We begin this week’s blog with a story of sporting success. Well done to the U13A footballers whose brilliant second-half performance in the latest round of the Surrey Cup saw them regain control of the match to finish victorious.
On the 3rd of October the Hampton U13 football A’s played a very tough fixture against a very strong Epsom and Ewell side in the Surrey County cup. The game started off with Epsom putting on a lot of strong pressure against our side and within the first 40 minutes we were down 2-1 with Louis Middleton (2L) scoring our first. Our coach, Mr Hurst, shared a few strong words of wisdom at half time and soon enough we were on our way to victory. Within in the first 10 minutes of the half, Xander Wright (2W) put another goal away to make it 2-2. And then the goals came rolling in with Xander scoring his second of the day to make it 3-2 and with another goal from Louis Middleton making it 4-2 and then a great save from Arthur Bothamley (2W) with ten minutes to go, it seemed that we had wrapped it up. Within the last 5 minutes of the match, I (Noah Wood (2J) scored from roughly the halfway line to put Hampton 5-2 up. Everybody played amazingly with great defending from Jonah Blake (2W), Freddie Seddon (2L) and Luke Paskin (2J) all the way up to Alex Bush (2H) and Patrick Helm (2H) and the midfield combo of Ben Bird (2B), Alex Dinan (2L) and Billy Hutchings (2L). The entire team played together as a unit. A great result for Hampton as we proceed to the next round.
Noah Wood (2J)
Meanwhile the U13 Rugby teams continue to battle against tough opponents. Tom and James let us know about their latest challenges:
Last Saturday we played a rugby match against RGS High Wycombe. After a disappointing first half we were 30 points down but after half time we all worked really hard as a team and Max Lemen (2H) scored a fabulous try. For the rest of the game we fought really hard but unfortunately we could not add to the try scored by Max. We were on the worse side of the 40-5 score-line. Everyone worked really hard and played really well but unluckily it wasn’t our day. Tom Ketel (2P)
The rugby B team match on Saturday the 1st October was a difficult fixture against a challenging school. The game, sadly, did not go our way, we lost 45-10. RGS High Wycombe played very well, and despite the fact that we were close to matching their great play, they were out front at half time. The wet conditions weren’t helping, because of this the forwards were in the scrum half of the match. Our first half wasn’t great, we kept getting overlapped by their winger and powered through us. Our first try was scored in the left corner, by Olly Stokes (2W). But this was the only try in that half. However, after a confident team talk from our coach Mr Studt and from our new captain, Lucas Carbajal (2B), we began to come back at the opposition and we managed to grab a second try which was finished by Luke McNamara (2W), slipping through a gap to sprint to the try line and touch down the ball. This try gave us hope but in the end it was too late. The team has improved a lot since the last game and I hope that we can improve enough to beat our next opponents St Benedict’s and gain our first win of the season.
James Bantick (2J)
On Saturday and Sunday 35 boys competed in the Hampton Tennis Championships. Rohan Vasudev (2B), who finished runner-up, tells us how the weekend went for him:
The junior Hampton tennis championships took place on the 1st and 2nd of October with the qualification taking place on the 1st and the main draw being on the 2nd. Tanmay Thanawala, a Third Year student, took a well-earned title. The championships were very competitive this year with many people playing in the tournament. It was a once in a year opportunity.
I had to play tough matches to get through to the group stage with none of them coming easily. I won 2 matches and lost 2 matches. I didn’t quite get off to a good start with a loss coming my way and I had to fight my way through my second match to eventually win it 6-4. Unfortunately, I lost my third match 6-4 and then won my last match, rewarding me with a tricky semi-final opponent. Although the score line might not show it, the games were very close with most of them going to deuce. I finally won it 6-3. In the final, I lost my match, losing it 8-6 in a tie-break. I have learnt a lot from this tournament and hopefully next time, with a little bit more practice, I can go a step further. I really look forward to competing in the tournament next year! –
Rohan Vasudev (2B)
The U13 team are due to play in the regional round of the British School Championships next week; we wish Rohan and his teammates the very best of luck.
For those boys interested in cricket and who are free over the half-term break, Chris Harrison will be running a cricket coaching course at Hampton. The course is ideal for young cricketers who want to have fun and improve their game. Each session will include skill drills for batting, bowling and fielding as well as net and match play practice. To book a place on the course or for more information then please call Chris on 07900957145 or email chris@chcricket.co.uk.
Before finishing we would like to say well done to Ben Francis (2L) who has achieved a distinction in his Grade 6 drum kit exam and a merit in his Grade 5 classical piano exam. We also congratulate Ben on reaching the 20 merit milestone this week! Thomas de Gruchy, Jonah Blake, Tom Olby, Jai Saha, Samaksh Agarwal, Sam Colvine, Joel Arulpragasam, Jack East and Sohan Sodhi also join the honours list, for achieving ten merits this term.
Great work, boys!
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