The Courier

For the second successive year, Crescent went to the National IAPS Hockey Finals. This year, they travelled south to Tonbridge School on a lovely, warm day.

In the first match, Crescent defended well and showed the composure at the back that they had been working on. Matthew Browne was particularly strong coming back to help out and Chris Gibson made some impressive saves. The game finished 0-0.

The boys then played their next four matches on sand-based pitches. This meant that the ball travelled slowly and suited powerful players as oppose to the small, skilful players that Crescent have. Nevertheless, the boys had to adapt and still looked dangerous going forward. Fin Calder evaded the defenders regularly and scored Crescent’s only goal. George Bell came close to sweeping in to level up the match against Dumpton following a Browne cross. Dylan Hopkins continued his very impressive development as he coped with some very skilful players with ease. Marco Rodriguez Hernandez backed him up well. Oliver Bell gave his usual consistent performance going forward and backwards. Matthew Thomas’ tactical knowledge was really useful and he did very little wrong in the tournament.

Crescent did not progress to the next stage but gained some valuable experience playing at a high level. The future looks bright as well, as half of the team can play for Crescent next year as well.

The older children in the school have been working hard on their stroke and race technique and were given an opportunity to perform against the best in Rugby last Wednesday 14 March.  Up against a lot of Rugby Swimming Club swimmers, Crescent performed admirably.

There was a huge improvement by the Year 6 swimmers on last year's performances as they competed with the quickest in the town. 'Second' became the watch word of the evening as so many swimmers finished in this position.

Olivia Sarkies was very unlucky to finish outside the top three as she swam a quick time. Anton Tran went off like a rocket and continued to pull away from the opposition to became Town Champion.

Results:

Town Champion

• Anton Tran - Year 5 Boys Breaststroke 

2nd place finishes:

• Mia Webb - Girls Open Butterfly
• Samuel Lau - Boys Open Butterfly
• Finlay Calder - Year 5 Boys Backstroke  
• Christopher Gibson - Year 6 Boys Backstroke  
• Matthew Browne - Year 6 Boys Breaststroke  
• Jamie Capelett - Year 5 Boys Freestyle  
• Thean Capelett - Year 6 Boys Freestyle  
• Girls Open Medley 
• Boys Open Medley
• Year 5 Boys - Freestyle Relay
• Year 6 Boys - Freestyle Relay

3rd place finishes:

• Sophie Causer - Year 6 Girls Backstroke  
• Boys Open Medley
• Year 5 Girls - Freestyle Relay

Congraulations to all.