April 2017 Newsletter

This has been a very happy and successful season for the footballers. My thanks to Devan Patel and Rowan Osborne for their review of the season:

A hugely successful season has seen the development of promising individuals into essential members of the team, with Dan Western becoming a solid presence at the base of the team, and winger Arran Kingston a powerful attacking threat. Aqueel Zulfiqar and goalkeeper Matt Allely put in consistently strong performances, while the energy of Soumitra Chakravarti and Zidan Salim led to a formidable Camp Hill midfield. In attack, striker Rowan Osborne can be pleased with his tally of twelve goals, one behind top scorer Cameron Walker on thirteen.

The season summary would not be complete without mentioning Cameron’s captaincy: an ever-present figure, the midfielder led by example and motivated the team through training sessions and matches alike, which the rest of the players are particularly grateful for. But it is the united team effort that has been most striking this season, leading the boys on to unprecedented achievements for a Camp Hill football team – most notably with a historic cup run – and nine victories in fourteen matches with a goal tally of 44.

I would like to second those words of praise for Cameron Walker. His leadership of this team, both on and off the field, has been truly remarkable – unique in my 13 years, and possibly for all the time that football has been a part of the curriculum here.

I have cut out Devan and Rowan’s words of thanks to the masters in charge of football, in order to allow me to replace them with my own words: a massive thank you, Mr Speake, for all you have done in coaching and developing this team. Your encouragement, advice and insight are valued so much by them all (and me!) and your willingness to step in and referee at a moment’s notice is more than generous. Add to that the indefatigable way you develop our fixture list year on year; the boys and I are more than grateful.

MJG
Swimming

The Spring term provided three galas for the school swimmers. In January we visited St Martin’s School for our annual splash with Arden School, Camp Hill Girls and St Martins. This year we had some excellent swims from Joe Day, Will Smith and Michael James-Thomas, and the lads claimed victory over Arden School.

The House gala is arguably the highlight of the school swimming calendar. The event provides a great spectacle for all those involved and this year Joe Day came tantalisingly close to breaking Mr Caves’ Year 8 backstroke record. Keep at it! Unfortunately Mr Cookson’s innovation from last year (a wooden box with a buzzer in it) didn’t make an appearance at the starting blocks this year and the more traditional method of starting races with a whistle was used.

Beaufort claimed victory once again in the House Swimming championship, and also picked up a healthy share of the Victor Ludorum awards, with Joe Day, Henry Belai and Michael James-Thomas all collecting.

In the second half of the Spring term we had the honour of welcoming Camp Hill Girls swimming team to, erm, their pool. Our regular fun fixture is always a bit of a laugh and this year, despite the senior girls team being given a 3 second head start, Amrit Phull and Emily Colleran were pushing for 5 seconds! The Year 7 girls made short work of the Year 7 boys (and also the Year 9 boys!), but the Senior lads held their own. Overall this year the match was a victory for Camp Hill Girls.

Mr O’Malley and Mr Jack encourage all school swimmers to attend training on Fridays and we once again thank Dr Natalie Higgins for her continuing support with running the Friday sessions.

The Queen Mary Quick Play Tournament in mid-March, where games are about 40 minutes long, provided us with an opportunity to develop chess players at Camp Hill. With those who routinely play on the first team excluded by tournament rules, a second team, along with our usual U13 team, competed against 7 other teams from Queen Mary, Bishop Vesey, KES and King Edwards High School for Girls in a well run, enjoyable, three-round tournament. Our second team proved itself a good match for the competition as it scored 14 points and placed second, just one point behind the winners, KES, and two points clear of the third-placed Bishop Vesey. Our U13s placed fifth (9 points), which was an excellent result given that the competition was open to all pupils, including Year 13s.

Another Spring term, another action-packed glory-fest for the Beaufort boys.

It all kicked off with the Intermediate Quiz. Jake Holloway volunteered to captain, joined by Bhuvan, Neal and Vignesh. Let’s just say that they came up against some very fast fingers. Despite a very good effort they were unable to beat the Senior Quiz team’s third place position from last term. Later in the term it was the Junior boys’ turn. Sam Gray led Tom Heppel, Adeen Irfan, Paul Kelly and Ishan Tewari into the competition, which turned out to be very well matched. Every match came down to just a few points between the houses and the Junior Quiz title was shared three ways between Beaufort, Howard and Tudor. With all the results counted Beaufort placed third in the overall House Quiz championship.

The House Chess was a very successful venture. John Hayton volunteered to captain the team, joined by fellow senior boys Ashrit Chohan, Nathan Moyle and Vamsi Pratapa, plus a host of talented junior boys. We stormed to victory winning almost all of our games against the other House players. It was a decisive victory for Beaufort, securing 6 crucial championship points.

It is almost a tradition for Beaufort to win the House Swimming championship, but nothing can be taken for granted. Mr O’Malley was very pleased with the effort that the Year 7 – 10 boys put in to their swimming standards. Every point counts and Beaufort entered the gala with a very solid lead. On top of the excellent head start from the standards, some of the school’s top swimmers happen to be in Beaufort and were able to bag more points for the House, making our lead over the others unassailable. Victor Ludora were awarded to Joe Day, Michael James-Thomas and Henry Belai. Special mentions are also due to Lorcan Halstead, Simon Halstead and Anant Kapoor who all only narrowly missed out on Victor Ludorum awards themselves.

The Rugby championship was concluded in the second half of the Spring term. Howard’s seniors presented our lads which some tough opposition and in the Autumn term we had to settle for second in the Senior 15s. Our Senior 7s team was adversely affected by a combination of absence, a football match and House Hockey and we had to settle for third place there. The Inters won their age group in the Autumn term and the Year 7s shared second place with Howard, second to Seymour. The Year 8 team replicated their excellent performance from last year and stormed away winning their three matches decisively. All in, Beaufort and ‘old enemy’ Howard are sharing the Rugby championship this year. Good effort everybody!

Beaufort placed third overall in the Hockey; the Inters share second place with Seymour and the Senior boys placed third. Thank you to Beant and Luqmaan for organising the teams.

At the time of going to press the House Music, Senior Cricket and Senior Tennis are still undecided. The championship running is painfully close – Beaufort currently leading on Howard by just a few points, with Seymour hot on Howard’s tail. The overall result will hinge on the effort that the Beaufort boys are willing to put in to their Athletics standards next term.

A good term for Seymour this time round with a number of competitions completed. Highlights came from the Swimming Standards and Gala finishing in second place, our highest finish for a few years, House Quiz, again finishing second, and House Hockey, winning the tournament for the third year in a row. The House Rugby also concluded with the Year 7s winning their competition and the Senior 7s coming second. With just the House Music to conclude the term, I am hoping Seymour have improved their overall position in the House Championship.