November 2015 - Page 4 of 4 - Woodbridge School

The Under 12A team entertained Culford at home in with a good display to gain an excellent win.

Early exchanges set the game up to be a tough one against the unbeaten Culford side. Woodbridge started off stifling a number of attacks with some good tackling and covering defence. Culford spotted Woodbridge were defending narrowly and used their runners well attacking the wide channels.
Despite the Culford early pressure Woodbridge combined well for Tom Turner to score out wide after his work by Mak Zie. Culford faught back to level the score.
At this point Woodbridge improved considerably and attacked with real venom and exposed a number of gaps in the Culford defence. Henry Waldron broke free and after a trade mark run scored to put Woodbridge ahead for a 10-5 lead at half time.

The second half started well for Woodbridge who enjoyed the slope putting Culford back into their half. Will Franklin extended the lead after a break from close range but Culford clawed back with a fortuitous try out wide. With just 5 points slaying the teams Woodbridge raised their game again and returned to the original lineup. Mak Zie scored a deserved try after good play by Freddie Simpson, Jack Ward and debutant Prem Pohl. With seconds remaining Culford were dealt a killing blow with another Waldron try near the posts. The 25-10 scoreline was deserved but made hard work of gaining at times. Captain Seb Gifford should be proud of his charges.

Woodbridge School 36 : Thomas Mills 12

The Third match of the season was away and we were fired up. Woodbridge received the kick and attacked ferociously with awesome handling. Committing each player, before offloading to Lorry Bertram who finished despite multiple tacklers. Woodbridge weren’t rucked off the ball at the breakdown meaning the backs could run. While fly-half Oliver Bacon, distributed well and recognised the need to shift the focus of play out wide. This led to a series of impressive midfield phases with offloads that would have made New-Zealand. By half time, we had scored another try but also conceded one too.

In the second half the Woodbridge team kept shape, as we scored four more brilliant tries. The fearless tackling never wavered, despite us winning convincingly the effort never dropped. This is a Woodbridge team that is learning what makes a great team and demonstrated it, notably Harry Brett how was always in the action and scored a great try. Unfortunately they broke the line meaning they got a try in the second half but we kept going. Dom Ellice-Freeman scored three tries all of which were amazing to watch. James Eaton used his strength to get over the line and James Phelan did a try saving tackle on one of their biggest players. Ben Harper played extremely well for any player especially a new one, his running lines and commitment was brilliant.

Man of the match: Dom Ellice-Freeman

Tries:

Harry Brett
James Eaton
Lorry Bertram
Dom Ellice-Freeman 3

There is a change to Red Book on Wednesday 18 November. Only 2 teams away.
Junior 1 & 3 (AWAY) 2.30pm, dep 1.30pm
Junior 2 & 4 (HOME) 2.30pm
Junior 5 & 6 (Home) 3.15pm

The Swing Band performed at the Seckford Almshouses last Tuesday. The residents were entertained in great style. After the previous visit last summer the residents had asked Mr Shepherd if the band could play some music by Glenn Miller and the band obliged with three numbers by the great Swing band leader of the 30s and 40s who disappeared in mysterious circumstances in a presumed air crash over the Atlantic during the second world war. This culminated in a performance of his greatest hit “Moonlight serenade” with Josh Cole starring on the clarinet solo part. The band also played later music by Dizzy Gillespie and the theme track from the 60s cartoon of Spiderman.

Former student Justin Tan had just achieved another remarkable feat, finishing tied for fourth (fifth on tie break) in the World Under 18 championships in Porto Carras, Greece. His last round win over second seed Grandmaster Kiril Aleeksenko from Russia (who finished with the Silver medal despite the defeat) secured him a podium placing in a gruelling tournament that lasted nearly two weeks. Justin finished with 8 points from 11 games.

During half term our riders went to Wix Equestrian Centre in Essex and competed in an Inter Schools Show Jumping competition. It was a very busy, long day, starting at 9am and finishing at 9pm! Schools from all over East Anglia and London were taking part. The first 4 classes were qualifiers for the Grassroots Regional Final being held in December. Woodbridge School entered a team in all 8 classes and several individuals too.

It was certainly a day for coming 4th – our teams in the 40cm, 50cm and 90cm all came 4th! Individually, Neve Walker and Rohan Brooks did particularly well winning the 60cm and 90cm respectively, both classes had over 40 entries – so a great result.

Full results – 40cm – Oliver Reid 4th, 50cm Ada Marson 3rd, Tess Walker 5th, 70cm Fleur Ludgrove 4th, Tess 5th, Ada 6th. All riders qualifying for the Regional Finals – very well done! Also, Rowena Wilson –Smith came 4th in the 90cm individual.

On 24 September the Abbey School brave Swimmers from year 4 to 6 girls travelled to Ipswich High to challenge them to a swimming gala. There was tension in the air as both schools filled the leisure centre. There was an eerie silence as Ipswich High started their warm up, The Abbey watched and grew ever more excited. First up was the year 6 Back Crawl, went up to start us off followed by the year 5 and 4.

Year 6 Back crawl start off neck to neck till the final stretch where the opposition powered ahead to take the lead from both our pairs to grab the top two spots. As fate had it the year 4’s had a very similar result. However not for the year 5 pair which took 1st and 3rd place.

We left the first race behind us and looked onward to Breast stroke. Just like last time the Year 6 pair were up first. They got into position, off they went was neck and neck till the last length were Ipswich High A team slowly pulled ahead to take first place, closely followed by I.H.S B in second. Hoping they could change the flow, off the year 5 pair went, however could not beat the strong I.H.S pair. After the disappointing start the year 4 girls weren’t going to lose quietly and fought back in the breaststroke and took 1st and 2nd away from the home side, we were back in the race.

Butterfly was next, arguable the hardest stroke to do. Yet we had some talented enough swimmers to compete. Sadly though I.H.S where stronger in the year 6 and 5 races and took an early lead to grab the two spots. However the same can’t be said about the Year 4’s, which Abby B team narrowly lost to the I.H.S A team but grabbed 2 place for the team.

Freestyle, the year 6 pair was up first. Sadly though the races weren’t going our way and I.H.S seems to ease to victory in this race but the Year 6 weren’t giving up still full of excitement they continued to fight on. Seeing this, the year 5 pair weren’t going to be shown up and took 2nd place followed by the year 4 B freestyle swimmers who grabbed 1st and 3rd in their race.
Next up was the year 6 medley relay, however luck wasn’t on our side as I.H.S was just too strong this year and we ended up taking 3rd and 4th places, similarly in the year 5 race, Although year 4 was a different story which we took 1st and 3rd place leaving all to play for in the final race.
The final race was the freestyle relay, The Year 6 and 5 Team took their place on the starting blocks, they made a valiant effort to narrowly lose to I.H.S A and B team to take 3rd and 4th place respectively. A big race for the year 4 teams as they lined up. After a thrilling race the Abbey took 2nd and 3rd hoping it was enough to keep them in the lead.

Over all I.H.S year 6 Team won comfortably with a combined score of 18 compared to the Abbey’s of 42. With the year 5 doing slightly better but still lost with a score of 38 compared to I.H.S score of 22. However the Year 4’s results were a different story with the Abbey having a score of 29 and I.H.S achieving 31.

On Monday, the children at The Abbey came back to school to find a mysterious object had landed in the grounds. Shrouded in mist, it was all very dramatic! Mr Brett explained to the children in assembly that there had been a disturbance in the night and some people had seen bright lights and heard a strange humming sound. Whatever it was had landed in the grounds of the school and the visitors had vanished, leaving just a few clues.

The children got a chance to investigate and have a good look at the site, then they were asked to write the story of what they thought had happened. The government were investigating the landing, but were a bit stumped and wanted the children’s ideas. And they had lots of ideas! Some told of aliens having to leave their imploding planet in a terrible rush and choosing Earth as a place to seek refuge; some described aliens searching the galaxies for other life forms and finally finding us here on Earth; some believed that the aliens were here to teach us about looking after our planet; and some described aliens burrowing beneath the grounds of The Abbey, building an underground city.

It was such a fun day and one that the children will certainly remember.

Due to our U14 Girls qualifying to Next round of County Netball Tournament on Saturday 14 November, we are cancelling U14A Hockey v Culford on that day.

U15A Hockey v Culford (Home) on Saturday 14 November will now start at earlier time of 2.30pm.

RUGBY remains the same as advertised in red book.

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our Assistant Director of Music, John Stafford.

John was an incredibly talented musician and teacher with a wonderful, subversive sense of humour. His work with our students, particularly as an accompanist, was of the highest order and invariably helped them to give of their best in very stressful situations, often inspiring them to excel well beyond their own expectations. There can have been few better than John able to perform the most complex music, often at very short notice, with such amazing skill and authority.

John passed away peacefully on Wednesday 28 October. His sparkle around the music department, his warmth, his friendship, and his complete commitment to others will be sorely missed by us all.