Category: Sport

The Junior 3s had a wonderful start to the season with a comprehensive 8-0 win against Langley. The girls showed great teamwork to work the ball out of defence, passing it around cleverly to make openings for goals by Kat, Iris, Chloe and Libbie. Although the match was not a true test of their ability to play under pressure, the girls were strong in their tackling and were fiercely competitive, regardless of the score. Even playing out of position, they attacked and defended well together. A great start!

The U14A team travelled to King’s Ely on Saturday with a small squad due to various other commitments, but nonetheless started in their trademark dominant fashion. The first goal came from a drag flick by captain Molly Marshall in a short corner routine. Later Molly was to score again, fine reward for the constant pressure she put on the opposition. Others to make notable contributions were: Olivia Bedford who made some great driving runs down the right side and supplied many accurate early balls; and Ella Walker and Clara Simpson also worked very hard to win the ball back and feed our team with some super balls. In their desire and enthusiasm to score a third the girls did concede a late goal on the break, but the win was secured. Final score 2-1 with some really good play and a well-exercised King’s Ely goal keeper to show for it!

The Woodbridge under twelves travelled to East Bergholt High School keen to continue where they had left off in their win over Orwell Park. No sooner said than done: immediate pressure on the EBHS line allowed Alex Barker to score; soon after man of the match Theo Howard made the most of a poor clearance kick to pounce and score; next Henry Tetley sidestepped, skipped and twisted out of tackle after tackle to make huge gains; Josh Barstow ran hard and straight from a close-range penalty to score; Erwan Gouedo went over in the corner after great passing by Theo, Tommy Burrows and Rob Stewart; Tommy then scored himself after a clever interception; Fazil Akyol gathered a clearance kick and cleverly sent Erwan on his way to a second try; Jonny Evans Lombe kept up a constant stream of good ball from scrum half; next Theo completed his star performance, darting through the beleaguered defence, dummying magically to scoot over and complete the first-half whitewash.

Half time brought some changes to try to even things up a little but Woodbridge continued to dominate in a new formation: first Henry scored from an opening created by Rob, and then captain George Na Nakhorn wrapped up the game after Akyol ripped the ball free and offloaded. Exhausted? You, the reader, might be – as for the boys? Not a bit! This was a good solid team performance with excellent lessons learned: Woodbridge 9 EBHS 0

Our under thirteens travelled to East Bergholt and were perhaps still ‘on the bus’ when the hosts ran in the first try after only one minute… It could have unsettled the visitors… Nothing of the sort! Woodbridge kicked the restart for territory and pinned their hosts back, but after a lengthy stint in their own half, a little rub of the green and a missed tackle, East Bergholt had doubled their lead. At half time confidence was high following a try by Tom Martin and the talk was all about how to take advantage of every opportunity. Pressure was ruthlessly applied to the home side and Woodbridge seemed almost certain to score, only to concede on the break. East Bergholt then made try saving tackle after try saving tackle to hang on for a deserved victory.

Match won by 43 – 26.

As the scoreline suggests, this was a very open and entertaining game of rugby played on a large pitch; both teams were eager to make the most of free running rugby. Woodbridge decided to do the hard work up the slope in the first half; Bergholt had three strong, athletic runners and took an early lead. However, as the game wore on it was clear that Woodbridge had the stronger all-round team and by half time we found ourselves with a seven point lead. Wise old heads reckon that with intelligent play the slope on Tollers is worth 10 points. Bergholt seemed to run out of gas and eventually space opened up enabling John Hendry to open his legs scoring 4 of our 7 tries. That said this was a much-needed morale-boosting team victory; yes, we still have work to do to be at our best but now we feel our season has truly started. Well done to everyone involved.

The U14A team continued their unbeaten run of fixtures with a 5-0 win over Ipswich High away on Thursday. A squad of sixteen payers all contributed to the success with five already having run the cross country at RHS in the morning! An early goal in the first five minutes by a drag flick on a short corner by Molly Marshall was followed by a second duplicated move half way through the first half. Julia Long was to score the third on the left post. In the second half Emily Whyte scored first and then Molly completed her hat trick, executing another drag flick this time in open play. The girls nominated Molly player of the match and Julia also received several votes. Cecily Royal-Dawson worked hard up the right side of the pitch making good crosses, while Katie Bellhouse created lots of space for the team. As usual the central midfield players Clara Simpson and Ella Walker worked skilfully and tirelessly to support the team. Ariane Bilgen, Olivia Bedford, Jess Elmer and Eleanor Wright were secure at the back with Issy Eaton in total control in goal. Jo Dunmore, Ashleigh Wildbore and Lottie Edmunds worked hard in midfield to create opportunities for the team. A great squad effort well done to all!

The Girls’ 1st team topped off a good first half of the season with a great win over King’s Ely.  Woodbridge started strongly with India Lawson scoring the opening goal five minutes into the match thanks to Georgia Harrold’s skilful feed.  But the early goal led to a slightly unguarded relaxation which allowed King’s Ely a scent of a chance which they took, punishing Woodbridge with two goals in return – once from open play and once from a penalty corner.

Half time gave Woodbridge a chance to regroup: plans were made how to deal with King’s main play maker; the press was fine-tuned; and a much more determined Woodbridge team took the field.  The forwards worked incredibly well together and linked up perfectly, in particular India, Georgia and Victoria Williams. Kiya Smith showed good positional play and decision making; and Poppy Fletcher can be very proud of excellent play on debut. Woodbridge equalised early, with Victoria deflecting the ball into goal, after good play again by India and Georgia, herself on the score sheet soon after.  At the other end of the pitch Woodbridge did very well to break down play, make last ditch tackles, save and clear away chances for King’s, with Joanne Garnett, Chloe Outen, Eleanor Berridge, Sophie Little and Mollie Biddle all making crucial interventions.  Meanwhile in midfield Georgina Warren and Mollie Biddle were impressively influential, distributing the ball well.

With the defence secure, and with the team growing in confidence, Woodbridge killed the game off when India scored the fourth goal and Victoria followed with a fifth after a great solo effort 6 minutes from the end: a perfect pass cut through the King’s defence to find Victoria on the half way line; she wove her way past two defenders and finished with a perfectly timed strike rocketed into the back board.

The team reflected on a great win: in particular Georgia Harrold worked very hard, played an excellent match in different positions and had a hand in almost every goal; Poppy Fletcher deserves a mention for playing so well on debut, seemingly showing no nerves; Victoria Williams had an outstanding game; but it was India Lawson who was voted player of the match for a magnificent performance.

This first game of the season was a skilful and exciting one. Home side Langley was well prepared with a strong squad; Woodbridge travelled with a relatively young squad ready to challenge hard. And challenge they did as our boys held the lead into the second quarter thanks to exciting quick breaks by Chisom Oguamanam and superb defence by Olly Wroe. The middle sector of the game however, was dominated by Langley and their outstanding ball carrier whose pace and athleticism was difficult to handle. The strength of “the bench” and the physicality of the home side in the end proved to be the deciding factor in the result as Langley won by 39-27.

The Junior 1st Hockey team finished a very impressive fourth out of twelve at the U13 County Cup. The team produced their best hockey of the term, with some great team play and very impressive individual performances. The afternoon started with two solid 0-0 draws against OBH and Finborough, Woodbridge dominating most of the play in these matches, and defending so very well. Woodbridge turned their dominant play into a 1-0 win against South Lee: first, captain Katie Norman, Annie Nicholass and Chloe Macmillan all being influential in forcing a rebound, for Beau Barrington-Hibbert to put away the goal – a perfect example of teamwork; later on, Katie was unlucky to have a goal disallowed, which would have been the icing on the cake for a near perfect game from her; and Ruby Vinton made an excellent last minute save to secure the win. Next up was the tough team from Orwell Park, who had been doing well all afternoon. Woodbridge can be very proud of their play: going 1-0 down, the girls strove for an equaliser which just wouldn’t come, only for Orwell Park to score a counter attack goal which was always the risk. 0-2 was a very respective losing margin to a team which put more than 5 past every other opponent. The last pool match was against Ipswich School, and was a must-win for Woodbridge to progress. Ella Smith scored the winning goal, pouncing on a rebound at a short corner, a just rewarded for an afternoon of top play by her. Annie Nicholass also excelled during the pool stages of the competition.

Woodbridge made it through to the semi-final to face Framlingham Prep, the eventual winners. It was another gutsy performance but the win was not to be. Having already put everything in, the last match of the day against Barnadiston was a tough affair. Tired legs and minds resulted in Woodbridge losing their structure and discipline in the press and Barnadiston took advantage of this to win 1-0.

Well done to the team for superb hockey, especially in the pool stages. In particular Ella Pitt was voted the player of the tournament, and was very impressive in defence and midfield; Ella Smith was excellent too, also showing how much she has learnt so far this term; Katie Norman was consistently good as we have now become used to; and Ruby Vinton was praised by everyone at the event for her goalkeeping. Woodbridge School is very proud of how the team represented the school: they were great ambassadors for young sportswomen.

On Wednesday the year 6 A team travelled to Fram Prep to play a match. The A team arrived with an exited and a confident vibe. We started the first half of the match very well and Georgie scored one amazing goal. We had a few short corners but unfortunately we didn’t score a goal on any of them. The whistle went and we had a little pep talk about our play and went back on the pitch feeling confident.

The second half started off well. We managed to get the ball into the D very quickly. Frustratingly they managed to get the ball down and score a good goal. Sadly we didn’t have our usual goalie, but still did well and fought through. At the end of the match we drew, the score was 1 – 1. We did well because they were a very tough team to beat.

This was our best match so far in the season because we tried our hardest.

By Issy Deacon