Sports Update

The sight and sound of sports fixtures returning to the CH sports fields has been most welcome in these last two weeks. The long-awaited opportunity to pull on the CH colours and represent the ‘badge’ had finally arrived.

Football

Our Grecian (Year 13) footballers played host to Brighton College this week and the roar that came from the team when Jonah, and a little later Luke, scored the first football goals seen on our grounds for fifteen months, was tinged with many emotions. Obviously with delight at taking the lead twice against opposition who are always strong competitors, but also with frustration that this opportunity to express themselves had evaded them for so long, and of relief that they could still actually ‘do it’! With the score at 2-2 at half time the supporting Grecian pupils were anticipating another tense 40 minutes. The lack of ‘miles in the legs’ and tactical training showed as CH conceded three goals. Despite the score line, this was a fantastic performance by a 1^st XI who had the undoubted potential to compete for the league this season. The passion shown on the field of play demonstrated how much it meant to the Grecians to represent Christ’s Hospital one last time and to give their very best come what may.

Tennis

The Deputy Grecians (Year 12), u15 a & b and u14 a & b teams were all in action on the tennis courts this week playing Caterham, with the u14s also playing Epsom College. Due to the lack of competitive play since 2019 and the intense heat, most teams played the ‘Fast 4’ version of the game, a fun and most enjoyable version. In the Deputy Grecians match v Caterham, the schools decided to play a ‘round robin’ format with the overall winners being Christ’s Hospital’s very own Kseniia and Viktoria.

Athletics

The athletes were back competing in the English Schools’ Track and Field Cup. For many of the Junior team this was their first ever competitive athletics meet and, as with the footballers, there was an array of emotions on show.  All four teams (junior and intermediate, boys and girls) had some good individual standout performances, in particular Third Form (Year 8) Victoria (200m) and Ayo-T (300m & triple jump) and in the UF Malachai (100m & long jump) and Bolu (200m & triple jump).

Final Placings:

Junior boys 2^nd and junior girls 4^th

Intermediate girls 3^rd and intermediate boys 4th

Cricket

Before the recent rains, the cricketers were making the most of the glorious sunshine and enjoying the welcome return of the harmonious sound of leather on willow. The junior teams have competed well, with the u14s having very close matches with Box Hill and KES, Witley and the u13s enjoying victory over Box Hill. At the senior end the u15s and the 1^st XI both had good wins over KES, Witley. The standout performances to date have been from u14 Raphael, who hit 77 against Hurst and from Morgan, who hit two half centuries for the u15s. At 1^st XI, both Max and Nick have been amongst the wickets and we are now looking for the batsmen to progress beyond the mid-twenties and hopefully put some scores on the board as we move in to the ‘all-day’ cricket fixtures.

Mr. D. Messenger, Director of Sport