Sports Reports W/E Friday 11 March
Tockington Manor School Cross-Country Relays
Sidcot once again travelled up the motorway to Tockington Manor School for their annual spring visit to this prestigious event, despite the weather feeling more like winter! Having walked the course and highlighted areas of tactical significance, the teams began their races.
The depth of strength in running has improved greatly over the years and this enabled Sidcot to field two girls’ U13 teams and three U13 boys’ teams. The organisers generally run this age group together, which always adds a little bit of spice and edge to the run and with over twenty nine teams starting the race, it was a very frenetic charge to the first corner.
Interestingly it was Tockington Manor School girls who led the way, closely followed by Sidcot girls. However, after the first lap the strength of the other boys’ teams readdressed the balance, but Sidcot were determined to keep in touch. Sarah Carr, Amber Spillane, Annabel Wroath took their responsibility very seriously and ran terrific legs using every sinew and bit of stamina to put their anchor runner into contention for a medal. Freya King began her run slightly behind Llandaff School, in third place, but was determined not to allow the gap between the front runners widen. It was not until the last corner that Freya was able to use her strength to accelerate past the Llandaff girl to bring home Sidcot in second place. Considering the calibre of the opposition amongst the fifteen girl team starters, this was an amazing achievement for the Sidcot girls, who justifiably were over the moon with their result and silver medal.
All three of the boys’ teams also faced stiff opposition, but demonstrated good strength of character to compete in a very strong field of runners. They all worked well together as a team and can be proud of their achievements against some excellent runners.
Many thanks to Rosie Bellinger and Nigel Taylor for helping out and offering very valuable advice and encouragement to the children. Thank you also to those parents who travelled to support the Sidcot runners.
Sue Taylor
Physical Education Department
Girls’ U16 Netball v Backwell School, Tuesday 8 March: Sidcot 1 – 11 Backwell
Up until the first quarter Sidcot more than matched their strong opposition and with the score at 1 – 0 in Backwell’s favour, it looked like this was going to be a very tight encounter.
The quality of passing form both teams, in very cold and damp conditions, was indeed very high and with the ball moving at great pace, it was the superior agility of the Backwell girls which eventually made a difference.
Their tight marking on court also applied much pressure and denied the Sidcot team room and space in which to operate. This was particularly evident in the attacking third, where Maddy Hann and Ella Holman found it almost impossible to free themselves from the close attention of their opponents and consequently very little ball made its way into the shooting circle.
As the Backwell shooters began to outmanoeuvre the normally solid defence of Beth Evans and Zoe Mercer, so the game started to slip away. In the mid court, Mati Grove, Millie Heslington and Sydney Drury stuck to their task well, but as the rain set in and the ball became more difficult to handle, Backwell pulled further ahead. This was a big learning curve in how to play fast, effective and competitive netball, but all credit to the girls for their efforts on a cold and miserable spring evening.
Player of the match:- Mati Grove
Sue Taylor
Physical Education Department
Girls’ U16 Netball v Shapwick School, Thursday 10 March: Sidcot 25 - 8 Shapwick
Shapwick brought with them a team of fairly inexperienced girls who were looking forward to their coaching game against Sidcot’s U16 team. This provided the opportunity to include many of our International students, eager to test their skills in a game that they have only learnt this year. Playing alongside Sidcot’s more established team members gave them much needed confidence to move the ball at pace and they soon settled into a nice rhythm. They showed excellent movement and awareness to feed the ball swiftly down the court towards their own attacking circle.
With many girls keen to demonstrate their shooting ability, it was especially pleasing to see Kitty Leung, Clementine Zhang, Issy Fowles, Beth Evans, Maddy Hann, Lizzy Eden and Nicole Chan all contribute in turn to the final score.
Although the depth in strength from Sidcot did prove a little too much for Shapwick, they greatly improved throughout the afternoon’s game and they benefitted hugely from listening to advice given. This was a lovely match to umpire and hopefully a fixture that can be repeated soon.
Player of the Match: Helen Qiao
Sue Taylor
Physical Education Department
Boys' U15 Rugby 7's, Tuesday 8 March: Bristol Schools Championship
The boys prepared methodically for this tournament, participating in two training sessions and two strength and conditioning sessions a week. This highlights the emphusiasm and commitment from the boys. Sidcot beat Bristol Cathedral School 3 trys to 1 to kick start the tournament. Better was to follow with the boy dispatching a very strong Clevedon School side 4 trys to 1 playing free flowing, one-touch rugby. In the final group game Sidcot comfortably saw off Redland Green School 3 trys to 1, again running lovely lines and playing fantastic attacking rugby the opposition couldn't cope with. This lead to the team topping the group and progressing to the semi-finals where they faced a huge St Bede's team.
Despite playing the better rugby, unfortunately Sidcot couldn't cope with the pace and power of the opposition's giant winger and lost narrowly 2 trys to 1. This was an impressive display from the Year 10 boys. I look forward to the hard work this summer, in preparation for the upcoming season.
Alex Smith
Physical Education Department
Boys' U13 Football, Wednesday 9 March: Sidcot 1 - 3 St Katherine's
Facing strong opposition Sidcot U13 continued to produce their lovely brand of attacking football through the likes of Rufus Long and the ever industrious Toby Pratt. Sidcot found themselves 2-0 down at the break but hit back straight after with a superbly taken goal from Ignacio De La Torre and battled hard for the equaliser. However, 5 minutes before time, St Katherine's scored a third goal to put the game beyond Sidcot. This was a close encounter with the opposition just running away with it at the end.
Man of the Match: Toby Pratt
Alex Smith
Physical Education Department
Boys’ U12 Football, Wednesday 9th March: St Katherine’s 4 - 4 Sidcot
With a wind against them that brought new meaning to the term ‘chill factor’, it was hardly surprising Sidcot were caught cold after an explosive start by St Katherine’s. Having scored from their first corner of the game, St Katherine’s soon found themselves 2-0 up, the goal coming after Sidcot had failed to clear the ball properly.
Instead of crumbling, this second goal galvanised Sidcot into action. With Storm Biles and Matthias Benischke taking control of the midfield, the remainder of the first period was spent in St Katherine’s half. Despite several fantastic opportunities, the game reached the midway point with still Sidcot 2-0 down.
The second half began as the first ended, with Sidcot controlling the play. With the wind in their favour, Sidcot had St Katherine’s on the back foot as the pressure on their goal intensified. Sidcot’s domination was soon rewarded with the ever busy Joe Hart tapping in from close range after the keeper had failed to deal with a long range shot from Tim Williams. Sidcot soon found themselves on level terms, with a 20 meter wonder strike from Man of the Match Matthias Benischke, going in off the post.
Sidcot weren’t about to stop there and soon found themselves in the lead thanks to a sweet strike from the industrious Toby Millar, drilling the ball in from the edge of the box. 3-2 quickly became 4-2, with Tim Williams getting in on the act as he took advantage of St Katherine’s failure to clear the ball after a corner.
With the time running out, play went from end-to-end with both teams battling hard. Despite opportunities for both sides, it was St Katherine’s who managed to make their chances count with 2 late goals, resulting in this fantastic game finishing 4-4.
Man of the Match: Matthias Benischke
Player’s Player of the Match: Joe Hart
Rob Moore
Physical Education Faculty