What a fantastic month it’s been, when normally many schools would be winding down after a busy year, Simon Balle were still competing for honours across Athletics, Rounders and Cricket. We also had our Larch Sports Day last week too which was a very successful day, in glorious conditions with many sprint, obstancle races and relays. A first edition of the Larch Interhouse sports took place through Rounders over the past few weeks which ran very smoothly. We also had our sports presentation evening as well. Please see below a round up from a very successful month. 

Sports Presentation Evening

     

On Wednesday 10th July, we hosted our Sports presentation evening where parents, carers and students all showed up to provide a fantastic atmosphere on the night. There were many award winners as well as nominees for a wide range of sports and main awards. The evening began with a review of the year and a celebration of our District Athletics winners, it was then onto our awards. Our 4 key main award winners were as follows;

• Sportswoman of the Year – Naomi P
• Sportsman of the Year – Ellis D 
• Larch Sportswoman of the Year – Grace P 
• Larch Sportsman of the Year – Louis B

Year 8 Rounders District Champions

The Year 8 Rounders team competed at the annual District Rounders tournament last week. Emily P was outstanding in batting against Chauncy in the group stages. In the semi final we beat Presdales to reach the final again against Chauncy. In the final the girls performed very well in quite a competitive game where Simon Balle won by 5½ to 2 rounders to become District Rounders Champions. 

Athletics Round up

In Athletics this month, we have had our end of season Girls and Boys Invitational events. Winners from the Nicky Morris Girls event were as follows;

• Georgina B – Y7 Shot Putt
• Emily P – Y8/9 Discus
• Cora N – Y8/9 800m
• Naomi P – Y10/11 400m

Overall our girls finished 4th overall out of ten teams behind winners Presdales.

At the Bruce Longden Boys event, Rex T-W was the star performer winning the Year 7 Hurdles, standing Triple Jump and was also part of the victorious 4 x 100m relay team. Rex was also awarded the Sally Gunnell award for up and coming hurdlers. Mason K won the Year 7 100m and alongside Marley H and Max F was part of the winning relay team too. Barney W-B won the senior 800m. Overall our boys team finished 4th in Division one retaining their position in the league, amongst some strong schools of the calibre of Saffron Walden & Richard Hale. 

Cricket Round up

This has been one of our most successful seasons in recent times. Year 7, 8 and 10 Boys teams were still involved in both County and District competitions right up until this week. 

The year 7 Cricket team played well in the semi final against Broxbourne with a convincing win with only 3 batters chasing down Broxbourne score within 12 overs. We then went into the final against Richard Hale, opening with our best bowling performance of the year keeping Richard Hale down to 82 runs off 20 overs with 10 wickets made up of some excellent bowling as well 4 very good catches within the field. However, Richard Hale were also able to put up a good fielding performance keeping our batting down finishing with 69 runs. Well done to our Year 7’s and we’re looking forward to next season for more of the same. 

The Year 8 team captained by Jack T had a phenomenal game against Richard Hale in the semi final at Hertingfordbury. By the 5th over, Simon Balle had scored 9 wickets with Jack T scoring 5 and Teddy G scoring 3 to set Simon Balle up to chase down a score of 48 runs which we did to earn a final against Broxbourne. 

In the final Simon Balle bowled first and star performer was Jaiveer A, with 3 wickets and an excellent catch in the field. This meant that Simon Balle had to chase only 59 runs which they did by the 10th over becoming District Champions. Congratulations to all the boys on a tremendous year. 

The Year 10 Boys reached the County Plate final against Parmiters school beating Hemel School in the semi final at Hertford CC. 

The final was played this week at Parmiters Sports grounds, a fantastic setting with Simon Balle winning the toss and chose to bowl first. With Parmiters on 120 runs in the 18th over, the rain arrived and after 30 mins of rain we decided to postpone the game until yesterday. 

In glorious conditions again at Parmiters Sports ground on Thursday we were back for the rearranged final. This time Parmiters won the toss and bowled well restricting Simon Balle to 54 runs. Parmiters went on to chase this score and by the 10th over they had won. Well done to the Year 10 boys in their final game for the school and congratulations to George C on captaining the team to the final. 

We will be publishing our sports enrichment programme during the first week in September.  From the PE department we would like to wish you all a fantastic summer and look forward to another busy year of sport.