Sports Report 28 November 2017

28 November 2017

The week here at Shiplake was jam packed with Rugby, but was followed by a relaxing exeat weekend. While our rugby players were tucked up in bed, enjoying a much deserved lay-in, the rowers were up and at 'em at Hampton Head and Wallingford. Fantastic results from Liv Morgan, Marcus Coulter and Sydney Burnand.

Shiplake 1st XV v Cokethorpe

A long drive meant the 1st XV had a short warm up going into the match last Wednesday afternoon. The wind was howling as they kicked off to start the match. After several passages of play, the Shiplake boys got to grips with the power

ful wind that was making it hard to kick and pass. They kept the ball in close using the forwards effectively. It wasn’t long before Cartwright busted his way through several tackles to get the first points on the board. Booth converted the extras from in front of the posts. Our boys were playing with a slight disadvantage in the first half due to the slight slope in the pitch. However, they didn’t let this affect their performance. The backs launched an attack off a scrum in the Shiplake half, which gained plenty of yards for the 1st XV. The ball went loose but Shiplake managed to keep possession and the backs interlinked allowing captain Harvey Hendry to run in a try, 15 minutes into the game. Soon after, Booth managed to add his name to the score sheet after a set move allowed him to get on the outside of the Cokethorpe defence. Those were the last points Shiplake saw of the first half. However, Cokethorpe managed to bag a try for themselves from a powerful pick and go surge. This left the half time score 19-7.

The second half allowed The Shiplake XV the downhill advantage until Cokethorpe came out of the blocks eager to get the first try of the half. Our boys maintained possession but were pinned back, deep inside their own half for quite a while. Cokethorpe kept the pressure on and Shiplake found it difficult to exit their 22. Shiplake regained composure and, after a kick downfield by Edwards, they managed to turnover possession and soon go over in the corner by Joe Booth. The light was going quickly and entering the final stages of the game, Shiplake were 24-7 up. Before the whistle blew, Dalrymple dove over the line and increased the score to 29-7 to end the game.

Report provided by Captain Harvey Hendry

U16A vs Cokethorpe

After a restful journey, Shiplake only had 15 minutes of warm up until kick-off. The U16s started strong and confident but they soon realised it was their overconfidence that placed them on the back foot. Our boys scored a quick try at the beginning, but their game around the rucks was poor. Cokethorpe’s forwards were quick into the ball, which made it difficult for the Shiplake forwards to clear them out. This match was strange; the U16s were not able to play to their full potential for some reason. Despite scraping a win by 2 points, our boys know their style of play is a lot better than what they displayed against Cokethorpe. Final score 19-17 to Shiplake.

U14C v Marlborough

The U14s took some time to get into the game against a strong Marlborough team. A few missed tackles led to the opposition scoring a few tries. Not content with this, Shiplake started to play much better with some superb line breaks from Hashim, Hal Booth and Artem. Shiplake needed more support in the contact to push for their first try of the match but Marlborough defended with gusto on this blustery afternoon. Some turnover in possession saw Marlborough score a few more tries before half time. However, more tries would have been score had it not been for the excellent defending of Olly Hart.

Shiplake started strongly in the second half but hard hits from the opposition saw more turnovers and tries. Even though Marlborough were the better side, the spirit of the Under 14C team saw possibly the best mauling of the season so far, with Olly Hart making a great line break to be held in the tackle. Hasim and Hal Booth both supported, followed by Artem and Tom Petrie - leading to a drive of about 20 metres. Unfortunately, Shiplake could not get a well-deserved try, leaving the final score at a 50-0 loss. The next game against Pangbourne College should see all the hard work from this team turn into points.

U13A v Cokethorpe

The U13As had no time to warm up and this showed early on as Cokethorpe scored quickly after the kickoff. Shiplake worked hard to break through Cokethorpe’s defence but they were too strong so our boys had to ship it out, allowing Luke Byca and Josh Somerville to run with the ball. After a couple of well-worked tries from the Cokethorpe wingers, they eventually made a big mistake by kicking the ball to Jamie Macleod. After a bit of brilliance, he made it to the try line, drawing the first third to a close.

Our boys tried and tried again and this time managed to get the ball out to Ollie Lewis who made a fantastic run. Unfortunately, he did not make it to the line. The inexperience showed from the Shiplake teams as Cokethorpe worked the ball the down the line scoring a couple more nicely worked tries. It was the last third and the U13s were tired but kept up the momentum throughout the rest of the match. Soon after, Lucas Ferreira shaped an incredible run around all of the opposition scoring an unbelievable try closing the game to an end. The final score was 8-3 to the Shiplake under 13s.

U12A vs Cokethorpe

Shiplake received the kick-off and started very strongly but the Cokethorpe defence was scrambling well. The team showed great resilience and the pressure from our boys broke them down for Josh Hamer to lead a well-timed run to take the lead. The opposition came back strong from kick-off, and it was Shiplake’s turn to show some strong defence. With a lucky bounce of the ball, the opposition scored to level the game. Thanks to tries from Louie Rouse-Roberts and Josh Greig-Bartram, the score was 3-3 at half time.

The second half was a much closer affair, with both teams playing some strong rugby. Cokethorpe took an early lead in the second half and defended powerfully. However, Shiplake showed fantastic teamwork and resilience to level the score; but with only two minutes left, another score from Louie Rouse-Roberts. This gave the boys more energy and with some fantastically strong running by Christopher Kami Hawkins and slick passing from Dan Coles, the boys made their way up the pitch to score a try in the last play of the game, winning 5 tries to 4. The U12As are showing improvement and their desire to improve in both training and games is starting to become clear.

U12B v Cokethorpe School

This was our boys’ finest display of the season and although they suffered a narrow loss, the team should be very proud of their achievements in this match. The turnaround, in terms of the willingness to defend and tackle, was remarkable with all players working hard to defend Shiplake’s line and put into practice the hard work that they have been doing in training. Whilst Cokethorpe scored a few tries in the first half, the U12s' heads never dropped and some good work by Joe Biggin saw Shiplake score a great team try.

The second half was remarkable and undoubtedly the highlight of the season so far, scoring 4 unanswered tries in quick succession. It is hard to single out players in this performance as it really was a team effort but special mention should go to Joe Biggin 2 tries, Billy Badsey 2 tries and Ben Hutt 1 Try. Unfortunately, the Shiplake boys narrowly lost the match but the performance is what pleased Coach Mr Crisford. Final score was 4-7 to Cokethorpe.

Rowing:

Last weekend, while the school enjoyed a restful exeat weekend the boat club took to the water to compete for the last time in 2017. On Saturday, our rowers raced at Hampton Head where they raced in small boats of singles and pairs. On Sunday they moved on to Wallingford where they racing in eights. The weekend was blessed with fantastic weather making for chilly but ideal racing conditions on both days. Hampton Head is raced over 3km and Wallingford head over 4.2km.

Hampton Head

In the first division, our top 4 girls raced in junior 17 single sculls. Emily Bachelor finished 37th, Iona Wasdell 35th, Molly Sharman 15th and Liv Morgan, keeping her unbeaten record since joining the college in September, won the event.

Shiplake entered three pairs into the Junior 16 event and all boats did extremely well considering their limited time in this tricky boats class. Ben Brockway and Matt Waller finished 9th, Rhys Ash and Sebastian Hjortland-Marks finished 3rd and Marcus Coulter and Sydney Burnand finished 2nd. A special mention should go to Ben and Sebastian for doing a great job considering they have been playing Rugby this term and not rowing.

In the second division, the senior boys competed in junior 17 & 18 pairs. In Junior 17, pairs Robbin Traumann and Jack Norris finished 7th, Richard Adams and Ethan Caldiera finished 5th and Dom and Marcus Brown won the event. After recovering from racing their single scull Molly and Liv jumped into the pair and won women’s junior 17 pairs, making it two wins for Liv over the weekend, congratulations. The upper 6 boys raced in junior 18 pairs, Fergus Howard-Jones and James Haskins finished 16th, Fred Peck and Oli Newton finished 15th and Alasdair Holbrough and Ben Gruchow finished 7th. It must be said these last two results were not representative of their actual performance as other crews unfortunately impeded them during the race. All in all it was a good days racing and Hampton School organised the event superbly. All our students represented the school and themselves impeccably.

Wallingford Head

This term we have done very little in the boat class but it is a nice way to finish the year. In the morning division, our rowers raced two matched eights; they tried their best to equal the boats up in order to compete against each other and see how high up the finish order they could get two eights.

Unfortunately, one of the Junior 16s took ill so they had to be replaced with one of the senior rowers, meaning they could not race to win the even but could race for time only. The J16 (plus senior) did a fantastic job finishing 9 seconds in front of the J16 event winners Shrewsbury. We cannot quantify the impact the senior rower would have made to the crew over one of our year 11s but it does give the boys confidence going into 2018 that they should be competitive. The J18 crew also had a good race finishing third behind St Paul's and in front of Shrewsbury. Given this was the third race of the weekend for these boys they should be commended for their performance. All the rowers left this event in good spirits after having a long but successful weekend of racing. We now look forward to 2018 having had a long, hard term of training.

Other results: