St Paul’s Athletes Shine Across Multiple Sports

St Paul’s athletes gave impressive performances across multiple sports, securing success in squash, rackets, rugby, cross country, fives, and football.

Squash

On Tuesday 18 March, six pupils took part in the RAC Doubles squash competition against Epsom, Harrow, Winchester and Charterhouse. This is a great competition where the boys could take part in competitive doubles squash and it was really impressive to see the high standard of squash on offer. The doubles pairs were:

1st seed – Zubin & Aryan
2nd seed – Anish & Edouard
3rd seed – Nik & Ariv

They finished third in the tournament after beating Winchester and Charterhouse, and losing to Epsom and only narrowly to Harrow. It was a wonderful evening of doubles squash and well done to all those involved.

Rackets

SPS rackets players enjoyed success in their mixed pairings fixture against Charterhouse last week.

The 1st Pair, Hari Dattani (4th Pair) and Anish Dhar (U-16), secured a hard-fought 3-2 victory (15/6, 6/15, 13/16, 15/3, 15/8).

In the 2nd Pair match, Edouard Traissac (6th) and Alexei Fletcher (5th) dominated with a commanding 3-0 win (15/0, 15/0, 15/5).

Vivaan Sharma (U-15B) and Haofei Du (U-15C) also triumphed comfortably, winning 3-0 (15/5, 15/5, 15/6).

Rugby Sevens

Worth School U18 Sevens

With the Rosslyn Park National Sevens approaching, the SPS U18 Sevens team travelled to Worth School for their annual U18 and U16 Sevens Tournaments.

In the group stages, our U18s were drawn against Gordon’s School, Brighton College 2nd VII, and Cardinal Newman School. The team started strongly, displaying promising play in both attack and defence. They secured convincing victories in their first two matches, defeating Gordon’s 45-5 and Brighton College 2nd VII 29-12.

The final group game against Cardinal Newman was a decider, with the winner advancing to the Cup Competition. It was a closely-contested match, coming down to the final play. After scoring to take the lead, a restart error awarded Cardinal Newman a free kick from halfway. Unfortunately, we couldn’t prevent them from scoring, resulting in a narrow 22-19 loss.

The defeat placed us in the Plate competition, but the team struggled to recover from the disappointment, falling to a strong Dunottar side and St Benedict’s School. Despite the setbacks, it was a valuable day of Sevens, and we now turn our focus to the U18 Surrey Sevens at Richmond RFC on Wednesday.

Congratulations to all the players for their efforts throughout a long day of seven-a-side rugby!

Worth U16 Sevens

The U16 Sevens squad competed in a round-robin tournament, playing six matches. They started strongly with a 26-7 win over Gordon’s School, followed by an open and fluid match against Lord Wandsworth College, which they won 29-12. Their most dominant performance of the day came against New Hall School, securing a commanding 54-0 victory.

Next, they faced Seaford College, delivering an outstanding defensive display to win 33-7, before brushing aside Tonbridge School 31-14 in the semi-final.

In the final against Brighton College, the match ended 19-19 after 14 minutes, taking it to golden point. Unfortunately, Brighton regained possession from the kickoff and scored the decisive try to win the tournament. Despite the narrow defeat, the squad gained valuable experience.

St Paul’s scored an impressive 192 points across six matches, while conceding just 64. Well done to everyone involved!

Cross Country

ESAA Cross Country Championship (Nationals) – 16 March, Ardingly, W. Sussex

Congratulations to the SPS cohort who competed for Middlesex in Sunday’s national competition. Leau Roch (Fifth Form) placed 134th in the Inter Boys category, while Shunsei Kwan (Fourth) finished 173rd in Junior Boys — both impressive performances at the highest level of competition.

However, the standout result was Charlie Nicolson (Fourth Form), who placed 8th in Junior Boys, earning qualification to represent England in their upcoming match against Scotland. This marks his first national vest—and possibly the first for the school in Cross Country — a fantastic achievement! He completed the 2.8km course in 8:41.

Unfortunately, Cross Country Captain Benjy Street (Upper Eighth) was unable to compete due to a calf injury. However, with four boys qualifying, this was the school’s best participation in this national event in years — possibly ever — and a great way to cap off a successful Cross Country season. Well done to all 20 runners who represented the school this season!

Inter-Counties Cross Country Championship – Saturday 9 March 9 Nottingham

Well done to Leau Roch for finishing 29th out of 311 runners at the UK Inter-Counties final in Nottingham last Saturday. Representing Surrey, he was the 4th scoring runner and helped Surrey secure the Championship title.

Fives

Winchester Fixture – March 13

The SPS 1st IV seniors (Freddie Hammond Giles, Tom Ritchie, Josh Ferro, and Elyas Efthimiou – all Lower Eighth) and top two U16s (Nadim Cortas and Zen Okada – both Sixth Form) travelled to Winchester for a hybrid Rugby Fives (singles) and Winchester Fives (doubles) fixture.

The transition to Winchester doubles — played with a buttress on the left wall that significantly impacts court positioning and tactics — along with the glass back wall on Winchester’s new Rugby Fives courts, posed major challenges. Victory was always going to be difficult, and the team ultimately lost 109-161. However, there were notable wins for Freddie in the singles and for Nadim and Zen against their opposite pair in the doubles.

Football

SPS vs Hampton – Block Fixture, Saturday, March 15

The 1st XI started strong with a first-half hat-trick from Moyo Lawani (Upper Eighth), but they were unable to maintain their momentum and finished with a 3-3 draw. The 2nd XI also took an early two-goal lead but had to dig deep for a hard-fought 4-3 win. The 3rd XI were in terrific form, racing to a 6-0 victory, aided by an Alex Toledano (Upper Eighth) hat-trick.

The U16A put in a disciplined defensive performance against tough opposition, holding on for a 1-1 draw in one of their best displays of the season. The U16B had a more comfortable outing, securing a 6-0 away win.

The U15A were level at 1-1 with five minutes remaining, but a hat-trick from Andrey Serebryakov (Fifth Form) sealed a 5-1 victory. The U15B showed improved form with a 3-2 win, but the U15C couldn’t complete the clean sweep, falling 0-1.

The U14A almost mounted a heroic comeback after trailing 3-0, creating several late chances, but the opposition goalkeeper held firm, and the match ended 2-3. The U14B lost 2-1, while the U14C and U14D both drew their matches.

Final block results: St Paul’s won 5, drew 4, and lost 3.