Month: September 2015
What a fantastic start to the season! Fast and frenetic (no, not furious!) from the start, the intense pressure Woodbridge imposed on Ipswich paid quick dividend, and it didn’t take long for James Bellhouse to power over for the first score. But Ipswich responded well and replied very quickly to score in the corner. A moment of reflection and regrouping: normal service resumed: our boys executed some nice phases to work deep into Ipswich territory. Then James Cherryman, second row, brilliantly chipped the ball over the defence and chased down his own kick to score under the posts. Ipswich stayed in touch, though, making the most of penalties to regain ground and the initiative, and score again. But back came Woodbridge in their turn: this time it was Felix Kibble who ran a hard line to bulldoze over for a debut try at the end of a fine phase of team play. The first half ended soon after, with Bertie Nicholson hammering home our advantage with a penalty kick. The second half did at least afford Bertie the chance to add to our score and our lead with a final penalty to complete his tally of five successful kicks.
Score: Woodbridge 27-12 Ipswich
Grey skies and a spot of drizzle did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the Swing Band, or indeed of the audience for the Swing Band as all took their seats for this year’s ceremony. The Headmaster spoke with passion about his extraordinarily enjoyable first year, and about the future. The school enters exciting times, and we as a community must embrace this chance to think and act differently to prepare the students and ourselves for an unpredictable future: to be comfortable in uncertainty; to think in an original and creative way; to ask questions and to listen; to develop resilience. Then he made way, first for our prize winners and then for our guest, Derek Browne. CEO and founder of a fantastic organisation linking entrepreneurship and education he may be; one-time work colleague of Nick Leeson he may also be … but most of all he is inspiringly enthusiastic, committed to the future, to aspiring high, to setting no limits. He delivered the kind of aspirational message so important for the pupils to hear; what was just as exciting was his own obvious approval of the achievements and ambition shown by our own pupils, the pupils that we were there to celebrate.
The day’s theme? Unequivocally to ‘seize the day’. Absolutely right; and without further ado Maddy Chan and Callum Askins did just that in votes of thanks of splendid maturity.
Our Year 10 pupil, Archie Penn has returned from a very successful sailing summer. Since his selection to the GBR Cadet Sailing Team for the World Championships, Archie completed the pre-event training with his team mates, which included taking part in the Flanders Youth Regatta in Nieuwpoort, Belgium, where he just missed out on a podium finish with a 4th place overall in a 30 boat fleet. The racing on the open sea with big waves, was very exciting and set him up well for the challenge of the World Championships.
Held on the beautiful Lake Garda in Northern Italy in early August, the World Championships attracted over 125 boats from 13 countries around the world. The top sailors from each country competed in the main World Championship series, where Archie and his crewmate Hazel Whittle secured 2nd place overall, won the first under 16 years trophy and was the top British boat.
Just 3 weeks after returning from Italy and having taken part in a local regatta at Waldringfield, the Cadet class reassembled for their National Championships at Torbay, where Archie performed consistently again, to finish in silver medal position, this time by just 2 points as the series went to a last race decider.
As a result, the RYA have invited Archie to “transition” into the bigger 420 racing dinghy and he is looking forward to a full programme of training and racing through the autumn and winter at various locations around the country.
Normally rowing regattas are raced over 2km or less, and winter head races up to 5 or 6km. There are a couple of much tougher challenges, though: The ‘Great Ouse’ covers the 22km between Denver to Ely while the ‘Boston Marathon’ covers the 50km stretch between Lincoln and Boston rowing clubs. Both events took place recently in lovely weather and featured two of our pupils. Many congratulations to Tristan Hilger whose crew won its division and Olivia Bakewell whose crew beat the previous course record for its division, coming second overall, at the ‘Great Ouse’, and to Tristan again for a strong row at the ‘Boston Marathon’.