Sports News

Cross Country

Harrow South East Schools Championships – Thursday 6 March

Congratulations to all our runners at Harrow last Thursday, including a first time representing the school for Soren Loynes (Fifth Form). There were some great runs by all, and significant placings in the Juniors 2.5K race by Fourth Formers. Shunsei Kwan placed 3rd, 1 second behind 2nd place despite a muddy fall ,and Joachim Strabo placed 7th. Well done, too, to Toby Halsall 51st and Rapha Gaudin in 67th.

In the combined Inters and Seniors 5K race, Sai Bhatia (Upper Eighth) came 7th in Seniors and Soren Loynes came 44th in Inters.

This brings the Cross Country season to an end but best of luck to those representing Middlesex in the ESAA Nationals Inter-Counties Cross Country at Ardingly on Saturday 15 March: Benjy Street (Upper Eighth) in Senior Boys, Leau Roch (Fifth) in Inter Boys, Charlie Nicolson (Fourth) and Shunsei Kwan (Fourth) in Junior Boys. We believe that four runners is our best representation in a number of years (if ever), and we still have a couple of runners in the reserves who may run depending on others’ unavailability – Joachim Strabo (Fourth), Cyrus Sheikh (Fourth) and Alfred Chen (Fifth), fingers crossed!

Fives

SPS v Winchester Mar 4

SPS fielded three pairs (all Fourth Form) at home:  Joey Hammond Giles and Thomas Outred; Jamin Agostino and Henry Brooks, and Ed O’Shea and Connor O’Flaherty.  Joey and Ed won their singles without dropping a point and Connor only conceded one, before Joey and Thomas then won their doubles 15-3, 15-1, 15-2, helping to give us a comfortable win of 198-93

SPS V Christ’s Hospital 6 Mar

The SPS team of Thomas Outred, Ed O’Shea, Noah Thomas and Leo Bauer (all Fourth Form) had another comfortable home win 88-22, without losing any of the singles or doubles games.

Freddie Hammond Giles (Lower Eighth) continued his long unbeaten run and U16s Nadim Cortas and Zen Okada (both Sixth Form) both had satisfying wins playing against U18 opposition, giving SPS an unassailable lead after the singles and a final impressive winning scoreline of 140-72

In the U15s, Joseph Roussel and Orpheus Graham Maw (both Fifth Form) lost narrowly in the singles but were on track to turn things around in the doubles, winning the first game 15-7, before one of the opposition developed a severe bruise and we ended the match.

SPS V Tonbridge Mar 8

The slightly under strength A and B IVs lost narrowly, but the C IV pair won by a large enough margin to give SPS an overall win.

Football

Block Fixture vs Dulwich College, Saturday 8 March

The seniors had some away success: a goal from Sam Francombe put the 1st XI ahead but Dulwich levelled the match with a penalty and the game finished 1-1; the 2nd XI were able to turn their 0-4 loss in February around and came away from Dulwich 2-1 winners; the 3rd XI continued their fine form at the top of the league, winning 3-0; and the 4th XI sealed a win 2-0. The 5th XI came unstuck against a strong Dulwich attack and lost 3-1, but the 6th XI were outstanding in their match with Gabriel El-Guindi contributing 5 of the goals in an  8-3 victory.

The U16 year group performed very well at home and were unbeaten against Dulwich which is testament to the hard work that they have been putting in during the past few weeks. The U16A were outstanding, winning 3-0, the U16C team won 3-1, and the U16D held strong winning  2-1. The U16B team were held to a 2-2 draw.

The U15As were injury riddled this weekend but put in a strong performance against the League leaders and really missed their attacking three players in a nail-biting 2-1 loss. The U15B team drew 1-1 in an edgy match which really could have gone either way, whilst the U15C team suffered a heavy 2-5 loss. The U15D team couldn’t find the back of the net and came away with a 0-0 draw.

The U14As were winning 1-0 at half time thanks to a first half goal from Hari Tzvetkov but the fitness of Dulwich College prevailed and St Paul’s lost 2-1. The U14B team were on great form winning 4-3 whilst the U14C team matched the B team goal scoring and won 4-2. The U14D team had a challenging time, losing 0-8.

The final block results were: St Paul’s Won 9, Drew 4 and Lost 5.

Rugby Sevens

Eton Sevens Tournament, Sunday 9 March

The U14 team had their first run out of the season in the bright sunshine and played some good rugby. The first match against Gordon’s School saw an SPS 19 -12 win, in a match where the team defended superbly well and it was a similar story in the second match against Eton B team. The team progressed to the top group of the tournament. The first match against Eton A, saw SPS scoring two great tries in quick succession. A few poor decisions allowed Eton back into the match, but SPS held on to a 19-17 win. The final against Radley College was tough and SPS showed great resilience but unfortunately lost 26-14. We look forward to a positive outing at the Reigate Grammar Seven Tournament next weekend.