Month: December 2015

The Swing Band was in exceptionally fine form, playing as the guest of St Andrew’s Church Felixstowe for its Christmas Concert. The ten-piece set included such wonderful classics as Glenn Miller’s Little Brown Jug and Moonlight Serenade, some Brubeck and Gillespie, and to end a fabulous addition to the repertoire: Coldplay’s God Put a Smile Upon Your Face. With solos drawing warm applause within each piece, and with uncontrollable foot-tapping the order of the day, the audience clearly appreciated the silky skills and high energy of the Band, right down to the big hint of Christmas included in the last few numbers. Brilliant! Thereafter Harrison Cole became accompanist and then organist, for the Felixstowe Children’s Choir (who did a brilliant job with their Christmas songs – all impressively sung from memory) and for the audience, leading us all graciously and expertly through the season’s first carols. A lovely afternoon: our thanks to St Andrew’s for their hospitality.

Theo Bimson and Rosie Greenway were excellent impresarios and hosts to a wonderful evening of Chamber, solo and ensemble music… and even a bit of modern, jazz and improvisation. It really was a sublime programme: rich, varied, pacey, thoughtful, contemplative, cheeky, witty, virtuosic, joyful, and beautifully played throughout. Pupils coming together to support each other, and producing something so successful in the process – it rather sums up the music department, pupils and staff alike. So, congratulations to Theo and Rosie, their friends and peers, and to Mrs Williams as guest accompanist, on an evening which embraced works from Telemann to Sheeran, Summers to Saint-Saëns, Gershwin to Strauss, Williams, Powlesland, Schumann and more. The audience could not have been more delighted or better entertained.

Cross country
Well done to the 32 runners (from both The Abbey and the Senior School) who competed in Saturday’s County Schools’ Cross-Country Championships at Alde Valley School, Leiston. Although the conditions seemed clear, the wind was a force to be reckoned with and made the course that little bit tougher for our athletes. Many congratulations go to the 22 runners who came in the top 40, therefore gaining a place in the next round. However, a special mention must go to Kit Evans Lombe and Nathan Goddard, who both came first in their respective races, and Sarah Barker who came third in hers. The minor boys had some cracking results, with 7 out of the 9 runners through to the next round!!

Athletes who gained top 40 places

Minor Girls: Cecily Royal-Dawson 9th, Bea Thomas 11th, Isabelle Eaton 15th, Amy Goddard 20th, Molly Marshall 31st & Ella Walker 32nd.

Minor Boys: Kit Evans Lombe 1st, Henry Dinwiddy 5th, Charlie Turner 8th, William Franklin 13th, Tom Turner 17th, Thomas Harper 18th & Tom Martin 25th.

Junior Girls: Sarah Barker 3rd, Amy Graham 4th, Milly Buckingham 7th, Sophie Graham 17th & Ianthe Hill 40th.

Junior Boys: Nathan Goddard 1st, George Rufford 8th & Daniel Davies 38th.

Senior Boys: Connor Grant 19th.

The next round is on Thursday 14th January at RHS. Good luck to those involved!

Thank you to all the parents for their support, and especially to Mr Goddard who has worked so hard with our runners to help them to achieve so highly.

Mr Brett presented certificates today to the children in Queen’s House. Effort certificates were awarded to Charlie, Edie, Audrey, Emilia and Martha. Table Manners certificates were awarded to Alex, Ernest, Hermione, Alex and Maea. Congratulations to Rowan who came 2nd place at the Woodbridge Junior Chess Open and who now qualifies for the finals of the London Junior Chess Championship. Well done!

The U12A team has just completed their season and signed off with an 11 try victory over Copleston. Henry Waldron bagged 4 tries to clinch the top try scorer of the season, Tom Turner picked up 2, and John Hendry, Will Franklin, Mak Zie, Seb Gifford and Tom Harper all managed to get on the score sheet. A great achievement to win 6 of their 7 fixtures. The future is bright.

The girls have remained unbeaten this term, winning all 8 of their matches played during the course of the season. The team scored 30 goals and conceded only 5. Despite not qualifying for the next round the Junior 1 team was also unbeaten in the U13 County cup (where matches were shorter than normal). At the cup the team played 5 matches, winning 2 and drawing 3. They scored 7 goals in the process and conceded 1.

A 100% record for a team who gave 100% in all practices and matches. The team scored a total of 37 goals in competitive matches, conceded 6. They won 10 matches and drew 3. Ianthe Hill was top scorer for the team with 12 goals, followed by Sophie Graham (8) and Clara Simpson (7).

This was a game where we seemed to be constantly under pressure but we held our own and fought for everything. Poppy Fletcher, Freya Huxley, Molly Webster and Flo Scott played brilliantly; but even their valiant efforts and the front half of Everest couldn’t have stopped the Framlingham short corner, hit with perfect timing and flying like a rocket. Freya Nyberg, Sophie Drew, and Lucy Hudson all played well and although we lost the girls can be proud of their efforts.

Despite the bitter cold and sleet our girls played on undaunted, persevering through the weather to create some great chances up front… but their goalie was good, imposingly smacking her stick on her pads when she wasn’t in the thick of the action. At last we broke through for Freya Nyberg to score a brilliant goal, supplied by some great mid field play from Molly Webster. Half time came, and with it at last the weather began to take its toll…. Fewer chances for us and one for them earned Ipswich the draw. But our girls did themselves proud, especially in the cold and only having eleven players and no rolling substitutions. Well done!

Maudie Peel reports
The U14 A and B teams went to play away at Framlingham. Unfortunately both Framlingham teams were very strong and resulted in two losses for us but we still managed to play really well.

The A team started out with a very good first half, only conceding one goal. We managed to start out defending one of the scariest short corners ever and clearing it out wide. We managed to play very defensively and only let in a goal in the last five minutes of the match, with wonderful attacking on the left from Tessa Lye and Emma Hendry.

In the second half, we still managed to play really well. Unfortunately there was a very tricky player on the Framlingham side who sneaked in to score again. Although we did manage to get it further up the pitch, we didn’t manage to score any goals but Amy Graham did really well in the middle and on the right. Great defensive work from Sarah Barker, Joanne Garnett and Amelia Potter. It was a good match and was unfortunate to lose it 3-0 but everyone played really well. Player of the match was Emma Hendry for great skill and good attacking.