Category: Sport
Ten athletes from Years 6 – 8 travelled to Birmingham to compete in the National Prep Schools’ Athletics Championships, after gaining 1st or 2nd place at the Regional round at Bedford in June. To have ten athletes from one school representing the East team is a phenomenal achievement!
Better still, three of our athletes gained podium positions – truly phenomenal achievements: Fazil Akyol won the U13 High Jump with an amazing jump of 1.54m; Beau Barrington-Hibbert became the U13 discus champion with a huge throw of 25.85m; and Henry Dinwiddy showed extraordinary determination on the track to gain a bronze medal and third place in the 800m.
Close behind them, but not quite on the podium this year, Lexi Barrington-Hibbert and Tom Mitchell were both called up to represent the East team in the discus, and for their first major competition they performed exceptionally well against some tough competition; Tom Martin managed to secure a distance in his last throw in the javelin, but he was unlucky not to be called up for a 4th throw in the top 8 of the competition; and the U13 Relay team of Ada Marson, Maddie Buchanan, Libbie Brightey and Ruby Vinton ran a good race with slick changeovers, but unfortunately they were just outside of the qualifying time for the finals.
Many, many congratulations to all the athletes: they performed brilliantly on what was a fiercely hot day. Thank you also to Mr Graham and Mr Goddard for their coaching in preparation for the event and on the day, and to all the parents who came to support. Roll on next year!
Congratulations to Oliver Juszt who has just returned from completing a series win over Germany this weekend, playing for the England U18 Hockey team, this all despite still being an under sixteen! Indeed it was his string of exceptional performances as the number 1 shirt for the England U16 team over the season (against The Netherlands, Spain and Ireland to name but a few) that earned him this very unusual and prestigious call up to the more senior squad.
Next up for Oliver is a Test series with the England U16 team against Belgium, and the summer Six Nations event. We wish him the best of luck and great success in his career as an England international over the course of this summer and beyond.
Last Thursday 14 sailors from Woodbridge School took place in the annual Suffolk Schools Regatta held at Alton Water. Completing in a wide range of different fleets all our sailors performed well in an event that attracts several hundred sailors from schools around Suffolk. Congratulations to Freddie Simpson who achieved 3rd in the RS Tera fleet and who also won the trophy for the best hired boat, thereby keeping the trophy in Woodbridge School for the second year running
A big day at Ormiston last Thursday: the Suffolk Finals! Hosts Ormiston Sudbury were our first opponents: victory! 10½ to 6½ with some fantastic rounders being scored and some great work in the field. We then played Farlingaye and again dominated to win 6-3½ with Victoria Burrows bowling intelligently and Annie Yates, Libby Martin, Emma Trebilcock, and Flora Pitt striking the rounders Next was a tense game against Thurston: some great fielding by Sophie Graham in particular helped us come out on top by 8-4, but an unfortunate injury sidelined Annie for the rest of the competition. No time to rest: next it was Thomas Mills with the girls on a high and feeling confident. Nell Pilkington scored some good rounders as did Saffron Holliday and Sophie; Verity Hobday put in a great performance and Laura Golding ran well between the stumps when the pressure was on… victory again! One more game: Bungay… and no mistaking the intent as the girls put on a great performance in both field and at bat to win 9-5½.
This was a fantastic result from a great group of students who thoroughly deserved their win. They were a real credit to the school and thoroughly deserved to retain their title from last year! Very well done.
Well, if you thought London 2012 was a half decent show, then you’d have enjoyed Wednesday enormously!
What a day we had of it: top notch athletics in glorious technicolour under azure skies and in front of the keenest of audiences. It was quite simply outstanding, and will be given a little more space next week once we’ve had a chance to catch our breath, check the results and reflect more deeply on all that was achieved.
For now, though, and at the risk of missing one out (I hope not, though!), I cannot resist the chance to trumpet the extraordinary triumphs of our record breakers. For this was the year the School broke its own record for setting records… that’s probably a meta-record… I think Bertrand Russell would have been interested…
It all started on the Saturday middle distance day, hardly surprising given the season our boys and girls have had this year:
In the Year 7-9 3000m races Charlie Turner and Kit Evans Lombe smashed the boys’ old record by 12 and 2 seconds respectively and April Hill obliterated the old girls’ record by 58 seconds; and in the Year 10-13 5000m races Nathan Goddard took over 12 seconds off the boys’ record and Amy Graham a whopping 31 seconds off the girls’. Four new records even before Sports Day officially started!
And then to the day itself – it felt as if a new record was being set every ten minutes: at Year 7 Ruby Vinton broke three on the day: high jump (previously set in 2015), 800m (2014) and 1500m (1994); Beau Barrington-Hibbert broke two: discus (2014) and shot (2010), and Fazil Akyol two for the boys: high jump (2016) and javelin (2011).
At junior (Year 8) Henry Dinwiddy broke the 300m record (2017).
At middle (Years 9 and 10) April Hill added another two records to her 3000m: 800m (2016) and 1500m (2017), Izzie Eaton broke the 200m (2009), Nell Pilkington broke one of the longest standing records, in the shot, dating back to 1979, Sophie Graham bettered even that, rewriting the discus record set in 1965, and Ella Walker tied the 100m record (1989); while for the boys John Hendry sent a new mark in the 300m (2013).
At senior the new records fell to Nathan Goddard, who broke the 800m and 1500m (both 1974 to S Munro). Nathan now holds six school records – another record!
So – Nathan, Ruby and April all setting three new records – and some heritage achievements finally rewritten. What a day indeed. Thank you to all the staff, the sports leaders, the parents and supporters, and of course to the athletes for making it such a joyous occasion.
Congratulations to the U14 rounders team on their excellent performance in the recent qualifiers held at Ipswich High:
The eight teams were drawn into two pools, and we played Westbourne (winning 7-6), Ipswich High School B (10½-5) and Kesgrave (8½-3), and finishing off with a strong victory in the final against East Bergholt by 6½-5.
Teamwork was to the fore during the afternoon with some fantastic rounders being scored by Issy Eaton, Emily Whyte, Molly Marshall and Erin Heffernan. There were also some brilliant catches from Elsa Trevor-Pallares and fielding from Jo Dunmore, Bea Hutchison and Ashleigh Wildbore, and some wonderfully consistent bowling from Cecily Royal-Dawson who has only just started playing in this highly pressurised position. Well done, girls! Bring on the County Finals and defence of our title next Wednesday!
A glorious day saw Woodbridge School well represented in the Suffolk team across track and field events, and the fine weather was matched by some wonderful performances. Flora Pitt competed well in the long jump; Mauricio Corfe and John Hendry in the relay; John Hendry’s duel in the 200m was probably the most exciting event of the day, even though he had to concede victory and settle for second; April Hill matched John with a fine second in the 1500m; and Nathan Goddard (third place in the 3000m), one position ahead of Alex Evans Lombe in the same race both had a strong Norfolk wind to contend with.
In the field, Tom Turner recorded a high jump PB of 1.45m and Tori McCarroll, hot on his heels was successful at 1.35m. A PB of 32.01m and a third place went the way of Chisom Oguamanam in the discus; and Sophie Graham’s double victory: in the discus and in the final field event of the day, the javelin, ended a long and successful exhibition of athletics.
On Friday 8 June, Bedford and the East Area Prep Schools’ Athletics Championships was the venue of choice for those of our pupils who had gained this season’s qualifying times and distances. With 51 schools present, every event was highly competitive making finishing in the top two to qualify for the Nationals in Birmingham quite a challenge.
First to compete for the senior school was Ruby Vinton in the 1500m. She set a new record by 3 seconds running in 4:54.8 and was way in front of the rest of the field from the start! Woodbridge now hold the best two times in the history of the event, as April Hill set the previous record two years ago. Henry Dinwiddy also qualified in the 800m finishing second in his race. Fazil Akyol did well to get to the finals of the 200m, but found rushing from the high jump competition to the 200m final and back to high jump was one obstacle too much. However he was delighted to win the high jump with a clearance of 1.50m. He also made the relay final with fellow team mates Ronald Hui, Tommy Burrows and Ebuke Ofunne. Tom Martin threw the javelin 31.09m to win his competition; and with the last field event of the day Beau Barrington-Hibbert threw the discus a magnificent 28.30m to set another new record, eclipsing OW Katie La Vergne’s mark held for the past seven years. Moments later, at 6.10pm, the girls’ relay team of Ruby Vinton, Maddie Buchanan, Libbie Brightey and Ada Marson sealed another second place, and qualification for Birmingham.
Those who narrowly missed out in 3rd place were Lexie Barrington-Hibbert, Tom Mitchell and Henry Dinwiddy in discus and Katie Norman in javelin. These amazing results are testimony to our athletes’ hard work and dedicated training under the expert guidance of coaches Mr Graham and Mr Goddard. Two new records set and a trip to the Nationals on the 3rd July in prospect! Our thanks also go to Mr Wheelhouse and Miss Sanders who were busy officiating all day.
Probably a first for Suffolk Cricket: siblings Daniel and Katie Norman, Woodbridge School Year 10 & 8 respectively, both captaining Suffolk Cricket age groups on the same day and both scoring 50s!
Daniel faced arguably the country’s leading team in Middlesex at Woodbridge School in a 50 over Royal London Cup fixture: Daniel captained, was wicket keeper and number 6 batsman. He steered Suffolk from 21 for 4 and 27 for 5 to a respectable 133 all out scoring exactly 50, though his efforts proved in vain as unfortunately Middlesex won by 9 wickets. He also scored a 50 last year against Middlesex at Woodbridge School. Very few batsmen achieve the feat of back-to-back 50s against Middlesex who boast boys from some of the top cricketing schools in the country.
Katie also captained the girls’ U13 Suffolk team who faired a somewhat better! Her team scored 237-8 off 35 overs with Katie hitting a superb 52 not out, batting at number 6. She then followed this up with 2 wickets when bowling as Suffolk dismissed their opponents Hertfordshire for 77 to earn a comprehensive victory.
This has been an outstanding first Senior School winter for young Ruby Vinton who was competing a year up in Club and Inter County events as an under 13. Ruby was ranked 6th in the UK after a winter in the mud, which is the second highest ranking by any Suffolk athlete, and she is one of only three Suffolk Juniors to make the rankings across the ages. Ruby’s impressive season included a win at the National England Schools’ Cup, victories at the South of England Inter Counties and South of England individual events, and a fantastic 8th at the UK inter Counties.
Not only is Ruby competing a year up, she is an August birthday in Year 7! What a winter; all being well Ruby has an exciting few years ahead.