Easter Term 2023 - Week 9 Sports Report

Netball v King’s Worcester, James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS), Winchester College, County U15 Finals

Quarter and Semi-finals – ISNC Plate

Tuesday's game was against King’s School, Worcester. Canford had a great start, winning the first centre pass and first turnover, converting both. This led to a strong lead throughout resulting in a smashing 54-31 win.

This got us excited for the semi-final the next day again with a strong start, however JAGS held their own until the 3rd quarter when Canford took a significant run to win an even more impressive scoreline of 63-37. It was amazing to see everyone getting court time and all our hard work coming together. Epsom College in the final of the ISNC Plate on Friday will be another opportunity to give everything we have.

POM both games Lauren Corn.

Written by Co-Captain Lauren Corn

6th team

On Thursday, the 6th team played an amazing game against Winchester. It was a rough start with 1-4 for Winchester, but we didn’t lose hope and managed to win 13-12. Our defenders Tiegan, Lara and Elisabeth were strong and made some great interceptions. Our midfielders Alice, Sophia, Tiegan, Liv and Evie were quick and did an amazing job of feeding the ball to our shooters Elodie, Lara and Elisabeth, who all scored some great goals. On the way back to school, we listened to some great music and celebrated another well played match. Congratulations to the players of the match, Lara (attack) and Elisabeth (defence).

Written by Elizabeth Koppert

U15 County Finals

What a day for the U15 County Finals. The weather was hit and miss all afternoon but most of the time it was on our side. We knew there was going to be some tough competition, but we were ready to take on the challenge.

We started off with a match against Sherborne and knew that from a game a few weeks’ previously that we could win this first game. Sherborne came out fighting, and after they won the first half, we knew we needed to make a change. The girls dug deep and with some great feeds into the circle and sharp shooting from Georgia we finished the game with the win only giving them one goal in the second half.

This was then followed by some great wins against QE and Thomas Hardye School. We had a tough last match against Bournemouth School for Girls, but we dug deep. Kate and Annabelle worked hard to turn balls in defence and we were able to finish with a 10-5 win.

This took us through to the semi-finals against Glenmoor. This was a close game from start to finish, Glenmoor took the lead in the first half, and we knew we had to make changes to how we played. With the defence working together, we were able to close their centre passes forcing them back up the court resulting in some great turnovers from Delilah who was then able to work with the attack to get the ball to the goal. The game finished with the Canford taking a centre pass in the last 10 seconds with the ball being received by Anna in 3 passes who finished up with a great goal, taking us 1 up to make the final.

We knew the final was going to be tough. We had the reassurance that we had beaten Parkstone Grammar before but needed to keep our composure. We did just that, with PGS going 2 goals up in the first minute the girls stayed strong. With strong circle feeds from Connie and Poppy to Georgia who was holding strong, we were able to finish 1st in the County Finals.

Group stages

Sherborne 11-5 Win

QE School 18-7 Win

Thomas Hardye School 12-7 Win

BSG 19-5 Win

Semis - Glenmoor 8-7 Win

Finals - Parkstone GS 10-5 Win

Lacrosse – National Schools Championships

On exeat weekend the Girls’ 1st Lacrosse team set off for the challenges of competing for national titles at Aldershot. The weekend didn’t get off to the greatest of starts with Miss E being hit by a virus and unable to attend but the coaching help and knowledge of OC Nory Warner softened that blow.

The first day was always going to be tough playing against some of the strongest schools in the country including in our group Caterham and Berkhamsted who would go on to play in the Championship Semi and Quarter Finals respectively. There were some positive signs though in particular with a 1-3 defeat against Bedford Girls School who on Day 2 would win the Division 2 title.

Our Day 1 results had placed us in Division 3 on the Sunday and following a restful night at a nearby Premier Inn the girls attacked the new day with a spring in their step. First up were TASIS and a much improved attacking game saw us head off with a 5-0 victory. North London Collegiate School were next and proved sterner opposition. 1-0 down at half time we lost our way in the 2nd half and ended up with a 5-0 defeat. A good lesson learnt though as it showed that the girls needed to communicate more effectively and work as a team and not individuals. Next up were Loretto from Scotland who were unbeaten to that point. An outstanding performance saw the Canford girls come away with a 1-0 victory. A final 4-1 victory against St James’ School saw us safely into the Division 3 semi-finals having won 3 from 4 of our pool games.

The draw pitted us into a rematch against Loretto School and once again it was nip and tuck. Loretto took and early lead and held that until half time. The Canford girls fought back strongly to level at 1-1 before a Loretto breakaway with a couple of minutes to go restored their one goal lead. This led to a final fierce assault on the Loretto goal and as the claxon sounded for the end of the game a Canford shot fired into the bottom corner. Was it a goal or not … unfortunately the decision went the way of Loretto and the girls bowed out at the semi-final stage.

The group deserve huge credit for how they worked and performed over the weekend. It would be very hard to pick individuals but Lucy Vrettos stood out for her work ethic and positivity all weekend and Grace Mansfield also deserves a shout out for her performances in goal over the weekend. Well done all, Canford’s best ever Lacrosse performance at Nationals!

Football v Blandford School and Dauntsey’s

Oaks 1-3 Blandford

Goal: Wittram

The boys hosted Blandford School on Tuesday in a tough tie. Last term, after the boys went 3-0 down, we came back to 3-2 and were so close to equalising right at the end. Blandford came out firing and were able to score fairly early on. Then, failure to clear a corner was punished, doubling the Blandford lead. A poor first half performance showed a glimmer of hope with a great strike by Wittram outside the box, making the score 2-1.

This gave Canford the confidence in the second half. There were some great combinations down the left between Kwan, Okubanjo and Crutchley, and similarly on the right with Martin, Wittram and Merrell. It was the left hand side that would create the next chance. Crutchley received the ball from Kwan and spun his defender, who took him down. A great save from the opposition kept the penalty out, and that gave Blandford the boost they needed. On the break they were able to get another fairly late on in the game.

Player of the match was Merrell.

Oaks 3-0 Dauntsey’s

Goals: Wittram (2), Fountain

Two days’ later the boys hosted again, this time Dauntsey’s. With several players missing the Oaks had a different look to it. That didn’t matter though as the boys came out flying in tough conditions. It didn’t take long to break the deadlock, a Wittram free kick skimmed off the surface past the goalkeeper. The boys kept pushing but were unable to double their advantage.

Into the second half and the boys started well again. Dauntsey’s handballed in the box and the resulting penalty was dispatched by Wittram for his second of the game. As the game went on, the weather got worse, as did the pitch. A perfectly weighted direct ball from Okubanjo was calmly finished by Fountain, for his first goal for the Oaks. A clean sheet was preserved late on in the fixture, with a brilliant save from Landale.

Player of the match could’ve gone to a few different players, but Fowle deserved it for his strong performance in the Oaks.

Real Tennis / Squash v Radley, Wellington College and Sherborne

Real Tennis vs. Radley

Canford 3 – Radley 3

An exciting afternoon of tennis, which for all three of our Canford players may have been their final school match. We almost got off to the perfect start, with Ethan and Merlin impressively winning their singles matches. Louis was 4/1 up, but a slight drop in concentration allowed his Radley opponent back in, taking the next 5 games. The doubles was played on a rolling handicap basis (handicaps adjusted after each game), which made for some tense 6/5 victories for the Radley pairs. Luckily Canford finished in style to take the final match 6/3

Real Tennis v Wellington College

Canford 3 - Wellington 3

Gabriel Davey lost to Archer W: 2/6
Toby Lemans lost to Ruben Kirby: 1/6
​Tom Chissell beat Finn Harris: 6/1
Davey/Lemans beat Archer/Ruben: 6/3
Davey/Chissell lost to Archer/Kirby: 4/6
Lemans/Chissell beat Harris/Kirby: 6/5

Fantastic match away at Wellington for our Fourth Form boys. Tom got us off to a flying start with some excellent cut shots into both corner and solid serving. Gabriel and Toby were taking a while to adapt to the different court, but both had their moments and a game here or there could have galvanised a bit of momentum. Luckily, Canford came storming back in the doubles with all three matches going right down to the wire. Great to see the boys working together as a team and really starting to think tactically on court!

Player of the day has to go to Tom, two big wins and much improved since the last match.

Squash v Sherborne

Canford 4 – Sherborne 1

Ethan Bikhazi-Green beat Zach: 3/0
Tom Clark beat Zach: 3/2
Louis Potts lost to Simon: 1/3
Merlin Cork beat Jamie: 3/0
Sam Stirling beat Yu-Han: 3/2

A great performance from Canford at this home fixture against Sherborne. Most of the matches were close at times and could have gone either way. There were some great matches in which we started to work out the opponent and playing more controlled squash, something that we've been trying to work on recently. Overall we just had the edge over Sherborne and a great victory

Players of the day go to Tom Clark and Sam Stirling. Both found themselves 0/2 down but with some tighter and more controlled squash they found themselves gaining some momentum. Their confidence both grew throughout their matches starting to keep the ball deep and dominating the T. They did well to close their matches out and take the win. Very well played to Merlin also, who seems to have found his mojo back! Great result.

Other news…

• Girls’ junior house squash on Tuesday at 4.30pm
• Squash match v Clayesmore on Thursday
• U14s Real tennis match v Radley on Thursday

Real Tennis Premier League Match – Saturday 18th March from 4.30pm

Chance to watch some of the best players in the world!

Feel free to pop in whenever you wish, should finish at about 8pm.

Running / X-Country at Milton Abbey and Sherborne

Milton Abbey

We took a small team of runners to Milton Abbey on last Tuesday for one of the most scenic and popular races of the calendar. A number of our runners were recovering from an active Ten Tors weekend and tackled the hilly course bravely. Our Inter-Girls team were the stand out performers of the day, with Jemima Chappell taking the gold medal, and Bella King and Paige Davis-McCluskie taking 7th and 8th place respectively.

On Thursday we travelled to Clayesmore for their classic relay race. Another season favourite due to its famous ditch run (through one foot of water) and pond jump. Our Inter-Boys A team took 5th place in an extremely competitive field, with Santi Sastre performing as the 8th fastest Inter boy on the day. Also in 5th place were our senior girls team. Impressive performances were Abi Crossley, running the 6th fastest girls lap of the day, and Jemima Chappell the 8th fastest.

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