Easter Term 2023 - Week 1 Sports Report

Hockey

Following a COVID enforced break the Canford Boys 1st XI returned to Barcelona early in the new year for the prestigious Hockey Reyes International Tournament hosted at the fantastic facilities of the Real Club de Polo.

The tournament saw teams from across Europe competing with some particularly strong sides from the Netherlands and the host nation taking part. After a day of training, sightseeing and acclimatisation the boys started well with a 2-0 victory over fellow English side Calday Grange followed by a close 2-1 defeat to a Catalan Select XI. The 2nd day started with a tough defeat to Dutch side Bloemendaal followed by a 1-1 draw with Spanish Club Pedralbes, which could have been better but for a last minute equaliser from the home team. That left the boys facing a 5th/6th place playoff against Willem College from Holland on Finals day. The last game proved to be a step too far with the Dutch team running out winners leaving the Canford boys in 6th place overall and as highest finishing UK side. A great experience for all and it will set the boys up nicely as they return to Tier 1 League action shortly in this Easter Term.

In other Hockey news it was also fantastic to see recent OC Martha Taylor make her Great Britain debut in their recent mini-tournament in Argentina. Coming fast on the tails of her England debut earlier in 2022, Exeter University student Martha has become Canford’s first full GB Hockey International. A fantastic achievement and definitely an inspiration to all Canford Hockey players.

Cricket

Congratulations to Lower Sixth pupil Eddie Jack who has been selected for the England U19 side for their upcoming tour to Australia. The Young Lions will head down under in late January for a 4 week tour which takes in 2 x Youth Tests, 3 x Youth One day Internationals and 1 x Youth T20 international. Well done Eddie on your ongoing and safe travels.

It was also great to see another recent OC Tom Prest receive a call up to the England Lions squad for their One Day international series against Sri Lanka. Having finished his first full season at Hampshire and captained the U19s to the World Cup Final, Tom has been named in the squad which contains both full internationals and promising youngsters. They will play the Sri Lanka A team in three ODIs in February.

View all the latest sports photos

https://media.canford.com (password required – pupils and staff use school logins, for parents login details can be found in the Parent Portal in the Photos & Media section)

This sports report is published weekly and is available via the Twitter feed and also on the dedicated sports portal www.canfordsports.com.

Twitter @CanfordSport Instagram @canford_sport_and_wellbeing