Sports Round-up

Swimming 

Well done to Anderson Daffey (Sixth Form) who represented SPS Aquatics in the Winchester open meet where he won two gold medals and one silver. He also qualified for the Winter Regional Swimming Championships in five events.

Rugby Report 

Congratulations to all the Senior and U14 SPS Rugby teams who finished the half term Saturday rugby block fixtures with wins at home against RGS Guildford last week, absolutely fantastic set of results all around. It was another nerve-jangling afternoon on Big Side and when RGS Guilford scored with eight minutes to go to put them 8-7 ahead, it looked like the 1st XV were going to lose yet another game by a single point. However, they dug deep and worked the ball upfield and scored to give them a very well-deserved victory by 12 – 8. Both the 2nd XV and 3rd XV also came away with hard-fought wins, and with the 2nd XV game going deep into injury time, the team were given a huge boost as all the players and supporters from the 1st and 3rd XV games came to cheer them on and vocally carry them over the line to victory.

The U14 teams all got back to winning ways which was great to see after a difficult block of games the previous week at Radley. They really have had a fantastic first half term of rugby and we look forward to seeing them carry on in the same vein of form post half term.

Away at RGS Guildford both the U16A and U15A teams went down in both games to two very good RGS Guilford sides but our boys will learn from these two defeats and will have another opportunity at Rugby School on Tuesday to try and put things right. Congratulations to the U16B team who, like the 1st XV have suffered some very close defeats and were in much need of a victory to boost morale going into half-term and they got just that, so very well done to all involved. Well done also to the U15B’s who managed a very good away win and commiserations to the U15C’s who sadly went down in quite a high-scoring game.

As always, I would like to thank Dr Fuds Uddin, Nico Kirschstein-Smith, Ryan Blake, the nurses, and HATS Medical for their outstanding professional care, as well as Adam O’Higgins, Dene Hey and the grounds staff for their tireless efforts in ensuring the pitches were ready for all matches taking place on Saturday.

Report written by Andy Maguire, Head of Rugby

Rowing 

Reading Small Boats Head, Saturday 7 October

Five quads from the J15 group had their first race of the season at Reading Small Boats Head on Saturday. 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, Sunday 8 October

Fifteen pairs and doubles from the senior and J16 squads raced at the Pairs Head on Sunday.  There was more Tideway success for the group that did well at the Scullers head a fortnight ago – Felix Peerless and Alec Wild won the J18 pairs category by two seconds from Alp Karadogan and Pat Wild in a category in which SPS took positions 1st to 7th, 9th and 10th.  Sam Fowlie and Philip Wolfensberger 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 Daffey and Jonathan Miles in the J16 doubles category.

Chess

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

Rackets 

Please see below for the results from the fixture at Harrow School.

1^st Pair… D. Pandey/N. Alizadeh (Upper Eighth) WON 3-0…. (15/1, 15/3, 17/14)

2^nd Pair.. Y. Chahal/J. Wilson (Upper Eighth) Lost 1-3… (4/15, 15/4, 7/15, 6/15)

Colts (a)… G. Ashton/S. Poddar (Sixth Form) WON 3-0… (15/7, 15/8, 15/6)

Colts (b)… S. Marchand/H. Dattani (Sixth Form) WON 3-1…(14/17, 15/9, 15/1, 15/10)

J/Colts (a)… E. Traissac/A. Dhar  (Fifth Form) lost 0-3…(1/15, 7/15, 3/15)

J/Colts (b)… E. De-Rosa/E. Traissac (Fifth Form)WON 3-0… (15/3, 15/1, 15/7)