Welcome to the June sports round upand what a busy and successful month this was with so much athletics, rounders, cricket and tennis competitions taking place. We also had our annual Sports Day on Friday which was a huge success. Please see our monthly round up below;

All through District Athletics Success

Last Wednesday Simon Balle competed at the District Athletics Championships at Wodson Park. With a 70+ strong team of athletes in sweltering hot conditions, Simon Balle students were ready and prepared to perform to their best. Eight Simon Balle teams competed for both individual, team and overall school honors. There were many highlights, with three District records broken and 21 individual champions alongside two relay successes. Oliver B (Y9) broke the 300m record whilst qualifying for the final, running 38.4 secs, beating the previous record of 40.0secs. Oliver went on to win the final with another strong performance. In the Junior girls, Emily W (Y9) continued her athletics success, winning the Triple jump in a District record of 8.83m. Our Year 7 Boys continued their strong season winning the relay in a District record time of 53.6secs. Our athlete of the day award went to Alisha P (Y13) who won the Senior Girls 100m, Long Jump and was part of the victorious Senior Girls relay team.  As well as the above successes we had a further 15 individual winners;

• Mason K (Y7) – Minor Boys Long Jump
• Rex T-W (Y7) – Minor Boys Hurdles & Standing Triple Jump
• Eve R (Y7) – Minor Girls 1500m
• Cora N (Y8) – Junior Girls High Jump & 800m
• Emily P (Y8) – Junior Girls Discus
• Sylvie S (Y9) – Junior Girls 1500m
• Lincoln A (Y9) – Junior Boys Pole Vault
• Elizabeth K (Y11) – Inter Girls High Jump
• Charlie R (Y11) – Inter Boys Triple Jump
• Naomi P (Y10) – Inter Girls 300m 
• Emilia C (Y10) – Inter Girls 800m
• Ruben B (Y12) – Senior Boys 1500m
• Adele P (Y13) – Senior Girls Triple Jump
• Jacob A (Y13) – Senior Boys Pole Vault
• Barney W (Y12) – Senior Boys 800m

As a consequence of the above as well as many fine performances from the rest of the team, including lots of top 3 finishes as well as students competing for the first time in events, we won the following team awards; 

• Year 8/9 Overall Athletics award 
• Year 10/11 Overall Athletics award
• Y10/11 Girls Athletics award
• Sixth form Overall Athletics award
• Overall District Athletics Champions

As a result of the above Simon Balle became Overall District Athletics Champions for the first time since 2019, a phenomenal achievement and many thanks to all our students who performed to a very high level displaying buckets of resilience, perseverance and grit. We now look forward to Sports Day as well the Nicky Morris & Bruce Longden competitions.

KS2 – District Athletics Champions!

A particular highlight this month was the district athletics competition. Determined to follow the success of our secondary athletes the day before, our Larch students gave their all in every event. It is with great pride that I can share the following results:

 Year 3: 1st Place District Athletics Champions 

– Year 4: 1st Place District Athletics Champions 

– Year 5: 1st Place District Athletics Champions 

– Year 6: Joint 1st Place District Athletics Champions 

The above results meant that Simon Balle were the overall winners; this was a testament to the hard work of every individual involved.

Some particular stand out performances came from:

• Rosa: Year 3 Girls Sprint A 1st 
• Daniella: Year 3 Girls Sprint B 1st 
• Zak: Year 3 Boys Sprint B 2nd
• Austin: Year 3 Boys Javelin 1st
• Ben: Year 4 Boys Sprint A 1st 
• Maddie: Year 4 Girls Sprint B 1st
• Orson: Year 5 Boys 600m 1st 
• Daisy: Year 5 Girls 600m 1st 
• Rory:  Year 5 Boys Javelin 2nd 
• Olivia: Year 5 Girls Sprint 2nd 
• Ava: Year 6 Girls Sprint A 2nd 

Sports Day

Sports Day took place last Friday, after a busy week of sport, there were yet again some fine performances throughout the day. In the morning the field events, tug-o-war, volleyball, 800m, 300/400m and 200m races took place. The sixth form also participated in the morning activities with the inclusion of Volleyball and Softball. In the Y12 800m in a tactical race Kayden F was victorious. Cora N (Y8) continued her successful season winning the 800m comfortably. Olly S (Y10) ran 2.22 to win the 800m and Oliver B (Y9) ran a convincingly strong 300m to back up his District record winning performance. In the afternoon, activities moved to the astro with the programme as follows for Y7-10 & Y12;

• 60m
• 120m
• 4 x 60m Relay

In the 60m, our students made the place judges work very hard with some close races. In the Year 9 race Noah B (Y9) won beating our District representatives and surely a talent for the future. Other District representatives ran well, including Grace S (Y12), Olivia B (Y12) & Florence B (Y12) across all sixth form running events. 

Halfway through the competition there were only 4 points separating 4 teams, so a close competition. However in the end Beane House were victorious, winning by a fine margin. The results were as follows;

• 1st Beane 314
• 2nd Lea 275
• 3rd New 266
• 4th Ashbourne 261
• 5th Mimram 234
• 6th Rib 219

Well done to all students who participated throughout the day. Our next big school event now takes place on Weds 10th July which is Sports Presentation evening.

Herts Schools Athletics Championships

On Saturday 8th June, the Herts schools athletics championships took place at Jarman Park. In glorious sunshine, there were many fine performances in a highly competitive competition. In the Junior Girls 800m Cora N (Y8) won her 800m heat, running strongly from the front. In the final Cora ran very well again, finishing second in a time of 2.28. A great run from a girl who is still in the age-group next year and with a current pb of 2.22, with continued training, Cora is in with a chance of an English schools place next season. 

Niamh S (Y13) competed in her final schools event running a well controlled paced race to win the 400m becoming Herts schools Champion. Naomi P (Y10) qualified for both the 200m & 300m finals, however with the finals only 30 mins apart, she chose to run the 300m and ran a great race finishing 5th in the County. Sam D (Y7), finished 3rd in the boys Shot Putt, a great performance. Jack T (Y8) participated well in both the Junior 100m and Triple Jump. Max F (Y7) ran strongly to qualify for the 200m, a great achievement after just returning from injury, finishing 6th in the final. Isshicar D (Y7) ran in a tough 1500m, running well. Eve R (Y7) finished 5th in the 800m in 2:41 and Sylvie S (Y9) finished 10th in the 1500m. 

District Pentathlon

The District Pentathlon took place at Wodson yesterday where Y7 & Y8/9 teams participated. Athletes competed in the hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put and 800m. Simon Balle performed very well, winning the Y7 boys competition with Mason K winning the Y7 individual competition with a score of 1,986 pts. The year 7 boy’s team also won the overall year 7 competition winning 4 of the individual events between them. Phoenix L (Y9) finished second overall in the Y8/9 boys competition performing very well and his best performance came in the long jump where he jumped over 5m. Cora N (Y8) continued her fine form finishing second in the Y8/9 girls competition, with the team finishing second overall behind Presdales.

Year 10 Boys into a Cricket County final

The Year 10 boys played Hemel last Thursday at Hertford CC. In glorious conditions Hemel batted first and got off to a great start, they had reached 111 runs after 12 overs and with the game moving away from Simon Balle Alfie P, Lincoln A and the Adam’s brothers stepped up with some fine bowling to limit Hemel in the end to 134 all out. During the Simon Balle inning’s George C led by example scoring 50 runs to help Simon Balle win in the 19 over with 4 wickets to spare. The boys have made the final of the County Plate, the first time a Simon Balle team has made it to this stage since before Covid. They will play Parmiters in the final on Tuesday 9th July, venue tbc.

Year 9 reached the Quarter finals of the County Plate but were beaten by a strong St Clement Danes team. In the district cup they narrowly lost to Broxbourne

The Year 8 boys have qualified for the District semi finals after beating Goffs, with Harry T scoring 51 runs, a great performance. The boys now play Richard Hale in the semi finals over the next couple of weeks. 

The Year 7 Boys have played JWS and Richard Hale so far in the District cup. They have made it through to the semi finals to be played in the next week. The boys beat JWS and lost by only 5 runs to Richard Hale after bowling them all out.

Larch Sports Round up

June has been an exciting month for sport in the Larch with our students continuing to display great enthusiasm and determination to succeed. Across the whole of KS2, we have seen high numbers of students representing the school with pride; come rain or shine, our students have approached competitions and festivals with a smile and positive attitudes.

KS2 – Ultimate Frisbee

Our passion and drive to ensure that all our students receive opportunities to represent the school is clear and it was wonderful to see 22 children across Years 3,4,5 and 6 seize the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their skills in an ‘ultimate frisbee’ festival last week. Our sports ambassadors, Harry and Hattie, deserve a special mention; their guidance and encouragement led one team to achieve a commendable 2nd place in the tournament.

Year 5/6 Dynamo Cricket

The torrential downpours most certainly did not dampen the Year 5/6 cricketer’s moods as they took to the field in the Hertford and Ware School Sports Partnership annual Dynamo Cricket tournament. With some fantastic displays of batting and fielding, we are exceptionally proud that both teams walked away with medals, one team achieving silver and the other bronze. 

Secondary Calypso Cricket

At the annual Calypso Cricket this year, both Year 8 & 10 Boys teams performed very well. The Year 8 boys finished 2nd, beaten by Richard Hale in the final. The Year 10 boys finished second behind Chauncy. 

In the girls competition, the year 9 & 10 girls calypso cricket team worked well together and improving their bowling and batting throughout the day.

The year 7 & 8 team were strong from start to finish, they managed to beat many teams only losing one game throughout the whole day. They finished as joint champions at the top of the table. 

Well done to all Calypso participants. 

Rounders update

The Year nine rounders team travelled to Chauncy to compete in the district tournament. They started strong with two wins against Broxbourne B team and Chauncy. A loss to Presdales meant they finished second in the group and progressed into the semi final.In the semi’s they faced Broxbourne A team and it proved to be a close match, some strong fielding form Simon Balle meant Broxbourne struggled to score many but unfortunately we couldn’t quite score enough and lost the match 7-9. Well done to the whole team on a great performance.

District Tennis

Year 8’s and year 10’s showed fantastic resilience at the recent District Tennis tournament playing against some well drilled players from across the district. Special mentions to Giorgio and Freddie in Y10, who were undefeated in the tournament and to the year 8 team for stepping up having not played in competitive matches for the school.