Category: Senior School News

Abhi Durbakula, Fred Bartlett-Smith, Charlie Williams and Mr Hunt all took part in the 1st Martlesham Thematic tournament, held on Saturday 23 September. Abhi scored 4 out of 6 and finished equal fourth in the Under 75 grading event, Fred Bartlett-Smith scored 2½ from the 4 games he played and Charlie scored a creditable 1½ out of 6 in his first tournament; many congratulations to all three.  Congratulations also to Mr Hunt who won the Open section with 5 wins from 5 games! A second event is planned for Saturday 21 October.

An early trip down to London with the normal busy traffic wasn’t enough to dampen the spirits of our four girls vying to become regional champions. We arrived at the venue in the nick of time and got straight on with our warm up. Our semi-final fixture against Westcliff High School was a tough affair with Woodbridge 3-1 down going into the doubles. Some spirited displays followed but we couldn’t get the victory and we had to settle for a place in the 3rd and 4th place playoff against Bungay High School. This is when the girls came into their own, winning 4-2 with some great individual and doubles tennis being played. A great day out and the 3rd place to keep the smiles on the faces of the girls. Well done to Victoria Burrows, Sophie Graham, Saffron Holliday and Annabel Yates.

Woodbridge Under 17s started the game just as they would have wished in their opening fixture: after early exchanges an interception on the Wymondham 22 allowed centre Oli Waldron to coast over with Saxon Gallo converting for a 7-0 lead.  However, Wymondham rallied strongly, and after a lengthy spell of balanced play, exerted enough pressure to create the opening for an equalising try, quickly followed by another thanks to an inspired 80m breakaway by their talented fly half.  7-12 and all to play for.  On came Chisom Oguamanam, and immediately he was running wide to create the opening taken on by James Owens to Alex Evans Lombe and Oli Bacon before Dominic Ellice-Freeman put Chisom away into the corner.  12-12!

The balance swung again almost immediately: Wymondham capitalised on a loose ball, and scored under the posts… 12-19; Woodbridge fought back with equal promptness and tenacity: and Oli Waldron broke free to feed Harry Hobday’s touchdown, Saxon Gallo converting for 19-19.

In a breathless finale Woodbridge were unlucky not to secure the win, in the end settling for a draw which reflected well on both teams. However there was much to be proud of in many aspects of the game. Man of the match was Oli Waldron, and special mention goes to Chisom Oguamanam for scoring on his debut.

Meanwhile the under fifteens came back strongly to win their second half against Wymondham with two unopposed tries, although our boys had to concede defeat overall.

Report by Will Clarke, Captain

The 1st XI took on RHS this week, recording an historic victory – the first victory for a Woodbridge School football first team for more than 25 years, so we were told! A lively first half peaked with our first goal, Seb Lamb scoring a free header. However, Seb was frustrated by the post in his attempt to double our lead from the penalty spot after he drew a foul from the keeper. Throughout the first half, our back line of Nathan and Alistar Lloyd, Alp Arioglu, and Matt Gerry, was sterling in defence, denying RHS many sights of goal, and the occasional chances RHS did create were met superbly by our goalkeeper Francis Norman.

The second half saw an increasingly dominant performance from Woodbridge, with chances created throughout. Seb Lamb completed his hat trick with two good finishes after concerted pressure, with Will Clarke, skipper for the day, striking the post, Izaac Chan having a goal disallowed for a narrow offside decision and Alp Arioglu denied a firm header by a tremendous save from the RHS keeper. As we began to tire, RHS were able to grab a consolation goal, which only gave us an added impetus, and Seb Lamb grabbed his fourth of the match in the last minutes, leaving the final score at 4-1. A resounding victory for Woodbridge.

Man of the match goes to Alp Arioglu, for a stunningly resolute performance in defence, denying RHS many chances. Special mentions to Jake Jay, for tireless running in the final third, and Matt Carter and Joe Farrall for composed play in the centre of the park.

Woodbridge, fielding many new faces including two making their rugby debuts (Ebuke Ofunne and Zaid Toubassey) were keen to open their season with a good team performance.

From the start Woodbridge dominated: Alex Barker opened the scoring and Tommy Burrows almost made it a quick second after running the length of the pitch, only for the try to be disallowed. Woodbridge continued to pressure and after a period of possession Henry Tetley scored out wide. Soon after Rob Stewart intercepted on the half way line and sprinted clear only to lose the ball in his final strides following a last gasp Orwell tackle. 2-0 at half time gave Woodbridge the upper hand despite the missed opportunities.

But Orwell Park started strongly and scored to reduce the Woodbridge lead. The response was quick: captain George Na Nakhorn led from the front and his forwards started to work well again. Josh Barstow started to dominate in the loose and Theo Howard made some trademark jinking runs. Fazil Akyol was lively all afternoon running from deep and constantly asked questions of his old teammates. It was only fitting that he scored after fine work from Felix Juszt and Alex Barker. With the game firmly in Woodbridge’s grasp Ed Buckingham rampaged over the line to seal a great win away from home. Much to work on but the players all responded well to their game plan to enjoy the taste of victory.

The sun was shining for the U12B team’s trip to Orwell Park. Straight off the bus and into the warm-up: there was no time for first game nerves for a lot of players who have never played a competitive game of rugby before. Orwell Park got off to a blinder scoring off the first play of the game, but this didn’t deter Woodbridge, first-timers Kai Hoang, Rufus Davis and Abhiram Durbakula in particular responding well. Woodbridge managed to get themselves on the scoresheet before half time with a barn-storming run from James Williams to score the try.

Orwell Park came out with all guns blazing for the second half, scoring twice to take the score to 3 tries to 1. The experience of Jonny Evans Lombe, Josh Turner, Daniel Jones, Oliver Laxton, Joe Wray, Jimmy Glendinning, Jack Gathorne-Hardy and Charlie Royal-Dawson had a telling effect as Woodbridge got themselves back into the game. Obi Ihenacho then scored two fantastic solo efforts, jinxing from side to side to bring the teams level. Orwell Park came back hard, and thought they would secure the win but for the most incredible try saving tackles by Barnaby Gibbon not just once but thrice to keep Woodbridge in the match. And then… the crucial moment! Hector McLean-Spruce scored the decisive try for Woodbridge to run out deserving winners.

Won 1-0

Scorer Maddy Ayres

We travelled to Harleston on a beautiful afternoon, made all the better by the result!  We started really well, the attacking runs from Khushi Srivastava, Isla Appleby from defence and Elizabeth Kiel opening up play.  Meanwhile Isla Richardson stopped almost everything headed for our defensive area, and Maggie Black in goal was magnificent when called upon.  As the half progressed, Charlotte Pezzotta put their defence under increasing pressure in the D, eventually earning a short corner – very exciting! – and we were able to score soon afterwards with Maddy Ayres slipping the ball past the keeper from open play.

In the second half, defending our lead, Perdi Ludgrove ran her socks off and proved why she was voted player of the game with some great chasing back and tackling.  Elizabeth scored in a goal mouth thriller but it was disallowed as the ball hit her foot.  Rose Purves played well on the left of the pitch and Grace Godwin put in some fantastic tackles to keep Norwich at bay.  Gabby Mosher stuck to her attacker like glue and proved her worth in the defensive line and we were able to hold onto the 1-0 win, phew!  Well played to all the girls and thank you for all the support from parents who travelled.

The U14A team dominated their game against Norwich, played at the Harleston Magpies ground last Thursday. They must have had 80% of possession and were often entrenched in Norwich’s half but the goals proved difficult to come by, with a combination of good goalkeeping and near misses. Despite frustration mounting, the girls showed patience and were finally rewarded with a super goal from captain Molly Marshall with a drag flick from a short corner. Player of the match went to April Hill in the first half and Molly Marshall in the second half. Julia Long also had a particularly good game up front, working extremely hard creating space and closing down play; and overall the whole squad played well as a team.

Meanwhile the U14 B team had an altogether more comfortable afternoon, winning well by 4-0 in a game where the goals flowed more easily thanks to an equally dominant performance against Norwich but better outcomes between the posts!

A Hat-trick for Patrick but the team ran out of steam!

Match lost by 8 – 6.

A multinational band of eager 2nd team footballers were in high spirits at kick-off at the prospect of playing their first competitive fixture of the season. Sporting the continental formation of 3-2-1-3-1 things looked good as we sprinted into a 5-0 lead after 20 minutes of play. Captain Will Evans-Hendrick and lone striker Henry Bange were both on target but it was new-boy Patrick “the Hat-trick” Frebel who stole the limelight with assured finishing giving Woodbridge a 5 – 2 lead at half-time. Patrick was to add to his haul with a neat top-corner finish with the outside of his boot at the start of the second half. Surely no team can surrender a 6 – 2 advantage with only 25 minutes to play?!?!?! Cue catastrophic capitulation. Woodbridge ran out of legs; the forward line failed to hold the ball up, the defence fluffed their clearances and the midfield went missing. Despite heroics in goal by Will Jennings RHS caught up with our score and overtook us leaving everyone lost for words. Hopefully we will show greater resolve in our next match.