A Sporting Spring Term

Following on from an extremely busy and successful Autumn term, 2022 has continued at the same pace in every area of the sporting calendar. At the beginning of term, we had seven pupils representing Avon in the county rounds of the Biathlon, with Ollie Squire (U12) and Alex Hearn (U15) both placed 3rd in the recent South West Modern Biathlon Championships.   

From start to finish this has been an excellent term, with well over 30 teams regularly representing the School on Saturdays in netball and hockey. The headline news from the hockey season is that well over 100 matches have been played this term. Our U15 and 2nd XI teams won through to the regional rounds of the National competition, with the U15’s finishing as runners up in the U16 Tier 3 Regional Final. The 1st XI has had a great cup run in the National Plate, with wins over Monkton Combe, Malvern, Abingdon and Dauntsey’s. This took them into the West Regional Final against Prior Park. A very tight and tense match looked certain to be decided by the odd goal, and so it proved, with Prior scoring the winner with just minutes to go to deny the KES boys a place in the national semi-finals. The hockey season ended with the welcome return of the KES Hockey Festival after a two-year COVID enforced break.  20 different teams took part, playing at venues across Bath. We are also pleased to see three pupils represent Team Bath Buccaneers senior 1st team squad in the National League. Ben Sharp has represented the Men’s 1st XI, who are still in with a chance of claiming the National Division 1 South title and promotion to the Premier League, while Emily Maclean and Sophie Franklin-Adams have both been part of the Women’s 1st team, who are 1 point off top spot in the National Conference West. 

In netball, after qualifying before Christmas, the U14 and U19 teams produced some excellent performances at the regional stage of the National competition. We also played host to four invitational tournaments and a pre-season tournament for our 1st and 2nd teams.  Touring sides visiting KES included Spratton Hall and King’s Ely. Taking to the road ourselves, 85 netballers from Years 7 and 8 very much enjoyed their tour to Exeter, playing 18 fixtures in between ten pin bowling, pizza, shopping and trampolining! The highlight towards the end of term was the 1st team Charity Match against Kingswood to raise funds for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.  It was an extremely competitive and close fought game, with KES winning the match 38-30.  With a further win against King’s Worcester in the final fixture of the term, I must congratulate the 1st team on another superb unbeaten season.  A further notable feature of this term is the willingness of our Year 10s to coach the Year 4s during their games lesson. This took place towards the end of term and provided an opportunity for the older pupils to inspire and share their netball knowledge with the KES stars of the future.   

Of course, a feature of a normal Spring Term is the presence of a purposeful and active rugby 7s programme. Running four age group teams at U13, U14, U16 and U18 level, most teams played in two tournaments leading up to the National Rosslyn Park 7s event, with the U13 team just losing out in the final of the Clayesmore tournament to a ‘golden time’ try.  It was wonderful to be back at Rosslyn Park alongside 849 other teams, with the experience of playing in the tournament a highlight for many.  The 1st team ended the season by travelling to Sedbergh for the prestigious National 10s competition, which is a wonderful occasion for Year 13 players to sign off from their rugby careers at KES.   

It has also been an exciting and successful football season at KES. Brilliant football played by both 1^st and 2^nd X1, convincing wins and a few losses, all played in the best sporting spirit by a great bunch of boys. The Year 13 players have set the example for next year’s squads, and thanks and good luck to them – keep playing the beautiful game!

Paving the way for the Summer, pre-season cricket started this term. The new indoor cricket school at Bath Cricket Club is the venue for our senior cricketers to prepare for the season, with the other age groups undertaking pre-season training at school from 7.30 – 8.30am on different mornings. Our U13 and U15 Girls indoor cricket teams progressed through to the county rounds of the ECB competition, playing some super cricket and beating all teams in their pools.  Excitingly, the U15s went on to be crowned County champions in a fantastic performance at Somerset County Cricket in Taunton.  Next stop the Regionals in May!  Finally, in a joint initiative and outreach programme with Bath CC, we will be running a ‘Coach the Coaches’ staff training day for local primary school teachers in Bath once we return after the Easter break.    

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