Month: December 2015
Lily Felton reports
The 1st Team played Ipswich High School on Tuesday afternoon, and despite a sluggish start to the game, we managed to improve our intensity and tenacity quickly. We maintained a high proportion of ball possession throughout the match, allowing our forwards to attack strongly on the right and left sides. Our defensive line, as solid as ever, were not required as much as usual, enabling the attack and midfield players to push forward and attack the ‘D’ frequently. We scored a well-deserved goal in the first half, thanks to a brilliant cross from Imy Craig on the right-hand side, into the ‘D’ to Victoria Williams, who safely pushed into the goal. Even though the girls were tired after an energetic first half, we continued to play with force and awareness. Credit to Nicole Buckingham, Verity Jackson and Georgina Warren for considerable runs down the right and left sides, leading to secure a second goal, giving us a comfortable lead. Well done to all the girls for being so hardworking and eager to score! Special mention goes to Georgina Warren who was given player of the match, due to her tireless work in midfield.
The Hockey 2nd XI team may have lost a few games this season, but through these dark times the team has continued to attend training and play matches with enthusiasm, commitment and dedication. And this positive mental attitude has paid rich dividends at last: victory over Framlingham by 1-0! A great team performance and everyone involved should be extremely proud.
Millie Cave had a ‘stormer’ against Ipswich School – voted Player of the match by her team mates as she fought tirelessly in defence, ensuring nothing went past her and played with absolute tenacity and grit!
Many congratulations to Brendan Bennett, Jonathan Ferguson, Josh Cole and Harrison Cole who have won places with the Suffolk Youth Orchestra, the flagship of Suffolk County Council’s extensive programme of youth music opportunities, and one of the finest of its type in the UK..
Our junior musicians, quite rightly, had St Mary’s bursting at the seams, the audience (which generously donated £238.43 to East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices) delighted to be part of celebrating a fine term’s work. The concert also happened to give us the first hint of Christmas Woodbridge-School-style…
The Seckford Sinfonia’s Marches, first Through the Mud, then Hungarian, were delightful, and raised smiles and pulses in equal measure. Some of the percussion instruments were clearly as much fun to play as they were a surprise to hear! Corelli’s Vivace, played by the Year 7 string quartet, was wonderfully dignified by contrast, yet equally spirited and impressive.
Soloists Joanne Garnett (clarinet), Rebecca Yardy (violin) and Charlotte Dinwiddy (flute) were each quite outstanding playing German, Tchaikovsky and Fauré respectively, while Stringvitation, the Flute Group and the Year 9 String Quartet (Boccerini’s Minuet and Trio played with considerable maturity, having clearly benefited from Miss Jessica Hall’s guidance in the strings competition masterclass just the week before) all played with marvellous aplomb and variety further to exemplify the extraordinary range and talents of our young musicians.
And so to the double finale: first the foot-tapping swagger of Just Jazz: great fun and much enjoyed (watching the Year 7s and 8s in the audience bopping innocently and enthusiastically in their seats was a hoot!); and then the Junior Choir romping through the Old Testament via Goliath and Daniel, and ending with… yes… our hint of Christmas: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Indeed it was, and the joy with which this final number was delivered summed up a wonderful early evening’s entertainment.
Our enormous thanks and congratulations go to all the performers, and of course to the conductors and teachers of the music department under Mr Penny’s sure leadership who have helped them achieve so much.
Jemima Hill reports
The match started off slowly, however, once we settled into the game, the pace increased. We had the majority of the ball possession but struggled to convert it into a goal. Rosa McInerney played excellently, consistently getting the ball down to our end of the pitch and keeping it away from the opposition. In the middle of the first half Jemima Hill scored a goal and we finished one-nil. The second half including some great defence from Louise Farthing (sweeper), who cleared lots of balls, sending them back to our end of the pitch. With great teamwork we managed to score another goal. By now the weather had turned, and it was raining and very windy, but we managed to get another goal, scored by Anya Trevor-Pallares. With minutes left, the opposition had a short corner, but fortunately for us the receiver missed the shot, and the ball was picked up by Jemima hill who drove it down to our end of the pitch and passed it into the D. It was received and a shot was taken, but rebounded off the goalie. Anya picked it up and scored a great shot right into the corner of the goal. The match ended four-nil. Player of the match was Millie Cave who played excellently throughout the game, and thoroughly deserved it.
The Reception children have had tremendous fun in the spaceship role play areas this term. They have learnt how to be astronauts and spaceship mechanics and have flown to distant planets to meet friendly aliens. However it is time to come back down to earth now and the spaceships will be taking off into space for the last time at the end of the week. Hopefully we will see them return to earth next year.
The Chamber Choir was delighted to be invited to share in St Mary’s Church Great Bealings’s Service of Thanksgiving to commemorate the birth, 500 years ago, of Thomas Seckford, and to celebrate the completion of major building works to a Church which dates back well before Seckford. The weather outside might have been cold and grey, but inside all was light and warmth (in spirit if not entirely in the skin!). Full to the gills with parishioners, and full of song and speech, the Church looked marvellous – what a treasure it is, and, as we learnt, one of many hundred such jewels we are so lucky to have in Suffolk. Norman Porter and Charles Barrington spoke passionately about the history of the Church and of Thomas Seckford, the legacy bestowed, and the duty this generation bears to maintain and build upon the benefactions and work of so many generations; the Rev Celia Cook added her own thanks, and asked us to relish the opportunity for peaceful contemplation and the honouring of others that the Church, and so many like it, offer us in our increasingly frenetic, selfish, secular world. And to thank them for their performance of three pieces from the period of Sir Thomas’s birth, she also offered the Chamber Choir delightfully appropriate and unexpected gifts – very gratefully received!
The congregation, clergy and Choir shared a very special morning; our thanks to St Mary’s for such fine hospitality. May St Mary’s continue to thrive.