Sports Report, Spring Term 2023

Girls Netball

After a fantastic season of Netball, the QMH girls’ netball teams finished as the most successful netball squads in the school, with the U13A team having a 100% success rate. The undefeated U13As had an unstoppable season achieving big wins against Duke of Kent, 33-15, and St Edmunds, 24-5. As a team, they consistently exhibited strong performances with special mentions going to Heidi Klein and Jocelyn Earl who excelled out on the courts. Supporting their success was the U13Bs. These girls consistently showed determination and progress throughout the season. Anita Mitsova and Ione McLeod influenced the games with interceptions all over the court and this paired with the support of Lily Purcell scoring the goals, they formed a great team. Undoubtably however, the team that showed the most progress throughout the season was the U12As. From pre-season training in Autumn term, to the last game of the Spring term, they have gone from strength to strength securing a 70%-win rate across the season. Special mentions go to Maisy Marsden, Emily Craggs and Sophie Mills who across the court played a big part in the team’s success. Finally in QMH, we have the U12Bs. Just like the U12As, the progress of these girls has been huge. Their understanding of the game and persistent training has meant the girls have come on leaps and bounds throughout the season. Top goal scorer in the U12Bs, Matilda Sumner, played a big part in the success of this team and, with help from Ruby Drury and Alessia Currie, the girls played some fantastic netball.

In Inters Netball we saw a record number of teams out, having four teams across 3rd and 4th form girls. Starting of with the U15A team, Amy Tadros, Jess Combes and April Klein displayed some fantastic Netball up and down the court to lead the team in their fixtures. Although the U15As had a tough season, facing some strong opponents, they showed resilience and determination in every game. The girls never gave up and continued to put maximum effort into every game. This was rewarded with a convincing win against Ryde School, 18-10 and a tight game against Farlington, 13-13. Following their lead, the U15Bs also showed great resilience and progress in their games. In defence Oona Gombera and Sophia Mahon kept the girls competing with essential interceptions and fast centre court play. Alongside these girls, having been new netball this year, Mara Costache played a vital role in helping the B team progress up the court with tight centre court play and a good special awareness on court. Like the U15Bs, our U15C and U15D teams had a fun and enjoyable season. In the C team, Yannie Li was consistently strong in defence delivering important interceptions to keep the team in the game. On the D team, many of the girls were completely new to netball at the start of year. These girls picked up the rules and were playing their first fixtures within a couple of weeks of the term starting. Jojo Masters and Mia Penkova showed great progress and helped lead the Ds in their double win against St Edmunds.

Finally, at the top end of the school we had out 1st VII and 2nd VII squads. The 1st VII had a mix of games and tournaments this season with some challenging opponents. Each game, the girls displayed fantastic netball, keeping up with fast paced opponents and holding their own. In defence, Lillie Abbott was strong and put in great blocks and interceptions to help the team. Supporting Lillie and the team was captain and most valuable player, Fleur Marren. Fleur’s work rate and skill in every game meant the girls were able to compete at a high standard and keep up with the opposition. A notable win for the 1st VII was at a visit to The Royal, where in a close fought game they came away victorious in a 23-21 win. Joining the 1st VII in training sessions was the 2nd VII girls who were able to fit in a couple of fixtures this term against Ryde and Christ’s Hospital. Yekta Mason captained this team and showed great leadership both on and off the court.

Boys Hockey

It has been great to see the KESW Boys hockey teams competing successfully with many well established hockey schools this term at both tournaments and ‘friendly’ fixtures. We have seen more boys playing hockey, therefore fielding more teams, and due to the talent and ability of the boys, more teams, competing in the higher tier tournaments at County level. This resulted in the U16 team creating KESW history and qualifying to compete at the South Central Area Finals, against schools from Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire. The U14A’s took 2nd place at the Hampshire trophy, and the U12’s, unbeaten, finished 5th at the In2 Hampshire tournament.

What a season the youngest boys have had this term. The U12A’s, playing and winning 10 games, scoring 18 goals and conceding 4. The squad has four boys at the core, Liam Stevens, Thomas Ninian and Ben Cook with Seb Groves in goal having an outstanding season. With Tommy Copping, Archie Gilmour and Elliot Joyce showing great skills, strength and game play making up the team. There have also been a further six boys coming into the squad from the B and C teams, following their strong progress over the term, many who were new to hockey on joining King Edwards in September; Tehilla Adjepong, Daniel Nott, Roqueeb Owolewa, Max Ground, Harry Vickerman and Harry Wood.

The progress shown across the 1st form boys has been incredible. They have worked incredibly hard to develop their skills and game play. They are fantastic to train each week; bringing an abundance of energy and determination to improve. Well done to everyone but in particular the super keen goal keepers, Will Rhoades, Elliot Gander, Leonidas Symeonidis, without whom there would not be a team and some outstanding performances from Temi Obadina, a goal scoring machine, Harry Goggin, Owen Batchelor and Sam Pugh for their excellent work rate on the pitch.
The U13’s have been a delight to watch and coach; they have shown a positive attitude to learning and many have developed their leadership skills in the lower teams, supporting and encouraging the U12’s within the team. We have seen some fantastic skills being demonstrated in training and matches, such as aerials from Brandon Obiozo and Harry Shelton. Joe Swift has continued to captain the A team with maturity and Arthur, Dexter and Cameron have grown in confidence, dominating the game with silky skills and great composure when required. A special mention must go to Harry Smith, who has been outstanding in goal. The future looks bright for these boys who will progress to 11 a-side next year.

This season has been a massive success for the U14A’s with a 100% record across 10 games and scoring 36 goals. Their greatest success came at the Hampshire Trophy where they narrowly missed out in the final losing 3-2 against Thornden. However, their performance across the tournament was outstanding. The introduction of Myles H halfway through the season, bolstered the squad and the teams’ confidence and performances were enhanced. The development of this team has been excellent and the way they have trained is testament to this. Notable games were against, Harrow and Reeds scoring 7 goals in each game. Will H, Bobby D, Max H, Oscar P and Will M-P have been exceptional in defence and have shown great composure. A midfield diamond of Will C, Myles H, James N and Orson W have dominated games and are constantly an attacking threat. Our interchanging front three of Tom H, Cillian S, Owen A, Syon S and Max V have listened and learnt over the weeks and their movement and positioning has caused chaos to opposition defences. It has been brilliant to field an U14B side this year who have enjoyed testing their competence against some good opposition. Notable wins have been against Alton, Lord Wandsworth and Cranmore. Jacob Kalmanovitch has been superb in goal, Seb Taylor, Oscar Miller and Harrison Flemming have worked tirelessly on the pitch, as a result goals have come easily and often.

The U15’s have had a turbulent term, with many players juggling different commitments in and out of school, therefore the team has had many changes. The U15A’s competed in the U16 Hampshire trophy at the start of the season and performed admirably against strong opposition. They finished 7th, which they were disappointed with, the team recorded three no score draws and three narrow 1-0 losses. As the term progressed, under Mr Lumley’s guidance, goal scoring was the focus. The next few games the team duly scored goals against PGS, St Edmunds and Bedales. This team also had fixtures against Harrow and Reeds, two highly reputable schools and the team produced some excellent play narrowly losing by one goal in 5 goal thrillers. Lewis Hannon captained the team with great maturity and defended with great composure and skill, Tom V and Louis V-A kept goal, alternating games; both to a high level. Callum, Pfumo and Umayer worked incredibly hard in midfield and a special mention to Barnaby J who has shown superb commitment to the team all term. There have been a number of other boys who have made excellent progress and determination throughout the term, representing the school in the U15B’s; Josh P-P; Rafi M and Callum Speight.

The U16 boys have taken KESW hockey to the next level under the captaincy of Ollie Fitch and instruction of Mr Laurent. This season they have a 70% win ratio, 28 goals being scored and 11 conceded. They won the Hampshire Cup in February beating Churchers 1-0 in the Final and qualifying for the Area final at Reading Hockey Club, where they drew 2-2 against Eton, beat Leighton Park 3-1 and St Edwards school 3-1 and just losing to Churchers 3-2 in the dying seconds from a penalty corner. A fantastic achievement from the whole squad, made up of boys from U14 age (Will Cook and Myles H); U15 (Lewis Hannon, Callum Eaglestone, Austin Clarke and Louis Vacula Ashton in goal) and U16. Goals came from Ollie, Hayden Eaglestone, Josh Cook, Callum and Austin. The defence held strong with Michael Swayne and Lewis at the heart and a special mention to Louis in goal, who consistently made some outrageous saves, keeping the team in every game. In the lead up to the tournament, the team played two very competitive matches against St Georges school, Weybridge (2-2) and an U16 teams from Guildford hockey club (4-0). The boys trained hard, and it was great to see their efforts converted to success. More exciting time ahead for them all.

Tom Clarke led the 1st XI team once again playing some good competitive matches starting off with a great win against Embley (3-2). They entered the Hampshire Cup over the trophy this year and performed admirably against strong opposition finishing 5th. They have sadly been on the receiving end of many match cancellations, but this has not deterred the team as they have continued to train weekly after school and on a Thursday afternoon. We will sadly lose many of the squad as they move on from KESW this summer, Hopefully, Tom, Jack, Tristan, Warwick, James, William B will all continue to play hockey in some form as they move into higher education and a successful career thereafter.

It has been great to offer some senior and inters mixed training again this year and have the opportunity to play some fun, friendly fixtures against Bedales and Frensham Heights. It is a great way to develop the social aspect of hockey as well as skills and teamwork.

Another aspect of hockey has been the introduction of indoor which developed individual skills, speed of play and teamwork. We had our first indoor hockey fixture, fielding two mixed ability U12 teams, against The Royal, winning all their games. We look forward to building on this success next year and will be looking to offer an indoor hockey club, starting after Easter to begin the journey.

Girls Football

Our Senior, U15 and U13 sides have had multiple fixtures this year, starting all the way back in September. This term they have continued their progression. Our U13’s narrow came second at the Belmont 5 a side competition with Jocelyn Earl the start of the team. The U15’s finished third in their event with April Klein performing excellently in goal. We even entered a B team in the same tournament, and they went on to finish just behind our A’s in 6th place. Sophie Archibold and Lily Raynor standing out for them. Both the U13 and U15’s entered the ESFA competitions for the first team. Each side lost narrowly in both games but can count themselves unlucky that several important players injured themselves and become unavailable before each match. We would, without doubt, have progressed in each competition barring these injuries. It does provide an exciting insight into next year and, under the support of the incoming Mr Baltacha, we hope to make some inroads in the national competitions.

The First XI continued their fine season, where they have only been beaten once all year. A highlight was a tough 2-1 victory over Lord Wandsworth.

Rugby

Rugby continues to grow as a programme at King Edward’s under the expert guidance of Mr Andrade, Reverend Radcliffe and Mr Harrison. The highlight of term was the U13 side who entered the Boundary Oak 7’s competition. Despite there being a great deal of beginners in the squad, the quality coaching shone through. With three pools KESW had to take on firstly the Gregg, followed by Boundary Oak B in games which were 7 minutes a half. These pool games saw KESW undefeated winning both games without conceding. Scoring 7 tries in each game. This meant we won our group and we moved into the cup play-offs where we needed to play two other undefeated teams (Oakland having beaten both Farleigh and boundary oak A and Pilgrims who had beaten both Frensham and Meoncross).

The finals started with our first game which was now 10 minutes one way. This was against Pilgrim, which we won 4 tries to 2. Setting us up for a spectacular finish. However, we had to play our second game straight after the first. It was a tight game, but unfortunately this was lost 2 tries to 1 in the final play of the game.

It all came down to the final game which Pilgrim and Oakland drew, meaning that Oakland came out on top, but KESW finished a close second.

The U15’s didn’t fair quite as well at their 7’s event as they finished middle of the pack but their season culminated with an emphatic victory versus St Edmund’s. The main aim was team structure working and getting out of our 22 and into the opposition. Boys were fantastic and demonstrated tenacity throughout, going down by a try to start, but dominating from that point on to win 38-20, with Freddie Marren and Oli Kennedy particularly prominent.

Badminton

It has been another term of momentum building for our badminton side who, this time last year, had us scratching around to fulfil fixtures in our newly introduced sports team. Mr Slater has done and excellent job in recruiting and training a very large squad which now means we are required to rotate the team for each fixture to give everyone an opportunity to play.

The highlight of the badminton term was playing Reed’s who had been forced to play some of their real stars against us due to our improved performances. Will stood up well to some excellent players and, despite losing slightly, demonstrated the ability we have within our ranks.

Table Tennis

As we are always trying to expand our sporting teams and provision this term saw the turn of our Table Tennis side to take their bow representing the school. Having not played fixtures before we were unsure what the expect when our first match arrived against the Rikkyo Japanese School in England.

The evening started with some friendly natured matches as part of the warmup, before the competition started. We played 15 matches in total, so the aim was to be the first to 8 victories across the singles and doubles matches to take overall victory. After the singles games were finished, we were 6-4 down, meaning Rikkyo just needed to win two of the remaining doubles games to take overall victory.

After 2 doubles matches, both teams had won 1 match each so the score was 7-5 to Rikkyo and they were on the verge of victory. If we wanted to win the fixture, we would have to win our last 3 doubles matches. Mr Ryman’s excitable updates on the PE WhatsApp group meant that half the sports department were in the sports hall as the match reached its climax.

The boys managed to win the last 3 matches, one of which had gone to sudden death, and so we won the fixture 8-7 in a tense finale, with Freddie Alexander and Thomas Arneson-Carnell winning the decisive doubles match. A huge well done to Freddie, Thomas, Roman, Daniil, Tayo, Atakan, Yukiya, Oscar, Peter and Kai for playing in such a memorable fixture.

We have since followed these fixtures up with a victory versus Churchers, where first form pupils Elliot Joyce demonstrating some outstanding skills to inflict large defeats on his more Senior opponents) and a defeat versus RGS Guildford. An exciting start for our new side and we’ll be looking for further fixtures as we move forwards.

Tennis

The main tennis season starts after the Easter break, but early indications show that this is going to be the largest season of tennis we have ever had, by far! There are currently 37 matches pencilled in for the summer term which is of great credit to Mr Nash who has spearheaded the tennis provision over the past two years culminating in the excellent programme the pupils currently enjoy. The side have already begun their season with a very early match versus Gordon’s which was won by a single game which hopefully bodes well for the summer term.

Swimming

The girls performed well in their galas this term. Mrs Meyer focussed on setting up the school records with several internal galas. For now, here are the school records:

Boys U13

Girls U13

Girls U15

Boys U15

Girls U18

Boys U18

Team Awards and Colours

Girls Netball

Girls U18

Full Colours

Boys Hockey

Half Colours

Full Colours