Our new Second Years hit the ground running last week and have had an action packed beginning to the new school year. There were successes and struggles on the sports pitches and new experiences for many. Some boys have been trying their hand at Hampton’s newest venture: Hampton Radio. Here, Alex Upshall (2B) gives us a sneak peek from behind the scenes:
After the short meeting the previous day on most of the admin for the Hampton Radio, the ‘Features’ group gathered on Tuesday eagerly awaiting Miss Bedford to uncover the secrets of how to work everything. What seemed like a looming tower of electronics, buttons and microphones turned out to be relatively simple. With the help of Adele singing ‘Someone like you’, we managed to add some commentary during the intro, such as the weather, time, and date. We also chose the recordings suitable for the radio like the latest news on the politics section, and a motto to represent us. The Features section hopes to interview Mr Knibbs, to meet with the book group and generally discuss anything interesting to do with school life or life outside of it! There are also other sections of the Radio club- Sport, Politics/Current Affairs, and Music which are very appealing to a number of students. All in all, the Hampton Radio is a lively, exciting lunchtime activity that is one of the most unique clubs the School has had, and anyone can attend it.
The A and B football teams kicked of the season on Saturday with matches against Sutton Grammar School. Xander Wright (2W) and Thomas de Gruchy (2W) report:
On the 10th September 2016 Hampton U13A team travelled to Sutton Grammar school for what turned out to be an extremely exciting match. We stepped onto the pitch with some debutants due to mentionable players unavailable: Jonah Blake (2W)and Arthur Bothamley (2W). Five minutes into the match Sutton put a long ball over the top which had a big bounce. Their player ran onto it and passed it into the net. Fifteen minutes later Alex Dinan 2L, the captain, picked up the ball in midfield and had a strike from about 40 meters out and somehow put it right in the top corner. It was a brilliant goal. The score now being 1-1, Sutton again sent a ball over the top and again put it in the back of the net. We replied with a cool finish in front of the goal from Xander Wright (2W). But at last Sutton put in a corner and our goalie was unable to get to it after they headed it home. 3-2 final score.
The U13Bs kicked off their season with an impressive 4-2 victory over Sutton Grammar School. The typical English weather did nothing to dampen our spirits as we raced into an early 1-0 lead, with Ollie Coles (2J) scoring a tidy goal. Soon after, we had another with Sam Colvine (2L) finishing nicely from the right wing. However, all was not done yet as Sutton grabbed one back on the
brink of half time. We went into the break, after a strong first half performance, feeling confident, but knowing the game wasn’t over. Shortly after half time Sutton had another goal and were almost ‘on top.’ We didn’t give up; with 20 minutes to go and the scores level at 2-2, we had got the 3rd goal we desperately needed, with Ollie Coles scoring again. And then with 10 minutes left to play, James Kerr (2H) intercepted a Sutton pass on the half way line, charged through their defence and smashed the ball into the back of the net, to mean we had grabbed a 4-2 victory and started the season in the best possible way!
The boys’ success on the pitch didn’t end at Sutton; the U13As started their ISFA season in spectacular style in their first match against Box Hill. Jonah Blake (2W) brings us the news of their cracking win:
On Monday the 12th, we played Box Hill School at home. It was the first round of ISFA and we were desperate to qualify through to the next round. We started the match well in a 4-3-3 formation and soon enough we scored our first goal. Next we pressed on and scored another. During half time we got some great feedback, and we ended up scoring eight more, with Xander Wright (2W) scoring a hat-trick with a sublime penalty, and Billy Atkinson (2W) putting in a great shift. It was greatly summed up by a diving header by Noah Wood (2J) to make it 10-0; it was an enjoyable match and a deserved win, we can’t wait for more! Jonah Blake (2W)
The Rugby teams had a tougher start to the season when they faced challenging opposition teams at John Fisher School on Saturday. Ollie Stokes (2W) and Luke McNamara (2W) share their thoughts:
We played some great phases of rugby but we hadn’t trained together for a while and this hindered our chances against a very strong opposition. We pulled back a little in the second half but it wasn’t enough to catch them. We are looking forward to our next match and hope to be victorious this weekend after training hard all week. Ollie Stokes (2W)
It was an unfortunate loss for the team but we were a bit rusty as it was our first game of the season. After a poor first half we weren’t doing very well, but after a good team talk we pulled out some impressive play towards the end of the second half. Luke McNamara (2W)
Not all boys spent their Saturday on the pitches. Twenty-two of our adventurous Second Year boys headed off for a weekend’s worth of watersports at Rockley point. We say thank you to Roman Feron-Clark (2H) for this run down of the weekend’s events:
We all jumped into two separate minibuses, and left school at four fifteen. We passed the time singing to the bangin’ tunes of ir’s radio, after what felt like a short time, we stopped at a service station and bought a mountain of chocolate which made everyone very hyper, we then drove off to Rockley leaving no-one behind. When we finally arrived we were greeted by a huge climbing wall in the middle of the car park, we unloaded our stuff and then enjoyed a hearty meal of sausages and mash, the climbing wall was actually quite scary, because when you reached the top, it would then wobble and sway in the wind. Afterwards we turned in for the night in our cosy sleeping bags. In the morning we ate a delicious meal of bacon butties then packed our wet-bags with all the equipment we would need for our first sailing activity, sadly the weather was horrific, cold winds and rain drenched us to the skin, but on the bright side this was perfect weather for sailing. For the whole day we enjoyed following the instructors and at the end of the day everyone jumped in and capsized and sabotaged the boats, which was really fun!!! When we got back, we were exhausted and we flopped down on the sofa and enjoyed watching Fast and Furious 6. The next day was kayaking and stand up paddle-boarding, there was no wind, which meant we couldn’t do windsurfing, but we all loved the games we played in the water. At the end of that morning, we packed all our bags and set off back to Hampton for a 4pm pickup. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this Adventure Society trip and we thank Mr Richards for doing a great job. P.S We all still had to do our homework after we got back! Roman Feron-Clark (2H)
Let’s wrap up this week’s blog by congratulating those Second Years who have recently received good news about their music exams. Thomas Norman (2J) took Grade 2 Drums and passed with a Merit and Thomas Wykes (2H) passed Trinity grade 7 Jazz Clarinet with Merit, Rock School grade 4 Bass Guitar with Merit and Trinity grade 3 piano with Distinction. Jake Costen (2P) passed his Grade 5 Music Theory exam with Merit and his Grade 4 Singing exam with Distinction. Jake has also just completed the Reading Agency and Libraries Summer Reading Challenge 2016, which requires 6 books to be read over the summer holidays. Well done, boys!
If your son has any news that should be mentioned in a future bulletin, please do encourage them to see me in school or email me at f.byrne@hamptonschool.org.uk and I shall be delighted to include it.
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