13th October 2023Benjamin Moses

Inter-House Sport

Next week, our first instalment of Inter House Sport takes place for Year 7-13 students, with students very excited about representing their House in competitive sport fixtures.

The sports will be as follows:

  • Y7 – touch rugby
  • Y8-11 girls – netball touch rugby
  • Y8-11 boys – touch rugby
  • Y12/13 – Football

The schedule of matches are as follows;

  • Y7 – Thursday Period 5 + Friday Period 2
  • Y8 – Monday  Period 1 + Monday  Period 4
  • Y9 – Monday  Period 5 + Wednesday Period 4
  • Y10 – Wednesday Period 1 + Friday Period 3
  • Y11 – Friday Period 1 + Friday Period 4
  • Y12/13 – Weds – 3.30 – 4.30pm

October Round-up

It’s been a busy October so far with a wide range of sports catered for as well as Simon Balle being represented across many competitions, including, National, County and District participation. In Football we are competing across National and County level and have made some long journeys into London and across to Bedford. We have also competed in Netball, Hockey, Cross Country, Basketball and Rugby. 

Football

In the National Cup the Year 9 Boys lost to Parmiters but are through to the next round of the County Cup after a 5-0 win against Katherine Warrington. 3rd round fixture against Dame Alice Owens on Monday 16th. 

The Senior football team were knocked out of the National Cup by Hemel School. A 3-1 loss but a game that could have been won without a few sloppy mistakes. In the County Cup the Senior team showed great courage to come from 1 down to beat Parmiters 5-1. We now play Tring or Townsend School in the last 16.

U14 Girls had a great opening to their County Cup run, winning 6-0 vs Adeyfield. Their next match is round 2 of the National Cup on Thursday 18th October.

The Year 8 Boys play the Grange Free Academy next Wednesday in the County cup. 

Year 11’s have had a fantastic start to the County Cup beating Dame Alice Owens 5-2 after a highly competitive first half we were able to control the game during the second half. After excellent demonstrations of pace from our wide players leading to Jack scoring 3 and getting an assist. Similarly after getting a bye in the first round of the National Cup the team had to travel an hour towards our first fixture where we maintained our positive play from the county game leading to a 9-0 win against Chiltern Hills  Academy. Looking forward to seeing how far the team can go in both competitions.

Year 7 boy’s football team had a tough first game of the national cup against Hab’s boys school. With the score staying 0-0 into the full time whistle after our boys held the majority of possession during the game. By the end of extra time the score had not been settled. We then needed to settle the game through penalties. The game finished 5-4 with Alfie making 2 great saves during the shoot out.

Cross Country League

The Cross Country League has taken place over the past 3 weeks this season and as always has attracted big fields of athletes with tough competition throughout the age-groups. On Wednesday this week, Simon Balle hosted the District League finals across our school fields. In the Senior race KG, in his first race of the season finished a strong 6th and looks forward to the Inter Boys race at the upcoming Championships. 

ID and MF have been battling it out in the Year 7 Boys competition this year, however due to I ID completing all 3 races, he finished in the top 5 overall. The team finished in 3rd place, a great achievement and one of our highest placings in recent years for a Year 7 Boys team.

Our Y8/9 Girls performed very well with CN winning the overall league title with 3 wins out of 3, a phenomenal achievement from a Year 8 student competing against Year 8 & 9 students. The team finished 2nd overall just behind a strong Presdales team. 

The Year 7 Girls won the overall team title by a big margin ahead of John Warner School in second place. Top performer from Simon Balle over the series was LW. 

Netball

Year 7 have had a great start to the year and it’s great to see so many students attending training! Year 7 have their first game on the 19/10 which they’re all very excited for.

The year 8s made a fantastic start to the county cup winning 26-0 against Goffs Churchgate. The team has massively progressed since year 7 and I look forward to seeing them continue to grow as a team throughout the year. We have a friendly game against Broxbourne this week which will be a challenging match.

The Y9s have had a very positive start to the year with around 30 students attending extra-curricular netball club. The students have had their first friendly fixture vs Chauncy with the A team narrowly losing and the B team winning 11-9. We look forward to building on this fantastic start at our next 2 fixtures in the coming weeks against Freman college and Presdales School.

The Year 10 team have had some mixed results in their opening fixtures. The A team faced Stags in the county cup for their first game and unfortunately were knocked out. We then travelled to Chauncy with both the A and B team to take part in a close fought match. Despite taking an early lead the A team just missed out on victory. However the B team took control early on and built up a strong lead with Chauncy unable to put much pressure on the defence. We then travelled to Freman College and our practice paid off, despite a close first half the A team pulled away with a convincing lead to win and the B team, with some new additions playing their first game never looked in any doubt working hard throughout to achieve a convincing win.

County League

The U16 team are competing in the County competition. Their first game was against Dame Alice Owens which we knew was going to be a challenging match. The year 10’s and 11’s have combined to create a team and this was the first time they played together. Dame Alice Owens took an early lead but Simon Balle students showed excellent resilience. In the second half, connections made in attack and defence were fearless, which resulted in Simon Balle winning the second half, however this unfortunately was not enough to take the win overall. Poppy was the player of the match.

Our second game was against STAGs. Simon Balle students showed excellent versatility during the match and great resilience against tough opponents. Player of the match was Ella. 

Hockey

In September we entered the County Hockey Championship with our U16 team. The girls have come on so much since last year, playing some fantastic hockey throughout the day. They finished in 3rd place. Last week they took on Freman College in a friendly fixture winning 8-0. A great start for the team!

Basketball

The Year 10 Boys Basketball team played against Samuel Ryder this week in their first Basketball fixture of the season. After an excellent start by the boys, Samuel Ryder played a storming second quarter to close the gap to 4 points. However with outstanding performances from GG and player of the match LN, the team pulled away in the fourth quarter to win by 10 points. The team now look forward to competitive basketball at both County and District level over the next few months.