Sports Review

Lent first half term 2010

After the long period of inclement weather, competitive sport returned to Highgate with abundance. Boys and Girls Fives continue to dominate all opposition, as do our co-ed Swimmers and 1st Rugby team; in their first block for weeks Highgate won the majority of their Football matches against Colfe’s, whilst a large under 13 Hockey tournament built on the success of recent good results against Latymer. There has also been time for Senior Basketball to record victories, most notably against UCS, and some good news in Fencing and Water Polo! The crowning achievement was our best ever result in the National Cross Country relays achieving an incredible 9th position.

Cross Country

King Henry National Relays, Coventry. Wednesday 3rd Feburary

Congratulations to both the boys and girls teams on 2 superb performances in Coventry against the toughest of opposition from right around the country.

The boys shattered their previous best finish of 16th in 2004 by finishing 9th – a real landmark in school cross-country terms and, if one counts Judd B as a team rather than a school, they were arguably 8th. Michael Allan-Dan ran one of the top 10 fastest times of the day to give Highgate a brief taste of the top 5 positions at the half-way mark and Asher Brooks and the Patch twins showed tremendous spirit and bravery to run the final 3 legs, with driving rain to contend with also. Josh Ames-Blackaby deserves a very big pat on the back for agreeing to run and giving his usual 100% despite feeling under the weather and his brother Luke was almost certainly the fastest Y10 on show, running a brilliant first leg. All in all, a fantastic team effort. Look after those cloth badges boys!

The first ever Highgate girls team to compete at the competition found themselves in a high-quality race with several experienced Northern schools to contend with. Molly Patch ran Highgate’s fastest leg, bringing the her team into 4th at the half-way mark and Highgate were unlucky not to come away with a medal as the finishing time would have finished 2nd last year. This was a very young Highgate quartet though with two Y8s competing in an open age group, so 5th place is an extremely promising performance for the future.

*Stop Press* Middlesex Championships
Four of our runners qualified for the for Middlesex team to compete at the English Schools in Manchester next month and 2 of the girls won silver medals:

Sophia-Parvizi Wayne: 2nd U15 girls
Molly Patch: 2nd U17 girls
Michael Allan-Dan: 5th U19 boys
Luke Ames-Blackaby: 6th U17 boys

Fives

The results for the girls' fives match at Westminster on Wed 20th January:

Pair 1 Francesca Howell and Hannah Rapley: won 12-8, 12-0
Pair 2 Lara Foch and Sophia Ferre: won 12-3, 12-6
Pair 3 Lulu Little and Jane Sceales: lost 0-12, 7-12

Rugby

Two good wins for senior rugby versus The American School and TASIS. Considering it was Highgate's first games of the season, and the fact that the opposition had begun their season several months ago, performances were impressive. A 28-5 win versus The American School owed much to a strong platform laid by the forwards and an effective set piece; Scoones was the hero of the hour with three tries but other noteworthy performers were Pavitt, Jake Williams, David Goadsby and Harry Hatchwell. Saturday morning saw a good crowd assemble for the visit of TASIS with Highgate looking to build upon the success of their first game and look to provide quicker ball for an eager set of backs. Once again the defensive was organised and solid, whilst more 'joined up rugby' and fluid patterns of play were in evidence. A final scoreline of 35 - 5 was richly deserved, with Harry Hatchwell, Callum Davey, Oli Craig and Rory Blackshaw starring in a promising team performance. Thoughts now turn to a tough game against QE Barnet. This will be a different test altogether and should provide a yardstick as to what Highgate can hope to achieve for the rest of the season.  

Swimming

Highgate travelled to Mill Hill for a senior school co-ed gala. Organisation was excellent and hopes were high for Highgate, even though many of our swimmers were much younger than the opposition! As it was, Highgate dominated the gala, winning all bar 2 of the 20 plus races. The senior boys performed exceptionally with campaigners Rawlinson and Allan Dan starring; it was also good to see Harry Ashman returning from injury and the young stars Gilmour and Yau swimming fast. The younger age groups also dominated, with many Year 7 and 8 swimmers joining experienced middle school swimmers Molly Patch and Lauren Egan. All swam well and dominated their races, but perhaps the highlight of the evening was Year 7 George Kapanadze defeating a sixth form swimmer twice his size!

Hockey

Mixed success over the last few weeks....Hockey on the astro at home was fantastic. An amazing facility! Despite the losses, the scores don't truly reflect the way the tempo of the game flowed. We have much to build on and certainly left with a buzz.

Results:
U12A lost 1-5
U12B lost 1-7
U13A drew 1-1
U13B drew 3-3
U14A lost 1-11
U15A lost 0-9

Water Polo

In water polo the under 13 team travelled to CLS for a tournament against the hosts, Haberdashers, Bedford Modern and Alleyn’s. Four victories out of four means that the future looks very bright for this group of boys and girls. Max Robertson, Conor Thomas and Lily Kuenzler starred.

Basketball

U18 boys beat UCS last night 55-42.

Fencing

Good news! In last weekend’s fixture at Ashmole School both Max Woollard and Rafe Jennings qualified for the national championships (they finished amongst the first eight in their age group). Two other fencers from Highgate (Ben Huston, Nat Gilmour) took part and were less lucky but very much enjoyed their time.

Football

After some bad luck in their Football result against Colfe’s, the Under 15As beat Westminster 2-1 with a hard fought display in windy conditions. Special mentions go to Connor Whitmore for some tricky wing play, and Nitesh Samtani for forcing home the winning goal. In the Under 15Bs, games also against Westminster some high tempo football saw them run out 2-1 winners as well. The highlight was Cameron Spence-Jones’s goal direct from a corner – his second this season!

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