Season: Jeremy SheltonAgar (h) Most Improved: Will Power (d)

TRG Ryder and REP Hughes

RUGBY JC1 P10 W1 D0 L9 Played: R Adams, M Findley-Grant, B Zhang, B Dreyer, R Elliott, J Sharp, H Brown, G Salwey (vc), O Marshall (c), J Hayes, K Gilliat-Smith, L Donaldson, H Snell, O Barker, J Gourlay, M McGee, W Moss, J Beardmore-Gray, B Barton, A Donald, F Loveland, C Morgan, P Chetwode, R Halford-Harrison, M Jardine-Brown, D Osborne Coaches’ Player of the Season: George Salwey Players’ Player of the Season: Jamie Sharp Captain’s Award / Clubman of the Season: Oscar Marshall and Freddy Loveland

Coach: JM Sparks, N Murphy Captain: O Marshall

It is obviously difficult to write a report in glowing terms, given the playing statistics. And yet there was a real sense of improvement and progress across the squad during the season, which culminated in the epic win away at Oundle. The score see-sawed during the match, with the lead changing all the while. At 19-15, with about eight minutes to go, the referee yellow-carded George Salwey.

Oundle laid siege to the try line, with four penalties and a number of rucks five metres out. Incredible, committed defence saw a last-ditch double tackle and an Oundle player knocked the ball on over the try line. Five metre scrummage to Radley, kick to touch

by James Hayes, pressure relieved and then the team hung on until the final whistle a few minutes later. Cue scenes of well-deserved jubilation.

The secret to keeping morale high was JMS setting the boys incremental targets throughout the term: achieve a certain number of line breaks per game, manage several off-loads out of the tackle, defend with aggression in the middle of the pitch, score three tries per game - and whilst not all of these were achieved (especially in the early matches) many of them were, particularly as the season progressed.

Very pleasing performances came in a run of matches in November.

The Marlborough match was an aberration - one of those bad days at the office best forgotten - but other than that there were strong performances against Abingdon, Bedford, Cheltenham and St. Paul’s.

In fact the St. Paul’s match was 0-0 at half-time, and arguably Radley had shaded possession, territory and scoring chances in the first half.

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The tries scored column was especially noteworthy - 15 across the season.

Many followed multi-phase play and were the culmination of some excellent all-round team effort. Very few of the teams played against were technically better than JC1, but often contained one or two more powerful or athletic individuals. These things will change inevitably as the boys get older and make their way towards the Bigside squad. We started the season playing a fast, off-loading style in order to play as much rugby in broken-field situations as possible, but then added more ‘tight’ play (driving mauls from lineouts, attacking the fringes) as the conditions worsened in October and November. It is not an exaggeration to say that the team can now play in whichever conditions, and whichever style, which bodes well for the future.

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Notable mentions should go to Oscar Marshall, who captained the side with real determination and passion throughout; George Salwey, who led the pack by example in every match; James Hayes, who played as a second five-eighth in the manner of Aaron Mauger; and Kristian Gilliat-Smith, who was outstanding whether at centre or wing. The fantastic thing going into the Colts season is that there is competition for places in every position, with Bert Dreyer, Jamie Beardmore-Gray, Pip Chetwode, Max Jardine-Brown and Rory Elliott in the second row as a prime example. Back row competition included Max and Rory again, with Will Moss and Hector Brown alongside George. The front row saw Charlie Morgan, Ralph Adams, Ben Zhang and Jamie Sharp to the fore, with the depth increased if Mallam Findley-Grant remains fit. Elsewhere Max McGee, Henry Snell, Dom Osborne,

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Louis Donaldson, Rupert HalfordHarrison, Freddy Loveland and Archie Donald will all be challenging for places in the back division next year.

My thanks to JMS, who was an inspirational presence; to MGGD and JADW for their coaching of JC2; to Wags for his technical coaching of both individual players and the forwards, and above all to the loyal parents, who - I hope - enjoyed the progress the boys made over the term.

Special mention to those that made it to the great day at Oundle - thank you.

There is much to look forward to in the Colts year... .

N Murphy

RUGBY JC2 P10 W2 D0 L8 Played: D Stone (vc), E Bligh, M Findley-Grant, J Bentley, C Morgan, T Cheng, B Zhang, J Lam, G Dutton, Y Yan, F Trasler, W Moss, J BeardmoreGray, B Barton, P Chetwode, M Jardine-Brown, B Dreyer, R Elliott, G Hall (c), D Osborne, F Walker, R Halford-Harrison, F Rees, A Shorthouse, T Pritchard, T Wilson, A Stinton, J Gourlay, A Donald, A Cornet de Ways Ruart, H Walkinshaw Coaches’ Player of the Season: Finlay Trasler Players’ Player of the Season: Bert Dreyer, Tianyi Cheng and Yuhan Yan Most improved: George Dutton Top try scorer: Rupert HalfordHarrison

Coaches: MG Glendon-Doyle, JAD Wilson Captain: G Hall

Our first game away at Eton was a tough one. We came up against a good side and had an extremely close game which we sadly lost 14-17.

For our first match we played well and were unlucky not to win but unfortunately we were very slow to get going in the first half. We scored two good tries and were unlucky not to get a third. Barton got man of the match for his hard running.

The following week, we met a very strong Teddies side with a talented back line. We managed to score four tries, including a classic from Halford-Harrison in the corner, but lost the game 24-40. It was 12-14 at half-time but we slumped in the third quarter. Trasler was man of the match for his work at the breakdown.

We knew that Tonbridge would be a tough day at the office. That lack of self-confidence did not enhance

our performance and despite it being 0-0 after 15 minutes, unfortunately we were soundly beaten 0-43 by a powerful side. Wilson was a great impact sub so was man of the match. The next week, we welcomed Sherborne. We lost the game 10-27 but played much better in the second half with Barton (man of the match again) and Yan on particularly good form.

Our first win came against Marlborough when we played very well to beat a good side. This was the first match when we started to see the power of our driving maul. This was pleasing following a few disappointing results. This 38-21 victory lifted our morale for the following games. A great performance came from HalfordHarrison and Stinton, as they both scored great tries. It was a great allround performance but Jardine-Brown (man of the match) was awesome

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and he joined JC1 for the rest of the season. Trasler was man of the match again the following week away at Abingdon. We played very well but were beaten 0-12, helped by their good defence. However, viewing this result, the team played well and certain people such as Stone and Cheng also had great games.

The following game against Bedford was a difficult game. We came up against a much bigger side.

Walkinshaw had a great game and brought down their massive number 8 multiple times. We played very well in the first half (14-12 at half-time) but the opposition pulled away to a 14-40 win. Bligh was man of the match on this occasion.

At Cheltenham, we had a great first half, winning 19-0, including a brace of tries from Yan, when he ran through the middle of a ruck. Also, at the beginning of the second half the back line scored probably the best try of the season, which was scored by Cornet de

Ways Ruart with his first touch! With 10 minutes to go, Cheltenham made a terrific comeback. We thankfully bundled them into touch to win the game 26-21. Rees got man of the match because he was all over the pitch making crucial tackles.

St Paul’s, perhaps the best team that we faced this season, was looking to be a tough match. However, we faced up to our opponents from the beginning, and did not give up until the last minute. After conceding a couple of tries early on, we fought back with some huge mauls, including one that went from our 22 to their 22. This was another moment to remember from this season, as this put pressure on the opposition considerably.

Following some great kicks from Walker, we had gained back 14 points, and were right back in the game. Sadly a few injuries halted our momentum and we lost the game 14-26. Dutton was on fire this day and got man of the match.

RUGBY JC3 P9 W1 L8 For a core of able and committed lads, there were immense gains from some hard-fought tussles with excellent rugby-playing opposition.

The worthy few developed their games, gaining real reward for their maturity and excellent play.

2017 made leaders of a number of lads over a trying season, but, for others, 2017 was a water closet year (watershed, surely, ed.) in their rugby careers. Those who swam rather than sank when faced with a Tonbridge Royal Flush and didn’t go down the tubes when St. Paul’s turned the handle will surely have a rousing season for Colts and beyond.

JC3 played very well against Abingdon and lost a very robustly

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There was plenty of excitement ahead of our final match away at Oundle.

We knew we were capable of beating this side but had to put in a solid performance. Unfortunately, we were not consistent enough and injuries cost us victory as we went down 37-41 – a nail biting finish.

To sum up this season, the team has got considerably better as we have gone on. Despite it being tough we played very well, and got some good results. We are looking forward to Colts rugby. We thank the coaching staff, including JADW, MGGD, NM, JMS and Wags. In addition, we are grateful to our parents for their support on the touchline.

MG Glendon-Doyle

Coaches: RD Woodling, JAD Wilson Captain: A Horsey contested game, displaying exceptional heart; but the best match was undoubtedly the win against Sherborne, finishing on Bigside. This was a magical high water mark, winning from 14-5 down at the half, and was a world better than some other draining performances later on. The loss to St. Paul’s was very creditable against a side that beat Tonbridge; lots of questions were asked by our better players, especially in the scrum.

Stalwarts, such as Arthur Cornet, played with heart and menace joining top-scorer Harry Walkinshaw in scoring for JC2 when subbed on – twice, in Arthur’s case. Luke Kilsby and Ned Blackburn were resolute up front and played every game with steadfast purpose; Arthur Horsey

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could be relied upon to give his all and captained latterly. Patrick Clegg was a rottweiler wherever he played – better in matches than practices.

Various worthies went up to JC2 including the unhinged, ‘it’s only a flesh wound’, Joseph Bentley, at hooker; and ex-captain, and players’ player, George Dutton. There were frustrating injuries for the excellent Will Blacker and mercurial Orlando Soundy. Battering ram Jake Parsons was never really replaced, following concussion; fully recovered, he will excel next year as a real physical competitor.

Alec Stinton is a player who stands up well to history’s finest: sadly injured in his last game subbing for JC2, he provided real class and a clean finish on the wing and tackled with verve.

Latterly joining JC3 from the lower team, on merit, Harvey Glover displayed unusual talent with ball in hand; Johnny Ekins and Hugo Carlisle finished the season with resilience and should be proud.

The versatile Freddy Knatchbull had a fine step, tackled nicely and looked persuasive whether winging or flanking, and I hope continues in a higher team next year. Other players played with zeal when the going was good. Raph Koudounaris finished impressively and George Fincham showed skill and nouse.

Freddie Barber and Hugo Carr could break the line when on a romp and often looked threatening. Olly Taylour finished with zip and tackled manfully.

season for Colts next year. The yeargroup is on the up and can expect winning ways to come soon.

RD Woodling

Rugby is not a game for all this season’s players, but those ten or twelve lads who do know that rugby is for them will have an explosive

RUGBY JC4 P8 W2 L6 Team: F Cunningham, H Moore, G Corbett, T Lewis, A Rowley, M Rowland, N Siminand, S Shaw, C Collis, H Carlisle, A Cha, B Pastukhov, E Betton, F McCarthy, J Wheeler, F Gates, C Frei, A Sweetnam, J Ekins Despite a trying season in many regards, JC4 kept their heads up to the very end. In most games, the scrum were competitive, slowing down opposition ball at the breakdown and recycling our own ball when attacking. The front row of Cunningham, Moore and Corbett provided a solid foundation in the set piece, whilst Carlisle and Cha were able to offer robust rucking.

Carlisle in particular improved throughout the season, receiving a well-deserved call up to JC3 for the final matches against St Paul’s and

Coaches: DWS Roques and MCF Brown

Oundle. The backrow offered a real threat against the opposition while Ekins played for the team, but with his departure it struggled to get to the breakdown quickly enough.

Lewis and Rowley acted as flankers throughout the season, ever keen to take their part in open attacking play. As injuries impacted the team, Frei, Gates, Collis and McCarthy all proved themselves gritty performers, with McCarthy in particular improving in rucks as he lowered his body position.

While the scrum kept the opposition busy, the backs struggled in defence and attack, given the continuous movement of players and lack of discipline. The arrival of Sweetnam at Leave Away did provide much cleaner ball, but there was little the backs could do with it. This is not to say that there was not some

determined play, with Shaw , Betton and Pastukhov all doing their best in defence, individually, even if as a line they were unable to come up flat, leaving gaping holes for the opposition to run into. Rowland and Wheeler rarely saw the ball, but on the rare occasions they were given bit of space, they made some headway. Simanand too had great power and speed, but struggled to keep hold of the ball, although his early try against Bedford certainly gave the opposition pause for thought.

Overall, the team found the discipline of training beyond them, which meant they could look very ragged at times, but at least they never gave up in matches, even when the score was out of sight, for which they are to be commended.

DWS Roques and MCF Brown

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RUGBY MIDGETS 1 P9 W7 L2 Team: H. Silman (c), T. Thame (v.c), C. Hartigan, L. Stroyan, E. Farrell, F. Spicer, H. Pitt, A. Perez Quane, O. Mordaunt, W. Smith, A. Wingfield, B. Tucker, R. Fletcher, F. Judd, W. Isaacs, C. Davies, A. Hogarth, M. Geuten, R. Harrap, W. Moncton, M. Hartwright, T. Bracken, L.Rupf, H. Elliott, Z. Butterworth Four minutes to play, trailing 12-5 away at Bedford on a damp November afternoon. A forwards power surge, recycling through numerous phases inside the opponents’ 22, results in the crucial score to make it 12-10 but with the difficult conversion to follow. Freddie Judd, who had never taken a kick at goal up to this point during the season, steps forward from wide-out to strike the ball into a stiff wind.

Beautifully struck, the ball holds up in the wind, but gathers just enough momentum to creep over the bar.

12-12, back from the brink of defeat against a highly competitive and committed Bedford team. Honours shared and a fair result between two excellent teams. However, two minutes remain and from the kickoff, Antonio Perez Quane makes his trademark rampaging charge up the field, stepping into gaps before off-loading to the supporting Ollie Mordaunt, who picks a perfect line off his shoulder. With 30 m to sprint, Mordaunt is unceremoniously hauled down a metre short of the try-line. Judd steps forward to nail the winning penalty and, with time for one final play, Radley’s defence remain resolute in holding back to powerful Bedford team in one last gasped attack. The 12-15 victory was one of the many highlights in a wonderful season.

The significance of the win, and the manner with which Midgets 1 grasped victory from the jaws of defeat, illustrated both the

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competitive resilience of the team as well as the strong team dynamic that existed within the squad.

Without question, this is highly talented group of players but that does not necessarily mean that winning results will automatically follow. Success needs to be earned and would only come as a result of a strong work ethic and a willingness to perform your role within the team to the best of your ability, meaning the constant need to refine and improve individual skills.

There are two key themes from the season. Firstly, aside from the heroic win at Bedford, the team proved its wining mentality in three other closely fought encounters at Tonbridge (12-15), home against Abingdon (5-0) and in the final game of the season at St. Paul’s (12-19).

The evidence speaks for itself as the competitive nature and talent of the squad shone through in key games that could have easily been lost – that winning habit was no fluke and emphasises the team’s competitive resilience. And secondly, success was not a team effort but a squad one.

By the end of game three, we started to lose players to injury, at one point in the season having nine players out of action, all of whom were injured in matches. The team coped because of the quality of player who stepped into the vacant positions, and much credit must go to the coaches of the teams below as well as OHL, for identifying the talent and encouraging their development.

Caspian Davies is one of the players who embodied that process, who started in Midgets 3, but concluded the season as the ‘Most Improved Player of the Season’ for his fearless and immensely committed play at openside in M1. He was Radley’s own Richie McCaw. Captain Harry Silman must also take great credit for his mature and inspired leadership of the team. His

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Coaches: JA Gaunt and RMC Greed Captain: H Silman

presence on the field matched his dedicated approach off the pitch, as he was always first to training and last to leave because, without being asked, he was the one collecting the kit. His professionalism shone through in his pre-match warmups and this translated into his own immense displays on the field. He was a giant metaphorically and physically. Perez Quane was another who, during the injury plague, stepped up to the mark and took on the greater responsibility as he physically imposed his will on many moments during the matches.

His powerful ball carrying skills from the base of the scrum did much to put the team on to the front foot and enabled others to be brought into the game. He is a talented player who has that ability to change the game with a moment of magic. A chief benefactor of both PQ and Silman’s outstanding work was tighthead Ed Farrell, whose tough and uncompromising running skills dented defences for the entire season. He was awarded the ‘Forward Player of the Season’ accolade against a list of very strong contenders.

Although Farrell may have grabbed the headlines, his frontrow counterparts Lochy Stroyan and Charlie Hartigan spent most of the season performing the unglamorous tasks of hitting rucks and making tackles. Without hard-working players such as these two performing the basic daily grind of forward play, quality possession is not forthcoming and the team won’t achieve the all-important front-foot ball.

Another vital combination were the dynamic duo of Harry Pitt and Ferdie Spicer in the secondrow. Both are fearless, focused and totally committed to the cause. Head down and play are their mantras and they have the potential to be one of the truly great Radley lock pairings of all-time. Pitt is rangy and dynamic and Spicer enjoys the close quarter rough and tumble, a pair who greatly complement each other. Immense

work-rate was the order of the day and they never gave anything less than their very best – it was a coach’s dream. It is quite astonishing that we were able to cope without the injured pair during the season but the emergence of Maxime Geuten enabled the team to find additional fire-power. Geuten is new to the game but he quickly found his stride with his no-nonsense physical approach to the game, an approach that filled the injury void. Indeed, his performances were such that he quickly established himself as a regular in the side, when not injured! Other players also made a telling contribution when injury struck the team and it was wonderful to see the likes of the powerful Max Hartwright rampaging across the turf alongside the likes of fellow forwards Will Moncton and Tom Bracken. Hugo Elliott and Leo Rupf also had opportunities along with Zac Butterworth, who stepped in on the wing, and all played their part in making it a successful season. These talented players will undoubtedly challenge for places in the seasons that lie ahead.

Behind the scrum, the man who kept us playing was the gifted Toby Thame,

a player who positively impacted every single match of the season and proved himself to be highly consistent in the quality of his performances. He mixed our play and varied how we attacked the opposition – he is, without doubt, one of the best readers of the game at this age. When the pressure was on, as it was for much of the season, Thame delivered. He was rightly selected by his teammates as the ‘Players’ Player of the Season’ as well as being selected by the coaches as the player of the season.

The mid-field combination was beautifully balanced with the direct toughness of Rory Fletcher by the balanced silky running of Benji Tucker.

Fletcher was the first injury casualty of the season in the third match of the season at Tonbridge. Having covered vast ground to make the tackle, he was over the ball to make the steal as he was cleared out, breaking his wrist in the process. He was greatly missed by the team. Tucker, whose side-stepping exploits opened up many defences, was another to break his arm (in the cricket nets!) later in the season but not before he had made a telling contribution with his evasive running skills and deft off-loading. He is also

one of the finest place-kickers in his age group, who takes a professional approach to the honing of his skill. He also showed great mental strength in perfectly striking the winning kick in the 10-13 victory at Tonbridge, and was another we missed on the field.

Losing these two giants in the midfield meant that we moved Ollie Mordaunt from openside to centre. It is great testament to his rugby playing ability that he was capable of performing at a high level in two distinctly different positions. One common theme was his bravery in the tackle and he formed the cornerstone around which we built a resilient defensive structure.

He also adapted quickly to the picking up the nuances of centre skills as did Alec Hogarth, another player who had the ability to play as either a back or forward. He worked in tandem with Mordaunt as Hogarth was quite brilliant over the ball, as was his general work-rate around the field.

It was not an easy task replacing the Fletcher-Tucker axis but Mordaunt and Hogarth can be proud of their efforts.

The team was blessed with not one brilliant scrumhalf but two. Will Smith and Freddie Judd are talented

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footballers with the capability of playing anywhere in a backline. During the season, the players shared the scrumhalf role, with the other playing on the right wing. Both players were tenacious in attack and busy around the base, not to mention being fiercely competitive athletes. Their distribution was slick and created time for Thame to weave his magic. Smith, in particular, enjoyed playing the fringes and creating space for his runners and, during the course of the season, they both made a vital contribution to our success.

The remaining back three consisted of Will Isaacs at fullback and Alex Wingfield playing on the left. Isaacs’ quick feet and elusive running promptly earned him the tag of ‘Billy Whizz’. He proved a threat every time he received the ball in space, as he showed in the 0-40 victory at Sherborne. He is also the type of player that gets a crowd excited as he receives the ball as you know he can doing something spectacular - it was a blow to lose his talent in the

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Marlborough match. The appropriately named Wingfield was one of seven ‘men of steel’, players who played every minute of every game during the season. His elusive running, allied to his bravery, made him a consistently reliable attacker on the wing. He too, given space, could find the try line as he proved on a number of occasions and is one to watch for the future. Rollo Harrap, who stepped into fullback, may not have the physical size of some of his peers. However, he has the heart of lion judging by the immense tackle he made in the final few moments on the powerful winger against St. Paul’s, in what was probably a match saving tackle – what a legend.

Injuries may have deprived us the opportunity to attack the talented Cheltenham team despite a heroic 5-12 score line at half-time but I sense there will be some tremendous battles to come in the years ahead between the two sides. In many ways, the defeat at Marlborough, against a hungrier team was probably the low point of the season but, in the longer term the

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team would have learnt a lesson that will make a difference in the years ahead. Don’t forget it.

What won’t be forgotten was the immense pleasure and joy, mixed with fun, which was derived from coaching a dynamic and talented group of players during the most rewarding of seasons. You can’t ask for more than that.

JA Gaunt and RMC Greed

RUGBY MIDGETS 2 P8 W4 D1 L3 Team: Hugo Elliott (Capt), Emilio Zanardi Landi, Ollie Broke-Smith, Henry Roskill, Max Hartwright, Teddy Barlow, Thomas Bracken, Patrick Goodwin, William Monckton, Jonty Duncan, Caspian Davies, Teddy Tufnell, Archie Atkinson, Tom Way, George O’Connor, Will Green, Edward Alder, Zac Butterworth, William Mordaunt, Rollo Harrap, Roddy Lewis, Caden Stradling, Lucas Booth Upon reflection, this was without doubt a successful season for Midge 2.

It wasn’t the easiest season for many reasons, but the biggest challenge was coping with a constantly changing starting XV. Over 25 players were used, and Tom Way was the only player to play every minute of every game. With both Midge 1 and Midge 3 having successful seasons too, it really does show the strength in depth at the top of the year group and bodes well for future seasons to come.

A 41-14 away win at Sherborne got the season going, and considering the near 3-hour bus trip, this was a fantastic

Coach: CPM McKegney Captain: H Elliott

result. The boys played with real structure, discipline and attacking ambition deservedly receiving praise from many Sherborne parents, as well ours. The games away to Marlborough and home to Cheltenham were both gritty affairs, played in torrid conditions but the boys showed great resilience to come through, winning by less than a score in both.

Sadly, the same couldn’t be said in the game against Abingdon. This was the only poor performance of the season. Radley were by far and away the more skilful and technically better of the two, but Abingdon showed a greater desire to win and disrupt.

Next year, this should be the number one target in terms of turning round a result. Although the final game of the season ended in defeat to a strong St Pauls outfit, it also brought the best half of rugby played by the boys all the season. In almost Barbarian style rugby, they stunned St Pauls from kick off trying to run the ball from all parts of the field and off loading at any opportunity. A 10-0 lead at the break was a decent return for their efforts but could have been more. A shocked

St Pauls came out in the second half all guns blazing and sadly we couldn’t cope. Two injuries, one of them serious, really disrupted the flow, but credit must be given to St. Paul’s - the boys ended up losing 19-10 but with their heads held very high.

They were a pleasure to coach all season and I really look forward to seeing how they develop over the coming years. I have no doubt that more of the squad will go on to play 1XV rugby because of the way they were so receptive to new ideas and ways of playing. Tom Way won the “5-43-2-1” player of the season and Zac Butterworth received the nod of Players’ Player of the Season. Caspian Davies was named Most Improved Player, from coming up from Midge 3 to being one of the first names on the team sheet for Midge 1 and Hugo Elliott was given ‘Coach’s Award’ for the Coach’s attitude and leadership he showed, as captain, throughout the season. My final word goes to the parents who came home and away to support the boys. I thoroughly enjoyed in game and post game conversations and I know the boys appreciated you cheering them on.

CPM McKegney

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RUGBY MIDGETS 3 P8 W4 L4 At its best, this season will be remembered for the fast-paced, flowing rugby stimulated by dynamic sounding midweek training games like off-load touch, off-side touch and Fijian touch, executed by weaving runners such as Gong Vitayatanagorn, Jamie Ashley and Harry Plumstead, and fuelled by tireless rucking machines like Tom Bracken, Henry Roskill and Roddy Lewis.

It began against a strong, physical Eton 3rd XV, where the boys held their ground valiantly for at least 15 minutes, before succumbing to the pressure with 5 Eton tries in the remainder of the first half. The team rallied commendably at the start of the second half, with tries for captain Tom Bracken and Patrick Goodwin, before then conceding two further late tries to close at 10-52 down.

time. An agonising spell of Abingdon pressure culminated in Radley going 10-12 down, before the boys’ resilience was rewarded with a Harry Plumstead special in the corner- the final score 15-12 in Radley’s favour.

Eleven of the team’s best players rightly earned promotion to M2 during the season, Alec Hogarth up then to M1, offering the chance for impressive new recruits like Jan Tewes and Archie Crosthwaite-Eyre to fill the void. Sadly the new-look team were not so evenly matched against Bedford or St Paul’s in the final two games of the season; a less physical defensive approach saw the team concede 47 and then 38 points without reply. Players of the season for us, not just for their captaincy, but for their progress and sheer hard work, were the indomitable Tom Bracken and Algy Brackenbury, a most gifted place-kicker and a skilful, stalwart fly-half.

Happily this was followed by a 19-5 midweek win against Teddies 2nd XV. A tight first half saw Radley edge ahead with a try in the corner from the sensational Lucas Booth, while a strong start to the second half was rewarded by two tries for Tom Bracken, the second of which was created from an enterprising rip within the Teddies dead-ball area.

A heavy loss away at Tonbridge brought a tough first half of term to a close, but better things were to come, in the shape of back-toback wins against Sherborne (a convincing 40-7 try-fest for Messrs Anikin, Goodwin, Atkinson, Garson, Plumstead and Brackenbury) and Marlborough (20-7 – including an outstanding performance from No. 8 Nick King).

The closest contest of the season was arguably against Abingdon, where the boys 5-0 edged ahead by half time, courtesy of Nick King, who put us 10-5 up again after half

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AFC Nash, EO Holt

Coaches: AFC Nash and EO Holt Captains: T Bracken and A Brackenbury

RUGBY MIDGETS 4 P7 W3 L4 Midge 4 had a tough start to the season, lining up for their first two matches against Eton and then a particularly strong Tonbridge side. There were some strong defensive performance from plenty of the Radley boys against Eton, but unfortunately they managed to edge through two tries to our one, resulting in a 7-10 loss. Tonbridge were outstanding, and didn’t let us see much of the ball at all unfortunately, scoring 59 points against us.

At this point in the season it would’ve been very easy for our heads to drop, particularly with a few of our stronger players earning promotions into Midget 3. I’m proud to report that this didn’t happen, and we made the long trip down to Sherborne full of confidence. The forwards won us plenty of ball (with star performances from Grinstead and Copinger-Symes) and our strong runners of Lu and Jones made mincemeat of the Sherborne defence. A 52-0 win here put our season right back on track.

The following week took us to the much more competent Marlborough, who had had a

Coaches: JPJ Dodd and PJ Taylor

similarly comprehensive win over Sherborne earlier in the season.

Marlborough started hard and managed to score a try in the first few minutes whilst Radley were still waking up. We decided to start playing at that point, and managed to hold Marlborough at 0-5 for the rest of the half. A moment of genius from the backs gave us a try in the corner early in the second half. Crosthwaite-Eyre slotted the conversion with one of the most impressive Midget kicks ever witnessed. Marlborough ran hard at us for the (suspiciously long) remainder of the match, but try-saving tackles by each of Crawshay, Verdin and Graham earned us an incredibly welldeserved 7-5 win.

In the second of only two home matches this season we faced Abingdon. The Marlborough match had given us the confidence to run hard at Abingdon, and they struggled to deal with the flair our back line of Bennett, Vincent, White, Andrewes, Casey, Ng and Bury. The 43-5 win was never in doubt and it was really nice to see such a strong team performance the boys really playing for each other.

We turned up to face Bedford after a three match winning

streak. Unfortunately we were battered with injuries early on in the game to three key forwards (Richmond-Watson, Milne and Cowley) which meant that we weren’t able to keep the ball away from an outstanding Bedford back line. A heavy loss wasn’t a fair result here, and I’m sure the boys will look forward to the rematch next year.

As we started the final match of the season at St Paul’s, we found out quickly that we would be in for a tough game. Forwards such as Parish, Jardine and Turnbull really stepped up here, following the injuries sustained against Bedford, but we couldn’t stop some astonishingly quick St Paul’s boys from scoring several tries against us. On paper, a sad end to the season, however I couldn’t help but watch this match from the sidelines proud of the rugby the Radley boys were playing.

They were playing for each other and really enjoying the sport. The team has improved dramatically this season and come together well. I am looking forward to watching their progress as they move higher up through the school.

JPJ Dodd

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RUGBY MIDGETS 5 P6 W2 L4 The season started in glorious sunshine with a traditionally tough home game against Eton. Eton were a good team, but some strong tackling by the Radley team and being more clinical with our periods of pressure meant that Radley ultimately won out as 26-5 winners in a good game. This was a result which belied how close much of the match was, not that the home team were complaining. Plenty of hard work in the forwards meant that Jan Tewes (G) was rewarded with two tries, Alex Lu (F) scored one try with a marauding performance on the wing, and Arthur Andrews (H) scored from the centres. However man of the match was the tough tackling forward Finn McCullagh (D).

Buoyed by a good result against Eton we went into a match against St Edward’s full of confidence. This turned out to be a closer match than we were expecting, and was in fact the closest match of the season.

Despite an impressive hat-trick of tries from man of the match Alex Lu (F), and a try from flyhalf Thomas Crawshay (G) Radley ended up losing 24-29. The boys were gutted to lose such a close game, particularly when there were moments where it felt like they might score the decisive last try, but could take much credit from another good performance.

Next up come the long trip to Tonbridge, always a very demanding fixture. Unfortunately we were outclassed by a better, and more physical, team as we lost heavily.

However, the boys never gave up, and in fact played some of out best passages of rugby so far this season in the second half. Man of the match was Jan Tewes (G) for all his hard work and tough tackling.

After this tough result the boys bounced back against Marlborough with an excellent team performance.

The forwards worked hard to win us the ball as much as possible, and 36

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a backline of increased confidence outplayed Marlborough to score at the end of some flowing moves and run out 44-5 winners. Tiger Li (E) and Andy Su (J) scored from the forwards, and Rory Bertie (E) Connor Casey (D) x 2, Charlie Evans (A) and Matthew Anderson (A) x 2 all scored from the backs. Andy Su was man on the match in his first game following his promotion from M6 for a strong and enthusiastic performance in the forwards.

Next up was an away trip to Bedford.

After being 24-0 down within 10 minutes this looked like another potentially heavy defeat. However, a strong half-time team talk and some increased commitment from the boys led to a breakaway try by George Fernandez (J) at the start of the second half followed by two tries by Max Phillipson (F) to make it 24-17 early in the second half.

The Bedford wingers then scored another try each, sandwiching another excellent Phillipson try for his hat-trick. The final score 39-22 was a good result given the half time score, and Max Phillipson (F) was man of the match for his hattrick in his first game above M7.

Our final match of the season was another away trip to St. Paul’s in London. This is another team we typically expect to be very competitive, and despite a good performance, we couldn’t stop some strong St. Paul’s runners scoring some tries as we lost 49-5. Giorgi Gvaradze (J) scored the Radley try neatly from the back of a rolling maul, although man of the match was number 8 Felix Cripps (J).

Overall it has been a fun season of rugby. Unfortunately, we suffered a couple of heavy defeats against better opposition, but the boys came out of all games with immense credit. Some good games were won, some nice tries were scored, and some champagne moments were enjoyed. There are too many boys to mention everyone individually,

Coach: JW Schofield Captains: H Bennett, W Inglis, J Carreras, and G Fernandez

but particularly praise must go to Benjamin Fleming (G) who started the season in M5 and eventually worked his way up to M2. Similarly credit must go to Graeme Wong (A), Johnny Elliot (G), and Max Phillipson (F) who worked their way up to M5 having earlier played for M7.

I sincerely hope the boys enjoyed their season, and look forward to seeing many of them continue playing rugby in the Removes.

JW Schofield

RUGBY MIDGETS 6 P5 W1 L4 Points For: 130 Points Against: 159 42 boys had the honour of pulling on the famed Midget 6 shirt this season, and boys who played with us ranged from boys who spent most of the season well into the warm depths of the 7s to those who reached into the beating heart of Midget 3, a whisper from glory. We benefited from enthusiasm, good weather for the most part, and an unbending attitude towards the opposition, even it did not always extend to actually tackling them. Challenges included the impossibility of getting teams to play us - doubtless they had heard of our ferocity, with Eton, Sherborne and Abingdon among the schools scheduled to play us who ended up not providing a team. These must be counted as 50-0 walkovers in the statistics, but I understand that actually claiming those points would be ungentlemanly. Our win/draw/loss record therefore stands thus: We had the distinction of being the only lower-ranked Midget side to go through the season without a serious battering, and our heads never dropped when all around us teams were falling.

Against Tonbridge, the teams

Coach: DJT Scott Captain: G Hall

below and just above us lost by an average of 69-0: we lost 34-19.

Against St. Paul’s, the two teams above us (we were the bottom team) lost by an average of 46-3: we lost 29-17. There were some wonderful moments, including one of the very last moments of the season, a flowing try that went from side to side, involving dummying, excellent driving support play, one handed passes and superb angles. The last match against MCS, our worthy and perennial opponents (their three fixtures making up 60% of our withdrawal-laden calendar), showed what might have been without injuries, with a ‘best of Midget 6’ selection made possible by the fact that other teams were not playing. This was an excellent group of boys and, as I said to them on the pitch after the triumphant last game, they should all know that the really do have a future in rugby - some of the skills on display were worthy of sides far higher than them in the hierarchy. Scoring an average of 26 points per game in a side that lost all but its final game says a great deal about our positive attitude.

Champagne moment: Johnny Elliott’s tackle against an MCS player literally twice his weight, as the last man standing before a certain opposition try, which was so perfect that even the MCS parents were applauding. He even got to his feet early enough to secure the ball. Two hat-tricks are also worth mentioning, by Phillipson and Pilkington.

Most-improved player: There were several excellent players, many of whom went up early as their fine play was recognized. But Mark Siow’s emergence from a beginning in M7 as a quite superb and ferocious tackler was the standout improvement. Having asked several observers across several matches, I do not think he missed a tackle all season, which at M6 level is, I think, unprecedented.

DJT Scott

Player of the season: Edward Verdon, for consistent excellence in both forwards and backs.

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RUGBY MIDGETS 7 ‘At any given moment in a practice M7 were likely to come together at a blast of the whistle to wave at a passing sports personality from another squad. So it was that on occasion we would wave huddled together mid pitch at JRWB and Tetley the super hound.

JRWB would respond with a generous, flamboyant, double armed wave back. Tetley calmly acknowledged the team. This is part and parcel of being in M7, a team that is living proof that rugby can be fun for all, never humiliating, never intimidating, a source of fresh air, of good camaraderie and a welcome break from the hectic routine of school life – something to which to look forward in the afternoons at boarding school.

In a welcome departure, this year under the inspiration of DCKE and RJA, M7 have appointed a player of each week. Each award was thunderously applauded by this enthusiastic group of sporting young men. Captain George Turner was first. At the outset, almost uniquely in this team, he steadfastly tackled and charged at opposition lines, leading by example. He was ever cheerful and he always approached things in just the right spirit. Andy Su was second; tall, fast, determined, he was immediately promoted to M6, then to M5, then to M4.

Hugo Medd was the third; he ran smoothly, has fine hands and scored numerous tries in practice.

Quincy Ng followed suit. He was also fast, tackled with agility and was fearless. He soon played for M4. Louis Leouzon was the next recipient of the award. He was the fastest runner in this side, possibly in any side, and covered thousands of metres this season at top speed. He exuded great stamina and could offload the ball with precision. He went to

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M6, as did Johnny Elliott, the next award winner. He tackled players twice his size. He cut through opposition lines. Johnny then went to M5. GRK, simply unable to contain himself, announced the player of the week award to Archie Butterworth before the ceremony – such was the proud tutor’s enthusiasm to acknowledge this prestigious accolade. So although Archie was not the least surprised to be selected, he thoroughly deserved this acknowledgement of his powerhouse efforts. Once in motion he was unstoppable. He also went to M6. Dominic Martin was the eighth award holder. He ran with a smile on his face, a broad grin that summed up the positive and purposeful spirit in these boys. Our final triple award went to Henry Morris, Yuanlong Qiao, and Poj Wanlee. Each contributed enormously to the unfolding success of the term on Old Range.

Yet others impressed in a variety of ways: George Daly was an aggressive forward, destined to be promoted to M6. Orlando Shott’s kicking was the finest we have seen in years. He was also a speedy back. Jasper Aikenhead really gained in self-belief, and collected all sorts of memorabilia from the pitches, while Tom Seddon kept the coaches in order, asked probing questions all season long, and proved what a tidy ball handler and kicker he is. Archie Nickerson has been a fiercesome prop, bravely taking on the biggest of opposition forwards. He was promoted to M6 against MCS and acquitted himself well. Resolute Ben Brown tidied up numerous loose balls in defence, and Sebastian Dickie relished the open spaces of the wings, generating pace and gaining ground impressively.

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Coaches: RJ Adams, DCK Edwards, SA Hall Captain: G Turner

Archie, Ben and Seb all played for M6 towards the end of the season.

Aeneas Dennison was the most loyal of team mates, specialising in a looping pass. Jack Jacobs evolved into a determined flanker, speedy and often quick to spot an opportunity. He too was promoted to M6. Morgan O’Connell and Daniel Willmott helped to form the most powerful front row that M7 has seen in a decade – true powerhouses. Alongside Morgan, Harry Lewington and Graeme Wong were also deservedly promoted, both being fine forwards who demonstrated great energy, stamina and determination. Archie HoctorDuncan, the dynamo of the scrum, and Jasper Fanshawe – a utility player distinguished by his slinky runs - played for M5 at Bedford and then again at St Paul’s – a fine achievement.

The most improved players are naturally some of the less experienced. Yuanlong Qiao, Poj Wanlee and Joshua Thompson have immersed themselves in the spirit of the team and learned a great deal about the game.

They have improved beyond recognition. Yuanlong runs like lightning; Poj is the bravest of players; and Joshua’s three tries on the final Thursday practice of the season warmed the cockles on such a bitter afternoon. Flailing arms, powerful running and a unique celebration. These were Joshua’s first ever tries, but surely not his last.

Warmest thanks go to RJA and DCKE for their tireless enthusiasm, hard work and constant commitment. Their humour and encouragement of the boys goes way beyond the call of duty.

SA Hall

TEAM PHOTOGRAPHS We are very grateful to Gillman & Soame for supplying team photos. Parents can purchase team photographs (those featuring a watermark in the bottom right corner) by contacting Gillman & Soame directly as highlighted below.

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