Admissions Newsletter: Sports News

St Paul’s 1st XI Football Team Makes History

The 1st XI started their season away at Sevenoaks in the prestigious ISFA Boodles Cup.

This is only the second year that the school has entered the competition, which has traditionally been targeted at schools that complete two terms of football, meaning the standard of competition is extremely high.

St Paul’s adapted well to the wet and windy conditions, showing good levels of patience, keeping the ball on the floor and dominating the possession statistics.

There were a flurry of chances before Aris Alexandridis found the back of the net following an excellent first touch with his back to goal.

Kyan Mentesh scored a direct freekick, beating the keeper from further than 30 yards and Thomas Evans Alcantara continued his fine form from last season to open his account, taking the score to 3-0 as the first half came to an end.

Sevenoaks clearly had a good half-time tactical conversation, coming out in the second half with far more creativity and positivity, changing the momentum of the game.

St Paul’s soaked up an extended period of pressure, conceding two goals, but the team rallied together and showed resilience and determination creating two further chances for Evans Alcantara who scored both and finished the game with a well-deserved hat trick – the final score 5-2.

St Paul’s Crowned Men’s Youth Eights Winners at Head of the Charles

The St Paul’s Rowing 1st VIII won the Men’s Youth Eights event at the Head of the Charles Regatta in October.

St Paul’s had two crews racing at the world’s biggest rowing regatta, with both crews training out of Boston for the last week. They were cheered on by a mixture of parents, staff, governors and many Old Paulines who were in town to race and spectate.

The 1st VIII started 74th in the Youth Eights division, overtaking spectacularly and managing themselves extremely well to claim first place. They won by more than 20 seconds – an impressive time and one that would have also won them the Men’s Collegiate Eights division.

SPS has won the event only once before, and by a smaller margin of 11 seconds, in 2017 at the opening of what went on to become the school’s best-ever season.

The coxed four, comprising rowers from the 2nd VIII, also had a low starting point at 65th in the Youth Fours event, but had a strong race to finish 22nd out of 90 boats.

It’s the first time the school has visited Boston for the race since 2019. At that event, the eight finished 2nd and the four 32nd.

1st VIII, coached by Bobby Thatcher

• Sam (Bow)
• Christian (2)
• Kynan (3)
• Alec (4)
• Alp (5)
• Pat (6)
• Felix (7)
• Philip (Stroke)
• Victor (Cox)

2nd IV, coached by Charles Bourne

• Maurits (Cox)
• Fintan (Bow)
• Rohan (2)
• Arthur (3)
• Milon (Stroke)

Our win has been shared across the rowing community including features in Row2k and British Rowing.

And in Other Rowing News…

Wallingford Long Distance Sculls

In September, the J16 and senior squads raced at Wallingford Long Distance Sculls – the first race of the season for these athletes. The crew of Ivan (Lower Eighth), Nathan (Upper Eighth), Rohan (Upper Eighth) and steersman Ben (Upper Eighth) won the open quads category and Jonathan (Sixth Form) won the J16 singles event.

Scullers Head

In October, 13 Paulines raced in the Scullers Head. Ten of them managed the incredible feat of finishing in the top 100 of the 544 entrants. St Paul’s claimed three of the top five spots in the J17 category, which was won by Alp (Lower Eighth), and three of the top four spots in the J18 category, which was won by Philip (Upper Eighth). Philip’s time placed him 8th overall in the race, beaten only by senior men in the Championship category.

Reading Small Boats Head

Also in October, five quads from the J15 group completed their first race of the season at Reading Small Boats Head. The crew of Ettore Bresciani, Paul Turner, Hugo Tuil, Edward Ludgate and Victor Mizzoni Schmidt won the J15 quads event overall.  St Paul’s also won both the band 2 and band 3 sub-categories of the event.

Pairs Head

Fifteen pairs and doubles from the senior and J16 squads raced at the Pairs Head in October. There was more Tideway success for the group that did well at the Scullers Head – Felix and Alec won the J18 pairs category by two seconds from Alp and Pat in a category in which SPS took positions 1st to 7th, 9th and 10th. Sam and Philip finished 2nd in the open championship pairs event, though they were only the third-fastest SPS boat on the day.  These three pairs were the 1st, 2nd and 4th fastest sweep crews from any category in the event beating many university and men’s senior crews.  Elsewhere, there was also a 3rd place finish for Wilder and Jonathan in the J16 doubles category.

St Paul’s Celebrates Rugby Bicentenary

SPS hosted a week of celebrations in October to mark the Rugby Bicentenary. We welcomed guest speakers to talk about their experience in the game, as well as the history of SPS Rugby and our involvement in the sport’s founding.

The highlight of the week was a trial of the ‘3rd Game’ for SPS U15s and invited schools, including RGS Guildford, Tonbridge School, KCS Wimbledon and Hampton School. Developed by former Director of Sport/Rugby, Glenn Harrison as part of his sabbatical research in conjunction with the RFU, the ‘3rd Game’ is designed to improve skill, awareness of space and enjoyment of a fast-moving game with fewer collisions. The festival was organised, refereed, filmed and analysed by the RFU with the view to potentially trial a larger-scale event in the new year and the hope to make the game safer in the long term.

The week also included bicentennial matches with Rugby School for our U16A, U15A and U14A teams. The results are below:

U14 A Team: 26 – 38

After a long bus journey, the boys were happy to be in the place where it all started for Rugby Union. After a slow start, the team fought back valiantly to go into half-time 14-5 down. The half-time talk did the business as the players came out with new vigour, scoring just after the break putting the pressure on our Rugby School opponents. A brace from Shorta, Luke and Zac put the team three scores ahead, with no way back for  Rugby School.

U15 A Team: 32 – 28

The U15AXV were privileged to play in a superb, free-flowing game on the Close at Rugby – they were well aware that they were playing on the exact ground where Web Ellis first picked up the football and started the magnificent game. The occasion and history inspired the boys to play brilliantly and claw back from 21-7 down at half-time to edge ahead 28-25 with two minutes to play. Whilst it was hard for them to lose on the last play, it will certainly live in the boys’ memory as a fantastic day, a great performance and one that they can be very proud about. Well done to the whole team for their collective effort and to Leon Cool, Noah Malley (2) and Labeeb Shikder for scoring excellent tries and Arthur Whitaker for converting all of them.

U16A Team: 33 – 27

The U16A team were fortunate enough to play in a thrilling encounter on the 1st XV pitch at Rugby School. The boys reminded themselves that this opportunity only happens once every 100 years due to the centenary, providing plenty of motivation to perform. St Paul’s led for a large proportion of the game, but ill discipline allowed Rugby to stay in touching distance of the lead and were efficient at turning pressure into points. Despite scoring some excellent team tries, the powerful midfield of Rugby proved to be too strong and St Paul’s lost a frustrating match. I am sure, however, that there were memories made to last a lifetime.

Exceptional Season for Fourth Form Cricketers

New Fourth Formers, Ishaan, Yash and Ranvir, are all key members of the Ealing Cricket Club U13 team and had an exceptional season, winning the Middlesex County Cup, League Cup and the National Final at Lord’s (by 1 wicket) in September.

This makes them the ECB U13 National Champions and augurs well for St Paul’s cricket next season.

Cyprus National Team Selection

Andreas (Upper Eighth) was selected to play for the Cyprus National Rugby Team against Malta in November. He was invited to attend pre-season training with the team in Manchester in August and played in a friendly match. He then flew out in early November for a training session and the Captain’s run before making his International debut.

Swimming Success

Anderson Daffey (Sixth Form) and Rufus Poole (Sixth Form) represented SPS at the London Regional Winter Championship 2023 held at the Aquatics Centre in Stratford in November.

Anderson achieved a remarkable feat by qualifying for the open final in the 100m Breaststroke and improving his personal best by one second. Rufus also put on an impressive performance, particularly in the 1500m freestyle, where he shaved three seconds off his personal best.

More recently, Rufus secured qualification for the Scottish Nationals in the 1500m freestyle, while Anderson earned a spot in the English Winter Nationals for the 200m breaststroke event. Nationals will take place in December.

Incredible Display of Chess Talent

St Paul’s secured a spot in the top 15 out of a total of 56 secondary schools at this term’s Chess Rapidplay competition held at Eton College

We promptly defeated Sir William Borlase in our opening round, sweeping them 6 to 0. The next two rounds against Reading School and Westminster Under School were tough and gruelling but thanks to Liam (Fifth Form) and Zach (Lower Eighth), we managed to score 3-3 in both rounds.

The toughest round we faced was against Highgate School, when we suffered a devastating loss after three rounds, 4-2. Ryan (Lower Eighth), who was playing for SPS for the first time and in his first team event, won his match, while Liam and Richard (Fifth Form) were able to draw theirs. In the last round, we knew it wouldn’t be an easy match because our opponent was Brentwood School, whose coach was IM Richard Pert (Ryan also got him to autograph his book that he wrote!). Liam was able to draw his game against Max Pert, one of the strongest players in the tournament, and we ultimately won with a score of 4.5 to 1.5.

The highlight of the day was Zach’s victory over Westminster Under, who used a clever tactic to achieve checkmate by sacrificing his knight and rook. Throughout the tournament, the captain Vedaant (Lower Eighth) also showed his outstanding leadership.

Congratulations also goes to Liam Clery-Luta (Fifth Form) for winning the Under 18 South of England Chess Championship. An amazing accomplishment, especially considering he is three years younger than many of his competitors.

Impressive Efforts at Cross Country Regional Finals

After a successful first round at Harrow in September, the SPS Senior team of Benjy Street (Lower Eighth), Max Bishop (Upper Eighth), Thomas Homes (Upper Eighth), Sai Bhatia (Lower Eighth), Amaan Mathur (Lower Eighth) and Hamish Chapple (Upper Eighth) travelled to St Alban’s in November for the English Schools Cross Country Regional Finals.

A demanding course (3.5 laps, 5.8km) but beautiful clear skies awaited and the team performed very well with especially fine performances by Benjy (2nd) and Max (7th) out of a field of 82 competitors.

Among some of the best running talent in the southeast, the team came a close 6th overall, narrowly missing out on qualifying for the National Finals with only the top two teams going through. Nonetheless an impressive performance especially given it is the first time the school has competed in cross country at this level of the competition.

First Fives Fixture of the Season Brings a Mixed Bag of Results

SPS’s first fixture of the season took place in November against a strong squad from Alleyn’s School. U16’s Freddie Hammond Giles, Josh Ferro, Tom Ritchie and Elyas Efthimiou narrowly lost 96 to 85 points against Alleyn’s U17/18 1st IV. In the singles, Freddie scored a very convincing 11-1 victory against their top seed, and in the doubles, he and Josh were unbeaten, with consistently intelligent and powerful hitting.

In the second team—comprised of Eighth Form players Luke Taor, Rahul Vashisht-Pigem, Zach Magne, Euan Lim, and Toby Williams—the margin was even tighter and lost by an even narrower margin, 89 to 83 points, with Rahul, Zach and Euan playing with impressive skill and maturity, despite this being their first time representing the school.

National Schools Squash Competition

The U16s squash team, including Tolga Mardin (Sixth Form), Zubin Maudgil (Sixth Form), Anish Dhar (Fifth Form), Ishaan Moorthy (Sixth Form), and Nikash Younis (Fifth Form) successfully advanced to round two of the National Schools Squash Competition recently.

Their victories over Eton, Trinity, and Simon Langton Grammar secured their spot. The upcoming round two, scheduled for the New Year, presents an opportunity for them to qualify for a place in the National Finals.