Category: Woodbridge News

Congratulations to Henry Dinwiddy, Oliver Laxton and Isla Richardson who, along with Georgia Dawson from the Senior School performed magnificently in the St Mary’s Church Prom concert on Sunday afternoon. It was lovely to perform for such an appreciative audience and the performers all gave confident and convincing performances.

On Wednesday the 11 The Junior 1st Hockey Team played an enthralling match against Culford. With three key players, including the goalie, missing Woodbridge embarked on the game with resolute determination to remain undefeated. The game started well right from the beginning, all the Junior First’s adapted quickly to how the new teammates played.

Using the wings Woodbridge made perfect transitions to keep clear out of trouble. Positional play and decision making were exemplary. Because of this a quick ball was received by Ianthe Hill at the top of the ‘D’. Ianthe out skilled all the defenders until face to face with the goalie; she took a powerful flick at the far right corner resulting in an early lead to Woodbridge. Another goal for Woodbridge was scored shortly after by Olivia Buchanan. Taking the ball down the right wing with speed, eliminating their defenders. She reached the top of the ‘D’ and with no one in the vicinity to help the stranded goal keeper she unleashed an unstoppable slap, boosting the team even further. Clara Simpson scored a brace as a result of excellent positioning and Ianthe Hill matched her with a brace of her own using great individual skill. By half time the score was 6-0.

Culford by no means we’re about to suffer an ignominious defeat. The Woodbridge defence were playing equally as well as the attack, reducing pressure on the new goalie for the day, Hope Jerstice. Annabel Yates and Minnie Wayman communicated well in defence changing channels to create space. A slight misunderstanding in defence, however gifted Culford in a goal. Woodbridge then scored the last and a phenomenal goal from Ianthe Hill. She was later awarded player of the match for her amazing skill and decision making.

A captivating game Woodbridge, One of the best this season, well done!

The Under 12A team entertained Culford at home in with a good display to gain an excellent win.

Early exchanges set the game up to be a tough one against the unbeaten Culford side. Woodbridge started off stifling a number of attacks with some good tackling and covering defence. Culford spotted Woodbridge were defending narrowly and used their runners well attacking the wide channels.
Despite the Culford early pressure Woodbridge combined well for Tom Turner to score out wide after his work by Mak Zie. Culford faught back to level the score.
At this point Woodbridge improved considerably and attacked with real venom and exposed a number of gaps in the Culford defence. Henry Waldron broke free and after a trade mark run scored to put Woodbridge ahead for a 10-5 lead at half time.

The second half started well for Woodbridge who enjoyed the slope putting Culford back into their half. Will Franklin extended the lead after a break from close range but Culford clawed back with a fortuitous try out wide. With just 5 points slaying the teams Woodbridge raised their game again and returned to the original lineup. Mak Zie scored a deserved try after good play by Freddie Simpson, Jack Ward and debutant Prem Pohl. With seconds remaining Culford were dealt a killing blow with another Waldron try near the posts. The 25-10 scoreline was deserved but made hard work of gaining at times. Captain Seb Gifford should be proud of his charges.

Woodbridge School 36 : Thomas Mills 12

The Third match of the season was away and we were fired up. Woodbridge received the kick and attacked ferociously with awesome handling. Committing each player, before offloading to Lorry Bertram who finished despite multiple tacklers. Woodbridge weren’t rucked off the ball at the breakdown meaning the backs could run. While fly-half Oliver Bacon, distributed well and recognised the need to shift the focus of play out wide. This led to a series of impressive midfield phases with offloads that would have made New-Zealand. By half time, we had scored another try but also conceded one too.

In the second half the Woodbridge team kept shape, as we scored four more brilliant tries. The fearless tackling never wavered, despite us winning convincingly the effort never dropped. This is a Woodbridge team that is learning what makes a great team and demonstrated it, notably Harry Brett how was always in the action and scored a great try. Unfortunately they broke the line meaning they got a try in the second half but we kept going. Dom Ellice-Freeman scored three tries all of which were amazing to watch. James Eaton used his strength to get over the line and James Phelan did a try saving tackle on one of their biggest players. Ben Harper played extremely well for any player especially a new one, his running lines and commitment was brilliant.

Man of the match:   Dom Ellice-Freeman

Tries:

• Harry Brett
• James Eaton
• Lorry Bertram
• Dom Ellice-Freeman  3

The Swing Band performed at the Seckford Almshouses last Tuesday. The residents were entertained in great style. After the previous visit last summer the residents had asked Mr Shepherd if the band could play some music by Glenn Miller and the band obliged with three numbers by the great Swing band leader of the 30s and 40s who disappeared in mysterious circumstances in a presumed air crash over the Atlantic during the second world war. This culminated in a performance of his greatest hit “Moonlight serenade” with Josh Cole starring on the clarinet solo part. The band also played later music by Dizzy Gillespie and the theme track from the 60s cartoon of Spiderman.

Former student Justin Tan had just achieved another remarkable feat, finishing tied for fourth (fifth on tie break) in the World Under 18 championships in Porto Carras, Greece. His last round win over second seed Grandmaster Kiril Aleeksenko from Russia (who finished with the Silver medal despite the defeat) secured him a podium placing in a gruelling tournament that lasted nearly two weeks. Justin finished with 8 points from 11 games.

On Monday, the children at The Abbey came back to school to find a mysterious object had landed in the grounds. Shrouded in mist, it was all very dramatic! Mr Brett explained to the children in assembly that there had been a disturbance in the night and some people had seen bright lights and heard a strange humming sound. Whatever it was had landed in the grounds of the school and the visitors had vanished, leaving just a few clues.

The children got a chance to investigate and have a good look at the site, then they were asked to write the story of what they thought had happened. The government were investigating the landing, but were a bit stumped and wanted the children’s ideas. And they had lots of ideas! Some told of aliens having to leave their imploding planet in a terrible rush and choosing Earth as a place to seek refuge; some described aliens searching the galaxies for other life forms and finally finding us here on Earth; some believed that the aliens were here to teach us about looking after our planet; and some described aliens burrowing beneath the grounds of The Abbey, building an underground city.

It was such a fun day and one that the children will certainly remember.

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our Assistant Director of Music, John Stafford.

John was an incredibly talented musician and teacher with a wonderful, subversive sense of humour. His work with our students, particularly as an accompanist, was of the highest order and invariably helped them to give of their best in very stressful situations, often inspiring them to excel well beyond their own expectations. There can have been few better than John able to perform the most complex music, often at very short notice, with such amazing skill and authority.

John passed away peacefully on Wednesday 28 October.  His sparkle around the music department, his warmth, his friendship, and his complete commitment to others will be sorely missed by us all.

Our riders had a full day today at ‘The Jays’ in Bury St Edmunds,  competing in the Schools Arena Eventing.

We achieved fantastic results at all levels, with 4 out of the 6 classes being won by Woodbridge individuals, and two team wins. All in all everyone did very well. The course consisted of 16 fences, very twisty with several very narrow fences and a difficult corner. A challenge well handled by the Woodbridge riders!

Full results-

50cm – 1st Olivia Lubbock, 3rd Oliver Reid
Woodbridge School team of Olivia Lubbock, Ada Marson & Oliver Reid WON

60cm– 1st Ada Marson, 2nd Olivia Lubbock, 3rd Oliver Reid.

Woodbridge School Team of Ada, Olivia, Oliver and Olivia Brown WON

70cm – 1st Olivia Lubbock

Team of Ada, Olivia, Olivia Brown were 3rd

80cm-No individual placings but

Team of Ada, Olivia & Olivia Brown were 5th

They were the youngest team by far competing at this level.

1m  – 1st Tessa Lye, 5th & 6th Rowena Wilson-Smith

Harriet has been selected for the England Women’s Under-15 Training Camp taking place at Loughborough University at the end of October.

The 14-year-old midfielder is one of 24 players from across the country invited to attend the five-day training camp and will rub shoulders with players from Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Manchester United and Sunderland Ladies.

Harriet, who plays for Woodbridge Town Boys at Under-14 level, said she was delighted to receive an email from the FA informing her of her selection.

“I was shocked but really happy when I found out. I am really excited about joining up with the squad and will just see what happens.

“Playing for England has always been at the back of my mind, but this has happened quite suddenly,” she said.

Woodbridge School’s Director of Sport Ian Simpson said that Harriet is a talented all-round sports woman. He said: “It’s an incredible achievement for Harriet to be selected for the squad.

“She is a very dedicated pupil involved in lots of multi-sports, training two to three times a morning doing strength and conditioning. Harriet’s hard work has paid off which is great to see.”

Suffolk FA Girls’ & Women’s Football Development Officer Paige Shorten said: “Congratulations to Harriet on being selected for the England U15 Camp. It’s a great achievement for Harriet, Suffolk FA ACC staff, Woodbridge Town Boys and Woodbridge School.

“For this season we have been licensed to run the Advanced Coaching Centre which allows players to be involved in the FA Girls England Talent Pathway, as a result of this the East Region can support players like Harriet to play in mixed football but also be selected for the Regional Excellence Camp and even better the England Under-15 Camp.”