As the end of term draws near, the season for football, netball and hockey also comes to an end. The footballers headed to Palmer Park, Reading, for a five-a-side tournament which proved popular. The hockey 1st and 2nd XI teams took each other on during an informal match, ahead of the pupils vs staff match that will be taking place on Tuesday 4 April.

Football

Shiplake 5-a-Side Tournament

‘The football season finished with an internal 5-a-side tournament hosted at Palmer Park in Reading for both the Junior and Senior squads. Teams were selected using a 'draft' system where Captains and Vice-Captains of the 11-a-side teams formed a 5-a-side team each - this gave us 8 teams in each of the Junior and Senior tournaments. The results were that teams consisted of mixed year groups and houses meaning it was very hard to predict which teams may perform well.

We got underway with the Junior tournament early on where there were four teams in two groups meaning each team played at least 3 games. The top two from each group progressed to the semi-finals. This was hotly contested with Team Lawrence, Team O'Hare, Team Head and Team Buchanan progressing. The semi-finals were close with Team O'Hare beating Team Lawrence 4-3 in one and Team Buchanan coming out victorious from the penalty shootout after the 1-1 draw during normal time. Team Buchanan went on to win taking the gold winners medals leaving Team O'Hare with the silver runners-up medals.

The Senior tournament started soon after with a similar format. Team Miller, Philiskirk, Johnston and Sutton made the semi-finals with Teams Miller and Johnston making the final. Team Johnston came out on top and not only did they get a winners’ medal, but they had the added bonus of this being awarded by Mrs Alison Davies! A great day had by all.’

Head of Football Mr Richard Ebbage

Hockey

U15A 1-0 Leighton Park School

'An unexpected last-minute fixture against Leighton Park meant that the U15s had one last chance to grab their first and only victory of the season. From the very first whistle it was clear that it was going to be a close encounter with very little between the teams. Passing was limited in the first half and Shiplake struggled to get any momentum into their attack and Leighton Park seemed the more likely to score. However, the half ended 0-0 with all to play for in the second half.

Whilst Shiplake never really got their passing game going they started to exert much more pressure on the opposition goal and eventually broke through with Ed Gilbert-Blay flicking in the decisive goal. Leighton Park came back strongly but were just not able to break through the stern home defence and so the game ended with Shiplake finishing the season on a high and a 1-0 victory.

Thank you to everyone for all their efforts this term and enjoy your hockey in years to come.'

Netball

2nd VII 24-21 Gillotts School

‘Last Wednesday, Shiplake B’s played a friendly match against Gillotts. For the beginning two thirds of the match both our scores were relatively equal, and both Shiplake and Gillotts attacking players were working very hard to maintain this. However, in the final third, Gillotts defence seemed to strengthen and as a result, they pulled ahead of our score, winning the match at 24-21. Congratulations to Ibby for achieving player of the match, and well done to all the girls; everyone has shown a noticeable improvement this season and seem to have really enjoyed it!

We all look forward to Inter-House Netball Tournament on Wednesday!’

Nadia Sherlock, Year 13