Category: Sport
Last year at the County Track and field Championships we took 24 pupils and 12 qualified for selection to the county athletics teams. We thought that was pretty good… This year we took 49 girls and boys from Years 8-13 with an astonishing 22 pupils qualifying in 26 events!
With five heats in the 100m (40 competitors) it gives some idea of the competition to come in the top three to qualify. On the track Issy Eaton went to the finals for both 100m and 200m – coming third in 200m to qualify and just missing out in 4th place for the 100m. John Hendry also place 3rd in the final of the 200m gave him a place too. Our distance runners were dominant: Sarah Barker and Nathan Goddard winning the 3000m and George Wharam coming 2nd. Hurdlers Sophie Graham, India Lawson and Mauricio Corfe all won their races.
The throwers did well too: wins for Sophie Graham 36.27m and sister Laura with a PB of 39.43m quite outstanding!! Olivia Buchanan came 2nd and Amy Graham (with injury) 3rd. In discus Sophie Graham won, as did Joanne Garnett, and 3rd places for Alex Weir Simmonds, Annie Yates, and Laura Graham added to the collection. In shot we had more to celebrate with wins for Jemima Potter and Nell Pilkington, and 2nd place for Maud Peel.
In the jumps we had wins for India Lawson in high jump, and Ianthe Hill in long jump with Georgia Harrold coming 2nd. Triple jump saw 2nd places for India Lawson and Hal Ottley, and 3rd place for Hugo Thomas.
Those narrowly missing out on qualification but still securing excellent fourth places were Emily Whyte in Javelin, Jemima Potter and Nathaniel Gunn in discus, Charlie Turner in 1500m, and Gussie Terry in Triple Jump.
All 49 should be proud to have achieved the qualifying distance or time to attend this event. Well done all on such a chilly day!
We look forward to next week’s athletics events which take us back to Bury next Thursday for the schools’ team event, and to Northgate on Tuesday with Year 10.
Four schools took part in a Year 4,5,6,7 and 8 girls’ athletics meet at New Hall. In very cold conditions the girls did extremely well and won overall, scoring 238 to defeat Holmwood House 4th on 378, New Hall 3rd on 341, and Ipswich High on 298.
The Year 8 girls had complete control with Issy Eaton winning 100m, 200m, and coming from behind in the last leg of the relay to win. Molly Marshall won the 1500m, and long jump, Olivia Buchanan the javelin and, joined by Issy, Ella Walker and Emily Whyte, the relay. The team overall won both track and field events. Meanwhile Year 7 Bea Thomas won the 800m, Amy Goddard the 1500m, Iris Morton the high jump, and Ella Smith the discus to help the Year 7 team win their overall field events.
Congratulations to all.
Six schools took part in the first athletics meet this season at RHS on Saturday: Gresham’s, Ipswich High, Ipswich School, Framlingham Prep, RHS and Woodbridge. Open to girls’ teams of U12, U13 U14 and U15, lots of pupils took part with roughly 12 competitors or more per event. This year the organisers were concentrating on getting as many involved as possible, giving them an opportunity to post times and distances for the season, and in true Woodbridge fashion our girls happily stepped in to do extra events to cover for some late and unavoidable absences.
The girls showed dominance on the middle distance track 800m with Sarah Barker 1st and Amy Graham 2nd in U15 team, Bea Thomas 1st and Amy Goddard 2nd in the U12 team, and Emily Whyte 3rd at U13. The throwing events were equally successful: in javelin U12 Katie Norman came 1st and Tess Walker 3rd, U13 Olivia Buchanan 1st Emily Whyte 2nd, U14 Nell Pilkington 1st, U15 Amy Graham 1st and Freya Nyberg throwing well. In discus Ella Smith1st Olivia Brown 3rd, U13 Lakisha Charema 3rd and Jess Elmer 4th, U14 Annabel Yates 1st Saffron Holliday 3rd, U15 Cristine Lui 1st Joanne Garnett 2nd. Special mention to Cristine whose success followed from just one training session with Mr Graham! In shot U14 Nell Pilkington was 2nd with 9m to the winning throw of 9.03m! In the U15 team event Maud Peel came 1st and Joanne Garnett was 2nd. Meanwhile Ella Walker finished off her very successful day as part of the winning U13 relay A team (Emily Whyte, Katie Bellhouse and Eleanor Wright) having already won High Jump and 200m.
Apologies to anyone not mentioned who did well; a full set of results will follow from RHS. Thank you to all the parents who brought the girls to school on the Bank holiday weekend and those out supporting at RHS. A big thank you to Mr Goddard and Mr Graham for their presence and training, and to Mrs Pilkington and Miss Sanders for their leadership on the day. Most importantly thank you girls and well done!
Oliver Juzst was one of two goalkeepers selected to attend the England U16 hockey International matches this last weekend ( Saturday 29 April – Monday 1 May) at Lillieshall, Shropshire. The England U16 team were up against Ulster U17 boys.
The first match was played by the older goalkeeper James Mazzerello on Saturday 29 April and resulted in a win to England 2-1. Ollie’s turn came on the Sunday, after a full day of training and waiting, and with the Ulster boys looking for a win. It was a tight game and ended in a 2-2 draw. Penalty shuffles took place after the final whistle and Ollie made 4 out of the 5 saves with the Ulster keeping letting in several shots, although these do not count and were played for experience leaving the final result a draw.
On the final day, Ollie and James shared the game with James playing the first half, Oliver the second. Both our keepers conceded two goals in the game and the final score was 4-3 to Ulster in another tight game.
All-in-all a respectable result considering the England team were playing up a year and we were missing some of our outfield players to club finals commitments.
Congratulations to Oliver on a fantastic debut with the England Team.
Many congratulations to Zara Lye, who, with her mare, contested her first GB Junior Trial at Belton in Lincolnshire on the last day of term in March, and finished a brilliant 6th in the Open Intermediate under 21 age category and 3rd best Junior. They went on to compete for GB at the Ballindenisk International Three Day Event in Ireland last week, and finished a fantastic 10th. This was Zara’s first trip abroad to compete, and it was a long journey across the Irish Sea by ferry but well worth it and an amazing experience.
Over the Easter holidays a team of Woodbridge riders competed at the NSEA County Dressage Championships at Addington Manor in Buckinghamshire. The team of Caragh Paul, Rowena Wilson-Smith, Tabitha Wilson-Smith and Oliver Reid were Suffolk County Champions at a competition at Easton College earlier this year. There were 19 counties from all over the country competing, with four riders in each team, so this was a big event involving an overnight stay for most, for horses and riders. The team finished 9th overall with a very competitive aggregate score of 68.01, with all four riders achieving scores in the 60s. Several teams finished with an aggregate score of 68 and a fraction more, so the team were unlucky not to finish in the top placings. However Rowena Wilson-Smith won the warm up class and had the highest score in her arena, whilst Caragh Paul had the highest overall score in the team. All riders rode extremely well and remembered their test perfectly. This is no mean feat, particularly as the atmosphere at these big competition venues, with so many horses, is electric and the horses (and riders!) naturally respond to this. All four riders in a team ride in adjacent arenas at the same time so the riders really do have to have a high degree of focus, as well as control and accuracy. Oliver, at 12, was the youngest rider but held his own magnificently. The team were turned out beautifully, with horses neatly plaited and riders immaculate. All the riders were supportive of one another and conducted themselves very professionally so the whole event was enjoyable and the riders should be very proud of themselves; they were a great credit to the School.
Hugo was fortunate to have the opportunity to represent Germany at the recent European U18 Rugby Championships in Brittany.
The first fixture was against Luxembourg, who Germany despatched 67-5 with Hugo scoring two tries. The first 24 seconds in to the game! A great way to open your international try count!
The second fixture was against a big and proficient Netherlands team who were kept within one score until the final 10 minutes when the Netherlands managed to put some distance between themselves and the German team. The final score was 29-15. Despite this disappointment, Hugo gave a very good account of himself and was the German “Man of the Match”.
The final fixture against Romania was looking like a German win with a minute to go and the score 14-11 in Germany’s favour. Unfortunately a controversial penalty given away in a scrum 5 metres in front of their own posts by the Germans had the Romanians opting for a scum rather than take the easy points and a draw. Regrettably it was the right choice for them, and they came away the winners 18-14. Hugo had another cracking game, having earlier added another classic scrum half, blind side try to his tally.
A great experience for Hugo playing against such varied opposition and having the chance to see others such as Russia, Ukraine, Poland and the Czechs in action.
The last game of the hockey season was upon us on a gloriously sunny day. The U14 hockey team were looking to finish their season on a high after some fabulous results so far. Play got under way and both teams played some good hockey early on to the delight of the spectators who knew they were there to witness a quality game of hockey. Woodbridge managed to score two unanswered goals in the first half from Jack Leith and Sam Betteridge. Hugo Thomas was up to his usual tricks of commanding the defensive line and then creating attacking opportunities when deciding to bomb forward. Daniel Norman played superbly in the centre of the park breaking up RHS attacks and then also starting attacks of our own. Early in the second half RHS scored to close the score line. Woodbridge responded in typical fashion of this young side and kept their composure and work rate remained high. Another goal apiece from Jack Leith and Sam Betteridge secured the victory and the end to a tremendous season for the U14 Hockey team which included 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. The team should be incredibly proud of what they have achieved this season.
The cross country season ended on a high for Woodbridge pupils at the weekend with the English Schools championships in Norwich. An astonishing seven Woodbridgians were running for Suffolk, all of them a year young for their age category.
The course was dry, flat, and frankly rather boring but the event was impeccably organised and the many thousands of spectators were very well entertained. The English Schools is incredibly competitive and just 10 seconds at the end of a long race can be a difference of over 50 places.
On a day of superb Woodbridge results the standout performance belonged to Nathan Goddard. Running a year young for the Inter Boys he was first back for Suffolk in 68th. Top 15 at next year’s English schools is looking a realistic target for him!
Most gutsy performance of the day probably belonged to Kit Evans Lombe. The runner in front of him fell over in the Suffolk ‘pen’ at the start of the race. Kit was left 3rd from last after the first 300 metres but he had overtaken nearly 100 of the best runners in England before the finish!
Suffolk has a small population so is graded as a category C county for the English Schools. The excellent results from Charlie Turner, George Wharam, Kit Evans Lombe, Bea Thomas, Nathan Goddard, Sarah Barker and Amy Graham made a big difference to Suffolk’s standing in the category C team competition. 2nd in the girls and 2nd in the boys, a fantastic result for Suffolk and a phenomenal end to a fantastic season for Woodbridge.
This was a great display of both the A and B team playing in a number of different positions, and with different team members, but always being in control of the game. There was some fantastic shooting by Eliza Kilburn, Maddie Felton, Katy Garnett and Jemima Hill. Fond farewells to Mia King and Louise Farthing who have now played their last game for the school L, and thank you for all your hard work. Mollie Biddle, Louise, Eleanor Berridge and Flora Johnston played well in defence and Chloe Outen, Georgia Harrold and Jess Bowers put some great balls into the circle. Well done girls and thanks for all working so hard and for some great results!