Welcome back to Lent term Sport at Pilgrims’. Everyone seems to have come back in good spirits despite the dark mornings and early sunsets. If we could only shrug off this perpetual rain... there's only so much saturation our pitches can take before we’ll need to swim across them!
Some Pilgrims’ holiday exploits have reached me:
At the Christmas Show Jumping at GW Equine in Liss, Sam H in Year7 and Blue, with their partner Ella on Daisy, came second in both the Mini-Major Pairs and the Open Pairs classes. This was a huge achievement on an absolutely soaking day. Well done Blue and Sam!
Sam and Blue, and Ella and Daisy
Sebastian N in Year 8 finished 7th in the Hampshire Athletics Association County Championships and has therefore been selected to represent Hampshire at the Inter Counties National Cross Country Finals at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough. This is a huge achievement especially given he is a year young, and he has one eye on the English Schools National Finals in Nottingham. Later this month he will be competing in the Hampshire School's County Championships. We wish him continuing luck and congratulate him on his achievements so far!
Under 14 and Under 11 National fencing hopefuls from Pilgrims!
David L (Y6)
I started fencing when I was five years old and from the beginning, I enjoyed watching the sport on television and learning lots of new moves. I taught myself until I was six when the town in China where I lived, thought that I was good enough for training. I learnt a lot but when I came to England I found that coaching styles were very different, so I enjoy my Hampshire training very much. I have now competed in several competitions and my coach has helped me understand how to improve. Just like Bertie I am moving up through the rankings and I won a bronze medal recently, of which I am very proud.
Bertie C (Y7)
I started fencing when I was six years old, at a school club, and after a while, I decided to move to a bigger club in Winchester because I wanted to learn better techniques. After a year I competed in my first competition, the Hampshire County Championships, where I won gold. Soon after that I moved to the Southern County Championships and have been placed high in the rankings. Not only that, but I have also won another gold! I am excited about future competitions and both David and I will complete at the Southern Region Qualifiers at the end of February.
Coming up on Saturday, we have rugby matches with Elstree. All U13 (Year 8) and U12 (Year 7) contact rugby players will be selected. Two Colts teams (Year 6) travel away and all Foals will be at home.
The U13 hockey teams are away at PGS at their Hilsea playing fields.
Under 9s (Year 4) will be available for collection from 1415 after a Games session.
U13/U12/Colts Touch Rugby, Colts (Year 6) Rugby not in the match will be available from 1530 after a Games session.
This brings me to outlining our approach to fixtures this term across the age groups:
U13 rugby has one squad of about 16 players. All players will be selected for each fixture, although there will be competition for places for the 7s competitions – Bryanston and Boundary Oak, and we await confirmation of our place at the prestigious Rosslyn Park 7s at the end of term. I will be guiding this group of players through the season.
U13 hockey typically plays across two teams of seven. With 15 players, again, each player will be selected for fixtures. On Fridays, their Games practices take place on the Bar End astro-turf and are under the care of Messrs Armstrong and Darlow.
U12 rugby has two squads. Most of the fixtures caters to both and all players in our 30-man playing group will be picked for either side. Like the U13s, there will be competition for places at 7s tournaments at Bryanston and Boundary Oak. Our sporty Science bods, Messrs Cleaver and Orr lead this group.
Mr Buck takes a senior touch rugby group open to players across Years 6, 7 and 8. All schools are looking at how many touch players they have and touch fixtures will be arranged with schools as the picture clears.
At Colts and Foals, we continue our commitment of playing every pupil for home fixtures. Safely applying this principle is not as straight forward as in the football season. For example, the plan for the Foals has adapted following Games sessions today. With Elstree, we are going to play A v A and have a selected B and C in a triangular with their B team. We then have two teams of developing players with which we will run a structured coached game alongside the fixture, with adaptations as necessary.
Both groups have plenty of opportunities. The Colts will all be involved on Wednesday 18 January v Thorngrove, Saturday 21 January v Horris Hill, Wednesday 25 January when we play against Ludgrove or Stroud with both schools visiting, Wednesday 1 February v Westbourne, Wednesday 22 February v Papplewick, Wednesday 1st March v Farleigh, Wednesday 8 March v Cheam, Wednesday 15 March v Cothill, Wednesday 22 March v Prince’s Mead. Again, there are 7s tournaments at Boundary Oak and an inaugural Rosslyn Park 7s tournament for which I await confirmation, both of which will be a selected team. The Colts have a coaching team of Mr Bryant, Mr Cuyler, and Mr Gough, and are supported in Games sessions by Mr Greenwood.
Amongst the Foals fixtures, they will all be involved on Saturday, then Wednesday 18 January v Thorngrove, Wednesday 25 January when we play against Ludgrove or Stroud with both schools visiting, Saturday 4 February v Farleigh, Saturday 25 February v Twyford and Saturday 15 March v Cothill (away). There is a further opportunity for the developing end of the year group in our fixture with Horris Hill where we are currently scheduled to field our Foals C and D teams. The Boundary Oak tournament will feature a selected A team. The Foals coaching team consists of Mr Greenwood, Mr Halliday, Mr Rainer and Mr Power with support from Mr Lingard when his U9 schedule allows.
U9 and U8 fixtures take place on differing weekdays with the odd Wednesday/Saturday for the U9s against the more traditional schools. All pupils will be selected for every fixture. There is one exception, when both year groups are in the Boundary Oak tournaments for which we will select A teams. Mr Buck and Mr Lingard manage the U9s whilst I take the U8s. On match days, we have a raft of help from staff previously named.
We use our Games kit for matches. I will ask boarders to put their kit to the laundry on Tuesdays and Fridays before matches, if day boys could please take theirs home to be laundered too that would be helpful – many thanks.
We also welcome our new Gap assistants: Miss Duggan, Mr Gough, Mr Guild and Miss Skeels.
In addition to the main focus of the term, there are also cross-country, swimming and water polo opportunities and Inter-Set Touch Rugby is scheduled for Saturday 18 March from Year 4 and up.
I remain open to further playing opportunities, such as our busy school scheduling allows and in the coming days will contact our local neighbouring schools who may find they are struggling for fixtures for their less able players, to see if we can create some match ups.
I look forward to seeing you on the touchline.
Andrew Short
Director of Sport