Sports Report – Common Time 2023: Week 2
Tuesday 17th January 2023
Rackets v Cheltenham College (h)
Cheltenham brought a mainly junior team comprising three Under 15 and four Under 14 pairs. J.C.'s, Seb Kingsbury and Will Hammerson-Jones and Arthur James-Duff plus Jamie Mitchell, performed well winning both their matches in straight games. In particular, Will's serve proved ruthless and claimed several points. Pran Busrapan and will Budden had a harder time in their match and, despite some useful serving, lost 3 -1. Our seven yearlings played several informal one game matches, changing partners each time, and several impressive rallies took place. This gave them valuable experience. (TERC)
Thursday 19th January 2023
Basketball v Wellington College (a)
This was a rusty performance from the U15s, some of whom hadn't played since last term. The score was perhaps a little flattering towards Wellington, but they were quicker to loose balls, tougher and concentrated better on defence, so undeniably deserved to win. That said, there were plenty of highlights, including superb post moves from Edis and Fang, and some good passing sequences from the guards. The team should have learnt a lot from this game, mainly in terms of discipline, consistency, passing and teamwork, but they also showed that there is more than enough talent in this age group to comfortably overturn this result in the teams' next meeting. (LNT)
The U14s were outstanding in the first half of this game. They passed well and took good options and despite playing with a smaller ball, managed to outscore Wellington comfortably. Defensively Winchester were strong too, with one very strong member of the opposition scoring almost all of their points. The second half continued in similar vein until Wellington, surprisingly at this age level, resorted to playing a zone defence! Playing with the unfamiliar ball Winchester struggled to score from outside, and in their frustration made a few mistakes allowing Wellington back to steal the game. The end result should not overshadow what was a very encouraging performance with some fine individual play. (LNT)
Fencing v Charterhouse (a)
Foil A: 45-43 WIN Foil B: 30-45 Lose Epee: 45-40 WIN
Fives v Oxford University (a)
3 wins out 4 in the Singles put Winchester in charge of the match, 56-32, at the halfway stage and though the greater experience of the opposition meant that they were a tougher proposition for Doubles they could only outscore the Winchester pairs by 1 point. A very useful outing for the Wykehamists on Rugby Fives courts. The fact that there was not time for the reverse doubles despite getting in 150 mins of Fives, showed how hard the Wykehamists had to work for their victory. Winchester won 111-88 (JM)
Rackets v Charterhouse (a)
1st pair, Bertie Vallat & Henry Nicholls, claimed a reasonably comfortable 3-0 win with George Gardiner & Stephen Lam, 2nd pair, winning 3-1. The 3rd pair, Seb Robertson & Alex Harker, came up against a formidable opposition. Winchester fought hard but failed to claim the victory. Both JC pairs won comfortably with Dima Kasumov, playing up a year, looking comfortable at this level. (TERC)
Squash v Bradfield College (a)
A very satisfactory 7-1 win by the Winchester College side comprising of 2 first V, 4 U-15's and 2 U-14's. On the cold Bradfield courts where length was very important the Winchester players proved to be too consistent. Although the side won 7-1, eleven of the games were won by two points and focussing on the final few points made all the difference. A good team performance which bodes well for our next fixture Home v Radley. (RAA)
Saturday 21st January 2023
Fives v Alleyn's School (h)
U16’s: Winchester won 52-22
U15’s: Winchester won 123-58
U14’s: Winchester won 131-122
Badminton vs Wellington (H)
With exams over, the Badminton 1st team took on Wellington at Bar End. Wellington was known to be a hard unpredictable side who we always have had close matches with. We took an early lead in the fixture's first round thanks to a stunning performance by our third pair of Ashmit and Alvin who beat Wellington's second. This showed that we had improved from last term. The next round saw a 2-2 draw and as we went into the third, there was much to play for. Our fourth pair of Vincent and Derek went on to a three setter with Wellington's third, unfortunately losing after a valiant effort. This meant the score was 7-5 coming into the last round. Our second pair of Ben and Yuyao (MOTM) secured a two set win against Wellington's second as did our third pair with their counterpart. The most anticipated game went to three sets with our first pair coming back to win the second set. Unfortunately, Wellington fought hard and won the third set, the only pair to beat our top duo. Due to time constraints, the fourth pair could not finish their three setter, leading to a 9-6 win at home! A step in the right direction as we take on Charterhouse away next week. (Rudra Patel, I)
Rackets v Cheltenham College Girls (h)
Cheltenham College returned with 8 girls to compete with our rackets team. The mixed format, one boy one girl, worked well and there were several close matches of high standard. (TERC)
Rowing
With many of the of the country’s rivers in flood, Winchester College Boat Club were very lucky to be able to get on the water in Southampton over the weekend. Two groups from the J15 and Senior squads were taken, split between coxed fours and an eight. Both of these squads are looking to be very competitive this year, and the opportunity for extended water time is invaluable. What was even more pleasing was that we were able to arrange some racing between ourselves and two local clubs in the area, Itchen Imperial Rowing Club and Southampton University Boat Club. We had multiple pieces, pitching our eight and fours against their quads and eights. Our thanks goes out to them for helping arrange a fantastic day for all involved. The boats from Winchester College displayed significant speed, and we are confident of this continuing with some hard Winter training to come. (SJL)
All fixtures details can be found on: https://sportsfixtures.winchestercollege.org/
Sporting quote for the week:
“Don’t aim for consistently heroic efforts. Aim for being heroic at consistency.” (Brad Stulberg, Performance Coach)
M.S. Burley
Director of Sport
24th January 2023
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