Welcome to the Third Year Blog!
Well, here we are! The final Third Year blog of the year and the moment when the pupils all stride out of the gates into the sunlit uplands of the summer holidays. Meanwhile, the teachers retreat into the staff room to be cryogenically frozen until term starts in September.
The Third Year have been superb this year, growing as a group and as individuals. The energy and enthusiasm exuding from them even on this last day is brilliant to see, as they strive for every last Haribo sweet on offer in these final ‘fun’ lessons. We will be sad to see them move on, though we will still follow their progress keenly as they move through the School, taking their talents and abilities with them.
It is a testament to them all that there is still a relentless flood of achievements to fill the blog with today. National championship wins, translation competition triumphs, an inspirational video, and the final results of the Interform Cup! We are positively sprinting over the finish line.
Here’s to a magnificent year and a magnificent group of boys.
Spotlight on rowing
Patrick M (3C) has written a brilliant article for the 2023 Hampton Sports Chronicle, have a read below:
Rowing at Hampton is a fantastic sport to experience, but also one of the toughest sports to compete in. Being in the first year of rowing for all of the Third Year rowers, there has been significant improvement and progress throughout the year. As a squad we have gone from taking our first rowing strokes to winning national medals or
simply experiencing the joy of racing. The season has been great for the whole squad. Second place at the Junior Sculling Head and Junior Sculling Regatta (both national events) for the First octo (8x+) and a Bronze medal at National Schools’ Regatta, the biggest junior rowing regatta in the country.
Highlights included a win in the Second 8x+ at the Junior Sculling Head and a first and second place finish in the Hampton Head, which the School hosts every year. As well as being competitive right at the top of the squad, all levels of Third Year rowers have taken part in races with many crews going to BASHER and BASHER II (BASHER
is an acronym for the six big rowing schools in the country: Bedford, Abingdon, St Paul’s, Hampton, Eton and Radley), Hampton Head, a private fixture against St George’s at the start of the year, and more regattas to come before the season finishes.
What can be said about rowing at Hampton is that there is a great unity as a squad. The ability when racing, when every muscle in your body is screaming to stop, to keep on going, if not for you but the others in the boat, and let’s not forget how important the cox is in drowning out that voice. The team spirit in rowing can be stronger than any
other sport, crews are so tightly knit yet the First 8x+ for example has had 16 different rowers and coxes this year (including a J16 who kindly coxed the First 8x+ at the Teddington Head).
Despite multiple changes in crews there is still this great sense of camaraderie. The transition from a new rower to National Schools’ medallist has been helped enormously by this unity. There is that constant competitive drive among members of the squad to get a better ergo score or get your blades in at the right time together at the catch of every stroke. The desire to improve yourself and do better than you did last time, a week ago, the last race, the last term, the start of the year.
Frustratingly physical improvement does not work in a straight line but over the course of the year, together as a squad, we have improved. We have gone from rowing half of the boat at a time with square blades, to rowing full crew with feathering, to being able to slowly raise the rate cap until we are rowing stronger and neater than we were
before. Learning from the team of coaching staff what to do and how to do it, we have ended the season as a squad with four national medals. We can’t wait for next year!
Translation competition success
Third Year linguist Arie B (3C) earned a commendation for his Mandarin to English translation in the Anthea Bell Prize. This is a remarkable effort, with over 15,000 students taking part in the competition. A fantastic achievement to round off the School year. Well done, Arie!
Arts Award
As part of his Arts Award, Thomas F (3B) produced his own video about the pleasure of his daily cycle into School. It’s an impressive and thoughtful piece of film that makes the Third Year blog want to dust off their own bike and start pedalling. Great work, Thomas!
National Chess Champions
For most of the year, all you hear about is ESFA this, ESFA that, and who scored against who on the 3G. Now, the Third Year blog is a fan of the round ball sport, but occasionally it can seem to hog the limelight.
As an example of this, most people in the School were not even aware that Hampton were in the national Chess finals. The event was a marathon of elite chess, involving over 12 hours of play. In truth, there is an argument that the School should have arranged for the entire School to attend, as we did with the ESFA final, though I’m not sure the Chess tournament would have been ready for 750 Hamptonians singing songs about the superior quality of the School’s pianos.
After two days of competition, Hampton was crowned the winning School. From a Third Year standpoint, we are incredibly proud to be able to count Anirudh S as part of the winning team. It is an incredible achievement and seeing Anirudh hold the trophy aloft in front of the whole School in the final assembly of the year made Third Year chests swell with pride.
Hampton Backgammon Champion
A huge well done to Cassian B-S (3F) who has been crowned this year’s Backgammon champion.
The Interform Cup – final results
The eagerly anticipated Interform Basketball competition took place on Thursday, as the final event in the Interform cup. EVERYTHING was on the line as 3A and 3F were separated by just one point.
So, what happened?
The basketball results were:
1st: 3A 9pts
2nd: 3B 8pts
3rd : 3J 7pts
4th : 3D 6pts
5th : 3F 5pts
6th: 3E 4pts
7th : 3C 3pts
8th: 3H 2 pts
Did not attend: 3G 0pts
The mathematicians amongst you (and I know that is all of you) will have worked out that this meant that 3A were overall Williams Cup winners! Well done to them and their illustrious leaders Mrs Whitwam and Miss Towler. The photo below captures the moment of sheer joy for their Form Tutors as the winning hoop was hooped.
The final results of the overall Interform competition are below. Well competed everyone!
1st: 3A – 71 pts
2nd : 3F – 66 pts
3rd : 3D – 64 pts
4th : 3E – 52 pts
Joint 5th : 3G and 3J – 50 pts
7th : 3H – 45 pts
8th : 3C – 44 pts
9th : 3B – 43 pts
Two truths and a lie
Last week’s ‘facts’ came from Ms Doncel-Cervantes. She is clearly well travelled, but she is also hiding the truth from us. Which of the following was a lie?
- Ms Doncel-Cervantes taught English as a foreign language in a remote village at the foothills of the Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador.
- Ms Doncel-Cervantes was once caught in a sandstorm in the middle of the night while camping in Death Valley and had to be evacuated by the Park Rangers.
- Ms Doncel-Cervantes got stung multiple times by a smack of jellyfish far out in the coast of Sardinia on my honeymoon.
Ms Doncel-Cervantes did teach English in the foothills of an Ecuadorean volcano, which would have prepared her well for the sort of temperatures she would face in a Hampton classroom at the height of summer. Ms Doncel-Cervantes did receive multiple jellyfish stings while on her honeymoon. In terms of her lie, even most of that was true, in that she did get caught in a sandstorm in Death Valley while camping. What was not true was the idea that she needed to be evacuated by the Park Rangers. Not Ms Doncel-Cervantes! She just slept the night through the sandstorm anyway!
There is no two truths and a lie this week, as there would be no opportunity to reveal the lie…
Instead, in honour of the magnificent Mr Clarke, who has taught at the school for nearly four decades but sadly leaves us this year, we have an image of him from one of the whole School photographs. However, this photo contains another current member of staff apart from Mr Clarke. The question is who is it?
Did you guess correctly? Sitting at Mr Clarke’s right foot with the ungainly brown bowl cut, you will see Mr Green as he was as a First Year at Hampton.
Connection Corner
Drum roll please…it’s time to reveal the winners of the very last Connection Corner of the year! Well done to everyone who’s had a go at our perplexing puzzles since September.
Big shout out to Felix B, Leander K-B, Archer J, Albert S, Oliver A, Finley M, Tanmay B, Stanley A, Adam M, Ollie W, Matthew J, Max F, Jude L-S, Maurice R, Johnny R, Josha R, Ben B, Samuel H and Akshay P.
In case you’re still perplexed, here are the answers from the our very final conundrum:
Mark Cavendish competes in which sporting discipline? Cycling
What is the name of the mythical area in the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have mysteriously disappeared? Bermuda Triangle
What term is used for the goods carried on a ship, aircraft, or other large vehicle? Cargo
Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Frazier and George Foreman are all famous what? Boxers
Connection: Types of shorts (Cycling Shorts, Bermuda Shorts, Cargo Shorts, Boxer Shorts, Football Shorts)
