It was a tough week for the Shiplake teams, as illness saw a fair number of players knocked out of fixtures. However, the teams pulled together well. The 1st XI hockey team took on Leighton Park and won 3-2. Despite some disappointing losses, it was a good experience for players to see what needs work during training.

Hockey

U15A 0-0 Sir William Borlase School

Thank you to Mr Richard Curtis for the following report:

‘Decimated by illness,s the U15s took to the park with little in the way of confidence. However, three or four direct attacks on the Borlase goal early in the game generated a certain self-belief in the squad. After this promising start the U15s work rate tailed off leading up to half term and the opposition made good use of the space left behind by the defence. Several shots on the Shiplake goal went awry or were well saved and that left the game on tenterhooks at 0-0 at half time.

After a meaningful discussion at half time, the U15s came out with all guns firing. Several breakaway efforts from Shiplake were cleared off the Borlase line and a few more were blasted wide. The U15s were, however, unable to unlock the door to that all-important score and the match finished 0-0.’

Netball

1st VII 25-42 Ranelagh School

Thank you to Lauren Way for the following report:

‘On Wednesday Shiplake 1st Netball travelled to Ranelagh school to compete in their second match of the season. With high hopes of successfully putting into practise all of our recent strategies, we started the match full of motivation and enthusiasm. Ranelagh took a head start in the first quarter whilst being closely chased by Shiplake. With impressively close defending and accurate shots, Shiplake were one off equal with Ranelagh by the end of the third quarter. The excitement of a near win got the better of us, letting a victory against Ranelagh slip through our fingers due to some careless mistakes.

We experimented with different combinations throughout the game, which we could take through to our next match. We kept high spirits and sportsmanship throughout, and we are looking forward to our match against Henley College where we will be able to put into play everything that we learnt from this experience.

Final score 42-25 to Ranelagh. Congratulations to Brook for achieving Player of the Match.’

2nd VII 15-28 Ranelagh School

This Wednesday, Shiplake B’s played against Ranelagh School on our home court, for our third league match of the season against. We had hopes of keeping up our winning streak from last week’s match, but the final score was 28-15 to Ranelagh.

Due to illness this week, we had to make a lot of changes to positions, but we ended up with a confident and strong squad. Our focus for the match was to work well as a team and to slow down play to keep control of the ball. We worked well together, keeping the score fairly even for the first half of the match and we turned over a lot of Ranelagh balls. Chelsea Holliday played particularly well as Centre, keeping pace for the game and working well with both defence and attack. Issy Webster then took over for the final quarter in the match, showing good attack skills. Tayla Caldeira and Alice Ingham-Halshaw worked well together in mid court, keeping control of the ball and making good interceptions. Darcy Timms and Jemima Evans were fantastic in defence mid court, working well as a team. Ibby and Daisy Stuart worked well in the attack end of the court, working the ball around to keep up the score with the Ranelagh team. Emma Renwick stepped in as a shooter for the final quarter, showing some very promising shooting skills. Congratulations to Jem for achieving player of the match from Ranelagh and Emma and Issy for their superb play in the match.

We hope to maintain the same standard of game play in our upcoming matches and look forward to what's to come in this league.