Dear Parents and Carers

This term we had two fixtures with KES which were in some way a return for matches in 2014.

The teams split into U17 and U15, with a total of 18 boys involved.

In the U15 match we dominated proceedings, playing some excellent singles and doubles games, showing astute tactical awareness. Isara Mahalekam led a squad made up of Abbas Mirza, Sachin Subramonian, Sami Hamsho, Dylan Rogers, Harry Wells, Jamie Wen, Shrey Boora, Sam Howarth and Sreekar Somalayar. Sachin and Dylan remained undefeated and we triumphed 20-12.

The U17 match was a much closer affair. In fact it was a rather enthralling contest as for every win or two we posted, KES hit back with one or two of their own. After the first round of games the score was 6-all, after round two 12-all. We then invented two further doubles rounds and the score progressed to 14-all, then 14-18….to KES. An exciting evening. Well done to Amit Chaudhari, Parvesh Konda, Jay Chandarana, Shreshth Malik, Fazal Shah, Aditya Ravindranath, Nishant Chaudhri and Madhav Ramesh.

All these boys will be returning next year and we hope to get further fixtures for them to play in.

The U13 and U14 basketball teams have finished their league campaigns this term, both having had very successful seasons.

The first match of the term saw a poor performance from Camp Hill but this fortunately didn’t matter too much as they still managed a 29-18 victory against Wheeler’s Lane. The next two matches took place against tough opposition in the form of Baverstock and Sheldon Heath. However Camp Hill were up to the challenge and some good positional play and shooting by Joe Clark and Michael James Thomas helped them to 29-8 and 32-10 victories. The final match took place against Bishop Challenor and although this was the toughest fixture of the campaign, it was undoubtedly the team’s best performance as some great defensive play led to a 24-18 win. Sachin Subramonian controlled matches well and was also the overall top scorer with 40 points. Honourable mentions also go to Tommy Ransbotyn, Leon Zhang and Jacob Reeves who made appearances in all matches and regularly contributed baskets. The team will now go on to face the winners of the North Birmingham league on the finals day after Easter.

The U14 team have played three matches this term. After despatching Landau Forte with ease in the first match of the term, Baverstock were next up and were much tougher opposition. Both teams showed some great defensive play but struggled to break the other down in attack. In a low scoring affair Baverstock won 14-8, with only Alex Byrne able to do any damage for Camp Hill as he scored 8 points. The final league match against Kings Heath saw Camp Hill return to winning ways as a great performance in the final quarter saw the match finish at 31-13. Owais Akram contributed 6 points and Danny Blyth 8 in a good team performance. Rumun Ark was the only player to appear in every match and can be commended for his commitment to the team.

The U14s also qualified to represent the local area in the Birmingham Winter Games. Although given a tough group the team managed 3 wins and only 2 losses. Although this wasn’t quite enough to go through to the semi-finals, it certainly did cement their position as one of the best teams in Birmingham.

The U12s have also recently started basketball training and if their enthusiasm for the sport continues they will be sure to become a strong outfit in the future. Special mentions go to Sanjay Suresh, Yusof Elsherbiny and Patrick Achusiogu for the ability that they have shown so far.

P 18 W 11 L 7

The U.13XVs have had an excellent season achieving notable victories against Old Swinford Hospital 28-14, King Henry’s Coventry 22-15, KE Aston 35-0, Bishop Vesey 34-5 and KE Stratford 19-17. In addition to this, it is worth pointing out that 5 of the matches lost were by the narrowest of margins.

It is particularly pleasing to note that a number of the team’s wins have come against teams that they lost to as U.12s. Although certain individual players deserve special praise for their contributions during the season, there is no doubt that the team’s success has been built upon a team ethic, a determined attitude in both defence and attack and a superb attitude towards training.

Captain Michael James Thomas has done a really good job as captain; well organised off the field and leading by example on it. He has been ably supported in the pack by a number of other players who have regularly turned in impressive performances. Matt Dixon in the front row has been ever present and Pierre Lee at hooker has stepped up from the ‘B’ team last year to cement an ‘A’ team place. Louis Parmar, Zaman Khan and in the latter part of the season, Simon Halstead have occupied the second row positions; all showing some potential for the future. However, the real strength of the forward unit has been the back row comprising at different times of: Jason Tahiri, Sam Hope, Joe Clarke and Henry Moreau Smith. Particular praise must go to Joe and Henry who have both regularly turned in ‘man of the match’ performances with their skill, commitment and work rate.

Another key member of the squad has been Tommy Ramsbotyn at scrum half who has provided an important link between forwards and backs. The fly half berth has been occupied by two players: Oliver Ebeneezer and Sachin Subramonian who have both been able to launch the team’s backline with good distribution in attack. Josh Birch and Judah Daniels have formed an effective centre partnership which has created many try scoring opportunites. Judah is another player to emerge from last year’s ‘B’ team to be this year’s leading try scorer with 21 tries. There has been strong competition for places on the wing with Bradley Williams, Bilal Hussein, Keiron Taylor and latterly Ryan McNamee all making a contribution, but Leon Zhang has been a main source of tries with a final total of 13.

The team can be proud of their achievements this year and with more players beginning to show greater commitment to training, they have the potential for further development as a squad. Can I take this opportunity to thank the regular band of supporters who have turned out to offer their encouragement form the touchline.

CMJ

U12 Rugby Report

The U12 rugby squad has made huge progress this term. After a number of difficult losses against more experienced teams in the autumn term they have produced some excellent wins in recent weeks. The first few games of the term saw two losses to Adams Grammar and Stratford and a decisive victory away against Southam in their second meeting of the year. The next three games were disappointingly cancelled due to frozen pitches but this didn’t dishearten the boys and they came back fighting at the end of February to beat Old Swinford away 32-22. Considering the scale of their loss to this very team back in October this was a huge confidence booster for the boys and has proved to be a decisive victory which shows just how much they have improved this season. Another clear win at home against Fairfax (47-5) and an away win against Kings Norton Boys’ (26-0) has really helped secure the confidence of the U12 A team. The season ended with the annual Greater Birmingham Tournament against four other local schools. Their early loss to Fiveways by only one try was disappointing for the boys who felt they could have taken that match after being camped in the opposition’s territory for most of the first half. They then went on to beat Aston and lose to their old foes Bishop Vesey’s before a resounding win over King Edward’s after a strong performance in the second half. Overall third place was awarded and with much improved performances against the likes of Fiveways they can expect to improve on that in future years. Each player has made tremendous individual contributions to the team this season and it is impossible to single out individuals for special praise as each game really has been a team effort. It has been great to see some boys join the team late in the season and make remarkable progress in a very short space of time, most notably Chetan Biju and Usmaan Nadeem. Well done to all the boys who have taken part this season.

This term started well with a convincing 7-0 victory over Old Swinford giving the team a chance to try moves out and switch positions round having not played for over three weeks. The next game, however, was not so fruitful. In a closely fought game against Solihull, the opposition were just too clinical in front of goal managing to hit the back of the net on three occasions.

Putting this disappointment behind them Camp Hill went to King Henrys, always an exciting fixture. Taking a two goal lead with some direct attacking play was the perfect start for Camp Hill but King Henrys fought back to tie the game 2-2. The confidence gained from this game put the team in a determined mood to play Queen Marys, running out 1-0 winners by the final whistle.

The last two games of the season both ended in defeat but with the team playing some excellent hockey, still finishing the season on a high. As the team lose a number of upper sixth this year , next season will be another tough, but hopefully rewarding, time.

Following our strong finish to the Autumn Term, the second team were hopeful of becoming a much more competitive outfit in the second half of the season. Despite losing our first few games to Lawrence Sheriff, Five Ways and Solihull, we took many positives from these performances. A more settled backline meant that we only conceded 8 goals, despite having conceded 26 goals in our previous five matches. The most pleasing aspect of these performances, however, was the form of our strikers, with a couple of goals from Azeem Hanjra trebling our total tally for the season. Our fourth match of the term saw us take on King Henry VIII School. As we went into half time only 1-0 down, we were hopeful of securing a positive result, and Zeyad Khalil duly found some scintillating form, scoring the two goals which gave us our first win of the season. After half term, our form stalled a little, as we lost our next three games, conceding 13 without reply. At the time of writing, we have one more match to play this season, against Aston. Prior to this game, our record for the season shows us having played 16, won 1, drawn 1 and lost 14, conceding 61 goals and scoring 6. Our joint top goal scorers were Zeyad Khalil and Azeem Hanjra with 2 each. Despite the results, the boys can be proud of their efforts and the positive attitude they showed in the face of often far superior opposition. Next season looks like it could be more successful, with a strong core of younger players emerging throughout the season.

With only 5 games played this term the U15s did not have much chance to develop their team play. The first game ended with a satisfying 7-0 win over Old Swinford. The team managed to play some nice passing and moving hockey from start to finish. Unfortunately, two weeks later Aston did the same to us. Camp Hill struggled to create any chances and frustratingly conceded too many.

The tour gave the team a chance to finish the term on a high. After closely losing the first came against Cockermouth 2-1, Camp Hill played their best hockey of the year beating Ullswater and Austin Friars 4-0 and 3-1 respectively. Both Mr Hardy and Mr Smith were very impressed with the U15s teamwork and determination and hopefully this will encourage them as they aim to make their mark in the senior teams next year.

TJW

Under 14 Hockey

At the start of the year in September 2014 there was not yet an U14 hockey team, but a few weeks into the term, the trials took place  and the squad for this season was selected. As we still don’t have an actual hockey pitch, the team played on the tennis courts, which we soon found out was not the best surface for hockey.

Unfortunately, the first match against Old Swinford ended in a 2-1 loss, and most of this was because we had not had much practice on astroturf which was much easier to play on than the tennis courts the team had become accustomed to. After the first game we were more aware of our strengths and weaknesses and we were able to address them in our fortnightly games session at the Olton training fields.

As the season progressed we soon started to develop as a team and we had a tight second game against Old Swinford. However the next game was a much harder match, which the team lost 4-0, in the only game they hadn’t scored in. In that game, however, we realised what we needed to do to beat King Henry’s the next time we played them. Accordingly, in our second game against King Henry’s we had our best result of the season, our first draw 1-1. This is a great example of how all the individuals in the team and the team as a whole has developed since our first game. We ended the term with a loss against Aston but we were without our captain and it showed to some degree.

The whole team performed to the best of their ability and had a total score of 4 goals in our five games, all being scored by captain Abaan Butt and all being assisted by vice-captain Alex Byrne.

The season has been a promising start for the team and we look to further matches and development next year.

The team would like to thank Mr Azam for his undying devotion to the development of the team, and Mr Duncan for acquiring the training grounds for practice.

Abaan Butt

1^st XI Football

The 1^st XI have played 5 matches this term, which makes 12 games for the season; that equals the record for the most games in a season set in 2011-12. We are very grateful to Mr Speake for his constant efforts to get us fixtures.

Sadly, we lost all this term’s matches, with a combined score of 21 goals conceded and 2 scored (by Joe McWilliam and Max O’Brien). Overall, our statistics are played 12, won 2, drawn 1, lost 9, goals for 8 and goals against 41. Those statistics are very harsh on us and certainly do not on their own paint an accurate picture. The last game of the season, against John Henry Newman Catholic College about sums it up. For the first half we dominated the game, in terms both of possession and territory, but the goals just would not come. JHN started the second half much more strongly than they finished the first and the game was more even for quarter of an hour or so. JHN scored twice in that time. We started to respond to their raised game, only to concede a third. As the game neared an end we began to take more control again, but still did not get the goals we deserved. That 3-0 result so misrepresents the game, just as the stats above misrepresent the season.

In recognition of its rising importance within our games curriculum, football was granted the privilege of awarding full colours and half colours. Previously, only half colours were on offer. Two players have completed two seasons with the 1^st XI, and were awarded full colours: Connor Burns and Luke Greatrex. Indeed, Luke’s contribution this season as captain has been superb; his commitment on the field has always been 100%, his reliability at training and practices has been exemplary; he has frequently been our best player in matches; he has encouraged others and consistently led by example.

Half colours were awarded to Kabir Choudry, Arun Chowdhury, Hanan Hashami, Aly-Raza Ismail, Michael Jones, Joe McWilliam, James Ternent and Josh Williams.

Unusually, this team has been overwhelmingly dominated by Y13 players, with only one Y12 player, Max O’Brien, guaranteed a place in the starting line-up. It will be interesting building a nearly completely new team next season. In the meantime, I must say goodbye to so many players. They have been a truly delightful team to work with – always cheerful, always sporting, always supportive of each other. I wish them all the best in the future.

A final thank you to the coach, Mr Speake. He is responsible for finding us so many matches to play, and he is responsible for the way in which we play them. He is unfailing in his optimism and encouragement.

MJG

2^nd XI Football

The 2^nd XI have played 2 games this term, against The King’s School Worcester and Old Swinford Hospital. We lost the first, 2-0, and drew the second, 1-1 (with Talvin Rai the scorer). That brings the season’s total to played 6, won 1, drawn 1, lost 4, goals for 8, goals against 14.

The team has played with great heart all season; it is always hard for the 2^nd XI to find stability and this season was no exception – 22 different players represented the school in this team. Nonetheless, there was often a tremendous team spirit and the boys’ encouragement of one another and determination was an impressive feature. Oscar McNaughton was captain for this term’s games and continued to lead by example. Talvin Rai thoroughly deserved his goal this term; Motaz Haider has not scored this term, but has continued to trouble defences.

This has been a very enjoyable team to manage. I look forward to a number of them stepping up to the 1^st XI next season; I am optimistic that they will do so with assurance.

Following a strong performance at the County Championships in January, Oliver Paulin was selected to compete for the West Midlands Schools team at the prestigious English Schools Cross Country Championships; the highlight of any young athlete’s calendar. This year, the championships took place on Saturday 14^th March in Witton Park, Blackburn. After a quick walk around the race route it soon became clear that this was going to be a very tough course, as it involved three big laps around what was known as the ‘Saucer’, which involved running up what was virtually a small mountain. Following a frantic first lap around the flat ‘large small lap’, the pace dropped dramatically as the field began its first ascent of the ‘Saucer’. Due to taking the apparently unconventional tactic of staring at a pace which he could maintain for more than 200m, Oliver found himself further back than he would have expected, so had to work his way through the field on the long downhill sections. As the race entered the final lap, the brutal gradient of the climb had clearly had a large effect on many athletes, with the pace slowing further, and a number of boys requiring oxygen from the mountain rescue service situated halfway up the hill. As the pace slowed, Oliver’s endurance showed as he finished strongly through the field, to come home in 99^th position, out of a field of over 300 of the country’s best young runners, and complete the 6.7km course in 27:06, as the third finisher in a talented West Midlands team. A cold in the run up to the event meant that Oliver did not finish quite as highly as he would have liked, but this was still an improvement on last year’s 130^th position, and was a pleasing return to the top 100.

Despite being less busy for swimming events, the spring term is always set to be an exciting one with the prospect of school swimmers finally swimming against one another to compete for their house. Our first school gala of the term was our most successful. We were swimming at St Martin’s against three other schools in a fast paced event where each swim was only one length of the pool. The competition flew by, and Camp hill surged ahead of the other schools with many first and second place finishes in some extremely close races. By finishing first in four out of five age groups, it was a convincing win that the team can draw confidence from when competing against stronger opponents.

The highlight of the term was the House Swimming Gala, due to the competitiveness of the event and the atmosphere created inside the aquatics centre. The swimming gala follows the swimming standards, which are compulsory for Years 7 to 10, and decides the overall swimming championship by pitting the fastest swimmers in each house against each other. In each age group the swimmer who collects the most points is the Victor Ludorum, and this honour goes to Ross Evans of Y7, Joe Clark and Leon Zhang of Y8, for the intermediates, Daniel Higgins of Y10 and in the seniors, Matija Novovic of Y12.

The points between the top three teams: Tudor, Howard and Beaufort were tight as the gala came to a close with the relays. Since the relays are worth double points for each position there is a huge potential to make a comeback. Tudor managed to come out on top of the relays, and so cemented their existing lead to win the gala.

The year 10 sports leaders have continued to complete the level 2 Award this term. The boys have worked hard to complete theoretical modules throughout their attendance at weekly lunchtime sessions. In addition to this all 11 of the leaders have been assisting and leading a number of events and clubs at school.

Tom Perry, Muhammad Ali and Miles Smith have been helping with year 7 rugby training and it is no coincidence that this team has picked up dramatically this term. Rohan Sharma and Liam Garside have continued to play a part in training the successful year 8 rugby team.

Weekly lunchtime hockey sessions have been running for year 8 pupils, led by Dan Higgins, Chris Marshall, Victor Kimani and Isara Mahelakram. This has been a popular session and the year 8 pupils have already made an unbelievable amount of progress in this sport.

Adam Ahmed and Isara Mahelakram have also been pivotal in coaching and helping to select the year 7 cricket team. The leaders have provided the boys with some invaluable pre-season training and they look set to hit the ground running next term.

In addition to this all 11 sports leaders have led two ‘multi-skills’ sessions for year 3 pupils from Colmore Junior school. The Colmore pupils had a chance to take part in football, rounders, rugby and bench ball. The leaders all showed a terrific attitude during these sessions and teachers from Colmore commented on their maturity, confidence and teaching ability!