Cricket Superstars, Glorious Golf and Team Colours Day!

Welcome to the First Year Blog!

The boys have survived the heatwave this week (phew!), and have been enjoying the return of sports matches and theatre performances. The U12A Cricket team have had a fantastic result in the Middlesex Cup (more below), and the U12 Tennis team have had equal success in their fixture against KCS Wimbledon. First Year musicians and actors have also had a very busy week, with the First Year Choir recording pieces for the Summer Concert, and several First Year dramatists taking part in their first Hampton production, The Terrible Infants. Next week is a busy one for the boys, with trips and workshops to look forward to as we enter the final two weeks of the school year – well done, boys!

CLUBS AND TRAINING

Lots of clubs are up and running now; have a look at what you can do during your lunch break.

TEAM COLOURS DAY

On Friday, the entire school took part in Team Colours Day, to raise money for the School form charities. Lucas S-T (1P) gives an update on the day:

This Friday, we had team colours day where we contributed £2 to school to wear a t-shirt with the colours of one of our favourite sport teams. It wasn’t just for Football though, you could wear a shirt from any sport you liked. You could even do chess! Most of the people came up in Football gear and Rugby gear but there were quite a few unique sports. Unfortunately, nobody took the opportunity to dress up as a chess piece.

MIDDLESEX CRICKET CUP

On Wednesday, the U12A Cricket team played in the semi-finals of the Middlesex County Cup. Aditya K (1B) reports on an exciting match:

The U12A Cricket Team were excited and raring to go for the semi-finals against The John Lyon School for the Middlesex County Cup tournament. 

It was time for the toss and we were put to bat first. The John Lyon School had great opening bowlers and we lost a wicket in the third over. After some cautious watching, Aadi K and Akshat N put a partnership of about 45 runs. Once both were out, our batting collapsed with a flurry of wickets. With good contributions from Marcus and Joe, we managed to post 93 runs off 20 overs.

With a small total to defend we knew we had to be tight with our bowling and fielding. We started off well with a couple of wicket maidens each from Joe P and Tom B, supported by great bowling from Marcus S, Alex W and Ralph. The John Lyon School boys played with some caution initially after which they were looking to score freely with the run rate climbing and creating pressure. With the match evenly poised, two great catches from Steffan H swung the match in our favour. With runs drying up and wickets falling regularly, John Lyon School needed to score 16 runs in the last over. Ralph kept it tight and we managed to win the game by 12 runs.

Our boys were ecstatic and with this win, we reached the finals of the Middlesex County Cup where we will face Merchant Taylors.  We are upbeat with our current performance and are looking forward to it – It should be an exciting final!

Golf

Players from three Schools (Hampton, Grey Court, Orleans Park) enjoyed an afternoon in the sun competing in the annual Richmond Schools golf tournament at Fulwell Golf Club.

Aditya K, Daniel T, and Second Year pupil Mitul played in the junior category. It was great to see the younger boys playing, as this year was the first which has featured First Year competitors. Aditya had a great day, claiming the runner-up prize in his category as well as the nearest the pin prize. In fact he was the only competitor all day to reach the green in one shot – well done Aditya!

Three Hampton boys also competed in a 9-hole competition: James B (1Y), Jacob W (1Y), and Second Year Henry. Jacob was narrowly beaten (by one shot!) by a player from Orleans. This category was extremely close and it was good to see players new to the sport getting used to tournament play.

Mrs May saw some fantastic shots and is sure that the players’ handicaps will be coming down steadily over the years to come. We look forward to seeing them compete again!

SHARKS WITH KANISHK M

This week, Kanishk M (1W) gives a fascinating insight into the world of sharks.

The sharks that live in forests

In the coastal waters of the Bahamas, a juvenile lemon shark is being hunted by a strange predator, its own kind. But as things start to look grim, the juvenile shark disappears into a dense thicket of underwater roots safe in the sanctuary of a mangrove forest.

Forests do not usually come to mind as a habitat for sharks but various marine forests cover roughly 4.2 million square kilometres of the planet. Providing habitats for 35% of the world’s sharks.

Tiger sharks blend into meadows of seagrass as they hunt sea cows and turtles. White sharks stalk seals in kelp forests 65 meters tall. Finally, lemon sharks lurk in forests of mangroves: the only trees on earth that live in the ocean.

All of these ecosystems have their oddities, but mangroves may be the oddest of them all. Raising life around their roots and on their branches, mangroves function as a bridge between land and sea. To survive between these worlds, mangrove trees have evolved various adaptations to protect them and their resident sharks. Taking root in unstable ground is difficult so mangrove seedlings germinate attached to their mother plant. Once they have grown large enough they drop off and ride the ocean currents before settling down and deploying long, skinny stilt roots or thick buttress roots to support themselves in their terrain.

These trees now have two problems, the low oxygen mud and the high levels of salt. Mangrove tree’s roots are only partially submerged which allows them to take oxygen from the air at low tide and seal their roots at high tide. To stop salt entering their systems, many mangroves have fine filters to block out the salt or store it in special cell compartments. Others however, excrete the minerals out of their bark in crystals.

This allows crustaceans, sponges and squirts to live amongst them which in turn feed fish which feed sharks. But the sharks don’t just benefit from the forests. They are the glue that holds them together. Sharks limit the abundance of animals which would otherwise overgraze these essential plants.

So the next time you think about forests, think of the ones that don’t usually come to mind.

SPECIAL SHOUT OUTS!

Aadi K (1L), who plays for Wycombe House in addition to the U12A team at Hampton, has had a fantastic season this summer, with the highest batting average in Middlesex for cricket. Great stuff, Aadi!

FIRST YEAR FIVE QUESTIONS

A few questions for you to have a go at yourself or challenge people at home if they know the answer. Merits are awarded for everyone who has a go! Just click on the link below and enter your answers and points or the Inter-Form Competition will be awarded to the form with the most entries every week.

1. Which country/countries have had the most wins in the Euros?
2. At what temperature are Celsius and Fahrenheit equal?
3. How many countries have English as their official language?
4. In 19th century America, who directly rescued around 300 people from slavery and gave instructions to help dozens more via the Underground Railway?
5. What are the first names of Harry Potter’s parents?

Why don’t you have a go and enter your answers here. 

Remember to write your name in the form so you can be credited with merits!

We had 30 entries for the five questions last week, 1J are in the lead this week with 20 submissions! Wow, well done boys, nearly the entire form! Can we beat this next week? Well done to the following boys (make sure to add your merits in the back of your homework diaries and to collect your merit certificates when you reach 10!):

1B: Aditya K, Adam M, Boris D

1H: Prabodha A

1W: Oliver A

1L: Agalyan S

1J: Ralph C, Yuvraj S, Tom B, Aarush J, Josh G, Fabio TP, Dylan M, Nathaniel C, Akshat N, Matthew C, William M, Max V, Daniel T, Maxwell G, Freddie T, Archer J, Aaron L, Caspar S, Ben B, Joshua R

1P: Arish K

1F: Charlie H, Felix B, Pranavan P

And here are the answers to last week’s 5 questions:

1. Which 2019 film won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Film this year? Cats
2. Which famous British physicist wrote A Brief History of Time? Stephen Hawking
3. Who were the other two astronauts with Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission? Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins
4. How many teeth does an adult human have? 32
5. What is the capital of Canada? Ottawa

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!