Sports News – 2 October 2024

It was a busy and successful week for St Paul’s athletes, with standout performances in golf, cross-country and rackets.

Golf

Last weekend, Shiv Ahluwalia (Sixth Form) delivered an impressive performance at the Hampstead Golf Club Championship 2024, finishing third in a highly competitive field. Tied for second place after the first 18 holes with a solid score of 78, he made the cut and went on to place third overall after the second round. Competing in a scratch tournament with no handicap allowances and against golfers of all ages, Shiv held his own, with the tournament ultimately won by a plus 2 handicapper: a remarkable achievement in a tough field!

Cross Country

ESAA Cross Country Cup 2024

The first fixture of the season took place at Harrow on Thursday 26 September: the first round of the England Schools Athletic Association (ESAA) Cross-Country Cup. There were standout performances by SPS runners in both the Intermediate Boys (Fourth/Fifth) and Senior Boys (Sixth to Upper Eighth) races.

In the Inters, Charlie Nicolson (Fourth Form) came in second place and Leau Roch (Fifth Form) third from a field of 64 from 11 schools. Cyrus Sheikh (Fourth Form) came 11th, Alfred Chen (Fifth Form) 14th and Laith Mason (Fourth Form) 29th, meaning all five St Paul’s runners were in the top half. St Paul’s as a school came second, narrowly pipped by Grey Court, and qualified for the Regionals round on 7 November (venue TBC).

In the Seniors, Cross Country Co-Captain Benjy Street (Upper Eighth) literally led from the front, winning the race with a storming 16.45 for 5K on a wet and hilly course (and was relaxed enough to have a chat with a couple of his closest rivals as he ran round!). Sai Bhatia (Upper Eighth) came 14th and Amaan Mathur (Upper Eighth) 18th, both impressive sprint finishes to overtake competitors in the final stretch. Alex Khosrowpanah-Falcone (Lower Eighth) came 26th in his first run for the school and Jacob Lee (Upper Eighth) rounded off the team with 39th. The St Paul’s team pipped Grey Court by one point to come 3rd out of 8 teams, thanks to the quality finishing, but it looks like it wasn’t enough to qualify for the Regionals. Congratulations to all the runners for their fine performances in some pretty wet conditions!

Rackets

SPS v Radley – (Away)

Eighth Form

The Rackets players were busy last week with an away fixture at Radley on Thursday 26 September where Konstantin Vujnovic and Shlok Poddar (both Lower Eighth) came crashing to the ground with a heavy 0-3 (0/15, 7/15, 4/15) loss as 1st Pair. After a very long 2-hour journey and a rapid 5-minute knock-up, both boys were dazed at the efficiency of Radley’s start and lost the 1st game 0/15. Fortunately, they did find themselves soon after but it was a tough afternoon for them.

Sixth Form

U-16 Pair, Edouard Traissac and Anish Dhar had 45 minutes to adjust after the 53-seater coach ride and, although the score-line doesn’t necessarily reflect it, they were able to produce a reasonable performance against last year’s U-15 National winner, losing 0-3 (7/15, 9/15, 2/15)

Fifth Form

Fortunately, the St Paul’s U-15 Pair, Alexei Fletcher and Vivaan Sharma, restored some sense of normality to our identity as perpetual winners as they won comfortably 3-0 (15/2, 15/2, 15/2).

North American Rackets Touring Team – (home)

On Friday 27 September, SPS hosted an adult North American Rackets Touring Team, which resulted in many great games and lots of fun. Alexei Fletcher and Aiden Ahmad (both Fifth Form) played first and set the tone with a comfortable win 2-0.

Adam Zimmerman (Upper Eighth) also won his match 2-0, Hari Dattani (Lower Eighth) and Ed Traissac (Sixth Form) won 2-0, Alex Hogben (Upper Eighth) and Sachin Marchand (Lower Eighth) made it 4 wins from 4 matches by winning 21/15. Well done to all players.

SPS vs Harrow

Playing his first fixture this season and experiencing his first-ever loss (2-3), National U-16 Singles and Doubles Champion, Aryan Sankaye (Lower Eighth) partnered with Konstantin Vujnovic (Lower Eighth) as 1st pair yesterday. They had an exciting & thrilling encounter with Harrow in front of a rowdy gallery. At 1-0 down and 10/0 down, it seemed the boys were limping away, until Aryan led a successful rear-guard action and hushed the gallery while serving a run of 12 points that galvanised our efforts to win that game 15/10. We then pushed ahead to lead 2-1, only for Harrow to tie at 2 games all, taking us to a 5th & final game…which with home court advantage, Harrow won 15/9.

Alex Hogben (Upper Eighth) and Hari Dattani (Lower Eighth) also had an amazing battle at 2nd Pair, with Hari excelling tremendously to help us win 3-1. Having won the first two games quite comfortably, Alex and Hari could sense Harrow’s improvement, which was evident in winning the third game; however, Alex and Hari stamped their authority on the 4th game to come away with a fine away win.

Anish Dhar and Edouard Traissac (both Sixth Form) also had an excellent result, turning last year’s U-15 loss around by winning 3-1 (1/15, 17/14, 15/7, 15/8). After a nervy 1/15 first game, and a too close for comfort second game 17/14, the pair settled and won the next two 15/7, 15/8, and thus winning 3-1.

As St Paul’s U-15a Pair, Alexei Fletcher and Vivaan Sharma (both Fifth Form) had the somewhat difficult task of competing against world U-18 Real Tennis Champion and his very capable partner, which they did outstandingly, particularly in the first game where they not just thoroughly deserved to earn 11 points, they matched Harrow in long rallies. However, in the second game, Harrow started to settle on their home court and with a quick third game against, the boys went down 0-3 (11/15, 5/15, 0/15)

Cousins Aiden & Rayaan Ahmad (both Fifth Form) found the going far more straight forward than the other pairs, as they strolled to a wonderful 3-0 win. With accurate and decisive serving, they won 15/8, 15/2, 15/1.

St Paul’s U-15c Pair, Rohaan Kapur and Haofei Du (both Fifth Form) also had an outstanding match in only their second fixture, winning 3-1. Again, though understandably, after a shaky start away from home they narrowly lost the first game 14/17, but rallied immediately after, winning the second game 15/4, then strolled the third and fourth games 15/1, 15/1.