SPORT ST BENEDICT’S

Rugby

In January, house matches were introduced to the Saturday games programme for the first time, with all players from Form 3 to Lower Fifth invited to attend and play for their house. The house spirit motivated all pupils to play some excellent rugby and a lot of fun was had by all!

When frozen pitches prevented some fixtures from taking place, ongoing partnerships with Grasshoppers RFC and Wasps FC enabled our pupils to play against St George’s Harpenden on 3G pitches – with a convincing win in the 1st XV match. Two big block fixtures followed: at RGS High Wycombe there were five wins and one draw from the twelve fixtures played, and at Hampton School St Benedict’s won five matches from the eleven played. The U16As beat both schools and have won their last 6 games in a row, including victories over John Fisher School and St. John’s, Leatherhead. The U15As, who secured the Middlesex County Cup against Hampton last term, won a hard-fought match against RGS High Wycombe. The U13As also gave a very convincing performance. Across all these fixtures there have been excellent victories for some of our B and C teams, demonstrating development across the school.

Academy U17 in a 70 point win over Bath Academy U17, and Ollie Mayes (U6), who was selected in the London and South East Division U18 Squad following his brilliant performance for Middlesex County U18 last term.

Moving into rugby Sevens, the U14s and U12s both started strongly, with both teams progressing through to the Cup finals of the Orleans Park Sevens tournaments. The U16A VII reached the Plate final at the Worth Sevens, while the 1st VII represented the school at the Middlesex Open Invitational Sevens where they narrowly lost to RGS Guildford in the Shield final.

There have been notable individual performances with several pupils being selected for the London Irish Developing Player Programme at U15 and U16. They include Freddy Rossigneux (L6), who represented London Irish

There is still plenty of rugby ahead, with U12–U15 block fixtures against Ibstock Place, Harrodian School and Reeds School. The U16s are hoping to repeat last year’s success at the All England Sevens, and our U11s, U13s, U14s, U16s and 1st VII are training hard for the Rosslyn Park National Schools Sevens in the penultimate week of term.

Hockey

U12s London County Hockey Champions!

The U12s Hockey team won the London County Tournament on Friday 3rd March. This success follows on from their excellent season during the Michaelmas Term when they were unbeaten; having played 10 fixtures, they won 8 and drew 2.

Netball

The team scored early against St Augustine’s with an excellent finish from Sofia Potter after 30 seconds, which set the tone for a comfortable 6-0 victory in our first match. Next up was a strong Mill Hill side who had won their first game and we suspected may be our main competitors in the tournament. The girls started well and forced some good saves from their keeper, before conceding to go 1-0 down. After fighting back to make the score 2-2, Saoirse Remmer broke free to score the winning goal with one-minute left to secure a 3-2 victory. We then went on to play local rivals Notting Hill and Ealing School, where after a slow start we came out comfortable 3-0 winners. Going into the final match against Bancroft, we knew that a win would secure us first place, which spurred the girls to play some of their best hockey of the day in a 5-0 victory.

The girls now progress to the London Regional Tournament which will be held on 15th March. Congratulations to all the girls on this wonderful achievement, especially to Lois Hand who was player of the tournament.

U12 Regional Hockey Finals

After winning the London County round, the U12s competed in the Regional finals. After dominating the group stages where they beat Belmont 3-1, Ibstock Place 5-0 and Godolphin & Latymer B’s 4-1 the team ended top of their pool.

We are delighted that more girls are participating regularly in training and fixtures this term. Throughout this season we have seen an improved performance among the A to D teams, from U12s to 1st VII, achieving outstanding results against St Augustine’s, LVS Ascot, Pangbourne and Queenswood.

Well done to the U12 and U13 As who participated in the Middlesex County Netball cup. Both teams faced some tough competition securing many wins throughout the day. Congratulations go to the U12s who went through to the quarter finals just missing out on a place in the semi-final after Northwood College secured the win by 1 goal. Well done to the U13s on a ‘top 12’ finish in the county.

The 1st and 2nd VII competed in the Highgate annual tournament. Both teams performed exceptionally well in their group stages and qualified for the final. The 2nd team faced a tough competitor but persevered throughout and finished as runners-up. Under the leadership of 1st VII Team Captain Isabelle Haran and Vice-captain Emily Michael, the 1st team entered their final with the determination to retain their title from last year resulting in the 1st VII securing the win.

In the semi-final they cruised past Emanuel Bs 5-0 to set up a rematch against Belmont whom they had already beaten in the first game of the day.

In a tense final, with both teams going for the win, we were 2-1 and 3-2 up only to concede 2 goals in a minute to lose 4-3. It was a difficult result to take but one they will surely learn from.

So, another 2nd place finish at regionals. A special mention to Lara Kowalski and Sofia Potter for scoring regularly in the tournament and Lois Hand for being player of the tournament, our driving force from defence into attack.

Fencing

The 2022–23 St Benedict’s fencing season has been one of the most successful to date. In total St Benedict’s fielded 26 fencing teams who between them took part in 154 team matches winning 91 of them. Successful fixtures have included victories against Dulwich, Westminster, Millfield, Eton, St Paul’s, and the Fencing Academy.

In early December 25 fencers went to Paris on our inaugural international fencing tour. The six-day programme included sparring with the members of the national French squad.

The final weeks of the season were hectic and saw a record-breaking string of successes. In early March nine teams represented the school at the British School Team Championships. The U15s had an incredible run with U15 Epee placing 3rd, U15 Sabre 2nd and our U15 Foil team (Max Kowalski, Yuta Fujimori and Krishan Dhawan) becoming National School Champions!

Our senior squads captained by Ethan Barter, Matthew Curtis and Dexter Shelmerdine won the highly competitive London Quadrangular by the narrowest of margins beating both Eton and St Paul’s by one match. Over two weekends of the London Youth Championships we qualified a record 22 fencers to the British Youth Championships, winning 1 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze London regional medals in the process.

At the Public School Fencing Championships we were up against 1,200 of the best fencers in the country with over 100 schools represented. We had strong performances all around, however Zachary Bowden, Jake Bowden, Tom Dobbin, Oubai Chbib and Maximus Meza were awarded finalist plaques. The latter two boys were only a few points away becoming national school champions.

St Benedict’s was awarded the highly prestigious Christie Trophy this year, which goes to the school with the best performance averaged out across all their fencers in the U14 and U16 foil events.

To finish off the season we held our most successful Battle of St Benedict’s – the school’s internal fencing tournament. Over 120 pupils competed in six categories. Congratulations to Tom Dobbin

(Upper Foil), Oubai Chbib (Senior Sabre) Jake Bowden (Senior Epee), Elena Llinares-Perales (Upper Foil Plate), Max Kowalski (Middle Foil) and Mylo Landon (Junior Foil) on winning their respective categories.