The Courier

I have been hugely impressed by and proud of the attitude of the children towards their sport this year. This was seen, in no small part, by the U11 Boys Hockey team who travelled to Rugby School for the IAPS competition.

They had one goal in mind and that was to get to the National Finals as the team had done in the past two years. I played this down as I do not believe that goals should be results driven they should instead be performance driven.

On Wednesday morning, though, there was a quiet, steely determination in the eyes of the boys. This translated into their play and saw them sail through the group stage with 100% record and without conceding a goal! A rare achievement.

Highlights from a scoring perspective were George’s reverse stick lob off the keeper and a well-worked shot corner routine culminating in Fin finishing. Defensively, the boys looked much stronger with Archie continuing to display calm assurance and James coming back into the side with an ability to smell danger. Josh was excellent in goal, particularly in the later stages when the outfielders were getting tired and gaps appeared. None more so than in the semi final against St. Andrew’s where the sides were evenly matched. It could have gone either way but ended 0-0 and went to golden goal extra time. Halfway through, a long ball by Fin found George who took it to the right of the keeper and fired in the bottom corner. It was all the more impressive as George had been hit in the head and the groin by the ball previously and still kept going. That golden goal meant that Crescent reached the final and was guaranteed a place in the National Finals.

Interestingly, the boys’ reaction was to drop to the floor - emotionally drained by what they had achieved. The final did not go as well for Crescent but the National Finals was the big prize and an opportunity to improve even more before then. It was great to see Noah, Tom and Matthew grow in confidence as the tournament went on and influence the games more and more from the wide areas.

And all but one of the players are a year young!

Crescent travelled to King Henry VIII School for this competition and pleasingly performed to their best. Times and national positions will be released later but the stand out performances were:

• The Year 6 boys medley relay team who kept pulling further and further away from the others with each swimmer,
• Mia and Marco in the butterfly,
• Sienna who stormed away in the breaststroke, 
• Jamie who posted a good time in the 50 metre freestyle.

A special mention to Mia who made sure that everyone was in the correct place at the correct time for their races.

On Wednesday 6 February, 23 students from Years 4,5 and 6 travelled to Bedstone College in Shropshire to take part in the Midlands ISA cross country event.  

The course was interesting and challenging involving undulating fields, hills, streams, woodland, pathways and plenty of sheep poo! 

On arrival we were able to walk some of the course to check out the different terrain and get our bearings.  U9 Girls and Boys had a 1500m course and the U11's took on a 1800m course that involved crossing two streams.  

The event was very popular and well attended with over 100 pupils involved in each race, the event was also being used as a selection for the National Finals with the first 10 runners from each race being selected to represent the Midlands at the National Finals that will be held at Rugby School. 

All Crescent's runners raced exceptionally well, managing the tricky conditions fantastically, showing real grit and determination, however a special congratulations goes to Eve Ferguson who came 5th in her race and has been selected for the Midlands team.  

Well done to all students who represented the school fabulously showing off the Crescent School Promise well, cheering each other on and supporting their team mates.