Sports Report 1st – 7th February

Mr P. Harris, Curriculum Leader: PE, writes:

County Cross Country

Congratulations to Louise Grenfell in 7BM who came 5^th this weekend in the County Cross Country Championship. After qualifying through the District Championship Louise took part against over 100 other students who are the best in each district. It is likely now that she will be asked to compete at the National Championships after this fantastic performance. Well Done!

Boys Rugby

Year 10 – Cup Winners

Stanborough 0-5 Fearnhill

Stanborough 10-0 Simon Balle (Try Scorers: S. Ekwebelem, J Wiseman)

Stanborough 25-0 Sir Frederic Osborn (Try Scorers: J. Wiseman x 2, S Ekwebelem x 2, D. Cooper)

Stanborough 10-5 John Warner (Try Scorers: D. Cooper, S. Ekwebelem)

Stanborough’s Year 10 put on a fantastic performance in the recent Rugby Cup competition. Schools from the local area travelled to Welwyn to take part in the competition. The boys started the tournament on the back foot losing to Fearnhill. The boys were extremely disappointed after dominating the match from start to finish but couldn’t cross the opponents’ try line, they were then caught on the counter and Fearnhill took the victory. Stanborough bounced back quickly from this defeat though to beat pre tournament favourites, Simon Balle. The greens had to defend hard for the opening encounters and when they turned the ball over at a maul only meters from their own try line, Spencer Ekwebelem sprinted the length of the pitch to put Stanborough ahead. The game continued to be tight but with moments to go Harry Dobson cleared the ball with his kick and Josh Wiseman sprinted on and dually converted. Stanborough went into the derby match against Sir Frederic Osborn full of confidence and Daniel Cooper soon burst through the defensive line and scored his first try, this was soon followed up by Wiseman and Ekwebelem scoring two each as Stanborough ran riot and scored more tries in a game than anyone else throughout the afternoon.

The final game of the afternoon saw Stanborough taking on John Warner, who along with Simon Balle and Stanborough had a chance of winning the whole competition. The game started very evenly and either side could have taken the lead, some great defence from Stanborough’s forwards kept them in the game and Cooper soon was able to break clear and score in the corner. Ekwebelem soon doubled Stanborough’s lead finishing off a fine free flowing move. The last play of the game saw John Warner finally break through the stout Stanborough defence but it was too little too late and Stanborough won. With three teams equal on points it came down to tries scored and Stanborough had scored more than Simon Balle and John Warner and this gave them the overall victory. Well done to all who took part, Mr Harris was extremely impressed with the boys’ attitude on and off the pitch.

Girls Football

Miss Bowen took Stanborough’s Year 7s to the annual District Cup held at Hertswood on Tuesday evening. The girls were unable to qualify from their pool after two defeats and two draws. However, a creditable draw against overall winners Queenswood shows that there is certainly some encouragement for the girls in the next few years. Well done to all who took part and also a special mention to Ellie Morehouse in Year 10 who has been coaching the girls in her own time and also led the girls during the game. Girl of the Tournament went to Grace Mullin.

Boys Basketball

Year 8 – Stanborough 21-18 Onslow

Stanborough’s Year 8 team produced the performance of the season against Onslow on Thursday evening. Mr Harris took the boys to Onslow who are unbeaten in the league this year. Facing a team who were taller and faster than all of Stanborough’s players, the boys started slowly and found themselves four points down. After a quick time out and change of tactics Stanborough soon found their rhythm and used their far superior dribbling skills to move the ball quickly up the court. Sebastian Hourigan and Bomo Alagoa were immense in defence for Stanborough, whilst Ollie Guilar-Butler, Andreas Frixou, Ollie Wynne and Hanif Chowdhury ran their socks off up and down the court. Stanborough soon took the lead and started to pull away, however with three minutes to go, Onslow pulled the game back to only three points. Intelligent play from Stanborough allowed them to run the clock down and inflict the first defeat on Onslow’s season. Well done to all the boys!