The Courier

There was a real buzz around the school last Thursday as all of the children in years 3 and 4 were involved in fixtures. Everyone playing to their level, being challenged and rising to that challenge is what sport should be about. The children performed fantastically well across all the teams. The footballers all went to Crackley, as did the netball A and B teams. The netball C team hosted Crackley at Crescent.

The A team footballers played a triangular tournament involving Warwick School as well. They showed great energy and skill across the two matches. Against the hosts, Crescent kept creating chances and hit the post twice as well as the bar. The ball refused to go in. Eventually, George Crowfoot found space to give Crescent the lead. The ill-advised sitting back phase began and Crackley found a way through the sturdy Josh Gorbutt and Marco Rodriguez Hernandez defence. This gave them confidence to go on and get another. Against Warwick, Crowfoot gave Crescent an early lead and the green and whites looked comfortable. When Thomas scored, it looked a certain victory. However, again Crescent were caught out and Warwick grabbed a goal and quickly got an equaliser. Warwick looked set to go all the way and get a winner but, in the dying seconds, George Bell rolled Crowfoot in who steadied himself and placed it past the goalkeeper- 3-2.

The B team won their first match against Crackley comfortably. George Rule kept finding lots of space and made great use of this giving Crescent the lead. James Wright, who defended admirably, went up for a corner and doubled the lead. In the second match against Warwick, Crescent looked comfortable but gave a cheap goal away. Sam Sheffield made some key saves in goal and the green and whites created a whole host of chances but to no avail. 0-1.

The C team went 3-0 down quickly in their match. However, they showed great character to keep going. Euan Nelson held the fort in defence and Isaac Nelson started to pass the ball into space. This allowed Alex Colver and Jay Patil to grab a brace each. Crackley pulled an equaliser back to make it 4-4. Connor Kennedy helped to keep the match as a draw in his first outing in goal.

The A Team netballers made a great start to their season, applying all of the skills and tactics that we have practiced in games sessions and extra-curricular club displaying fantastic mastery in their footwork. They also used impressive passing and communications as well as fantastic maturity in being able to hold their position enabling more space to found on the court creating some fabulous driving opportunities. Once nerves settled the girls were on fire and centre court play between Phoebe Causer, Amelie Frere, Lucy Bentley and Sienna Moran was superb really dominating and attacking the court leading to some impressive shooting from Issy Thompson, Lucy Bentley and Jessica Sarkies. Our defence of Chloe Wensley and Sienna Moran was strong making it difficult for Crackley to get the ball in to their circle in the final third. Fantastic work girls well done. Final score 4-2 to Crescent.

The B team played some fantastic netball, again showing off the work we have been doing on passing and footwork, making strong solid passes and great communication skills. Unfortunately for us Crackley defence was very strong and it made it hard for our girls to get the ball in to our attacking circle. A great team effort was shown by all keeping their heads high, fighting back to win balls.

The C team had a brilliant start, all pupils thoroughly enjoyed the game and grew in confidence with every minute. Maryn Yates captained the team well, controlling the centre court and communicating where well with her team mates enabling the ball to make it way in to the attacking third. Great shooting was displayed from Bella Amblard and Idan Dar making a final score of 4-0 to Crescent.

Well done to everyone involved.

On Tuesday night the U11 girls football team headed to Provost William for their first football fixture of the season. Team selection had been difficult following fantastic commitment and effort in the training sessions and girls were extremely excited for the game.

The girls started a little tentatively, although passing was strong, they couldn't quite connect when having a shot on goal. Nerves quickly settled and confidence soon began to build, showing good communication skills and teamwork along with our ability to hold shape and create space. This resulted in wonderful football and our first goal, with a tremendous strike from Olivia Sarkies who found the corner of the net. We started to read the game well, with fantastic interceptions from Lucy Bentley, and Clara Woolf and Robyn Shaw pressing forward in defence, making it very difficult for the opposition to get through. Team captain Georgia Dowling controlled the game from the centre, brilliantly laying off the ball to Phoebe Causer, Sienna Moran, Sophie Causer and Mia Webb out on the wings, resulting in another two goals before half time.  After half time the girls came out strong showing no signs of slowing down and this energy and drive was soon converted in to more goals from Sienna Moran, Olivia Sarkies and Georgia Dowling.

A fantastic first game girls, well done you should be very proud. Final score 6-0 to Crescent. Player's Player of the Match went to Olivia Sarkies and the Coaches' Player of the Match to Georgia Dowling.

On Wednesday four teams went to Crackley Hall to play football. We took an A and a B team for girls and the boys had an A and a B team too. We all did very well and the A team for the girls' match managed to score in the first half. Olivia scored the winning goal for us. Cara, who played in goal, made great dives to stop the ball which gave Crescent a clean sheet. Clara also was very good at defending as well as Robyn. The girls B team unfortunately lost 3-0 but did extremely well, especially as only two girls on the team had played a football match before. Player of the Match went to Amelie and Isobelle (GK) made some amazing saves. The boys won both games. The A's won 5-1. They went 1-0 down but then started to pass more efficiently to allow Fin (2), Dan (2) and Matthew to score. Dylan played particularly well in defence and Vignesh held his position in CDM. The B's did amazingly and won their match 6-0. Gabriel scored 5 and Chris was delighted to get his first goal as he had a rare go outfield. Jamie and Connor stood out as well. At the end, we had very nice biscuits and drinks. Thank you to Mrs Robinson, Mrs Dowling, Mr Thackway and Mr Phillips. We all had a very fun time.

Georgia Dowling