County Cup Cross-Country

On Monday, 27 Queen’s student-athletes travelled to King’s College to represent the college at the first round of the County Cup, team event. Each athlete pushed themselves to the limit in their races and saw some outstanding personal achievements. Queen’s battled through finishing in 5th and 6th  place in the Junior age category,  7th for the Intermediate Boys, 5th place for the Intermediate Girls and a 5th place finish for the Senior Boys. A brilliant afternoon of running and a collective team triumph.

Senior Rugby

Against a big and physical Sidcot School U18 team, the U16 boys once again showed their dominance on the pitch with a convincing 8-try winning spree. Sidcot were relentless in their attack through midfield forwards carrying the ball, and attempting to break holes in the impenetrable Queen’s defence. Some tireless efforts at the breakdown from Woody and Adam meant the Queen’s forwards could turn over the ball quickly and let the back line tear the opposition defence apart, moving the ball wide despite poor weather conditions. Harrison’s tackling was outstanding and Caspar led the backs on the front foot scoring a hattrick with Camron scoring twice. Another great performance from the boys.

Queen’s v King’s Rugby

To conclude what has been a successful half-term of rugby, we welcomed KIng’s College U18 2nd XV to face our U16 boys in what was the biggest test for the Queen’s players yet. The Queen’s boys started a little nervous, making uncharacteristic errors but soon got into their game plan. Defence was solid, attack clinical and we contested the breakdown to allow a steady base to attack from. A well-worked try in the first half put Queen’s ahead. The second half saw Queen’s starting to take control of the game, Caspar next to score with a bull-dozing converted try. A bit of magic from Henry, selling the dummy and sneaking under the posts meant the boys were able to hold off the opposition for an outstanding victory – 17-15. The boys should be very proud of their achievement and they certainly deserve their half-term rest!

U14/U15/16 Rugby

With midweek matches looming, the weekend provided the opportunity for the U14, U15, and U16 rugby teams to be put to the test with some performance testing and analysis. Miss Wessels (Head of Strength and Conditioning) took the opportunity to collect data on strength, power, speed, agility, and muscular endurance in order to develop and improve rugby-specific fitness over the next half-term.

Our U12 and U13 boys enjoyed an afternoon of mixed Touch-Rugby on Saturday to help develop their decision-making, attacking skills and ball handling. Some electric rugby was played, with end-to-end tries being scored. The afternoon matches were played in good spirit and meant all boys across both year groups had the opportunity to play some competitive rugby.

On Tuesday, we welcomed Stover School for an afternoon of rugby with the U14 and U15 boys in action. The U14’s came up against a well-organised and physical Stover team who took their chances well, scoring out wide. The Queen’s boys showed great patience in attack, keeping possession for long periods of play but struggled to turn possession into points. Some heroic defence kept them in the game but Queens fell just short of victory.

U15 Rugby v Stover 

The U15 Team played a well organised, disciplined and large squad from Stover on Wednesday at home. Queen’s with two key players down made some tactical adjustments with a few players playing out of position in order to stabilise the core of the team. Queen’s struck first gaining possession and kicking for an early line out. Managing the jackal had been Tuesday’s Senior Games focus and within minutes Queen’s had won a scrum before crashing the ball over the line for the first try of the game. The game was end to end with both teams at times taking narrow leads. Expert kicking from Tom N. and a relentless scrum-half display from man of the match Theo H. ensured the game finished with a well earned and deserved draw 17-17.

On a very wet Wednesday afternoon, the U12 and U13 boys took to the pitch to play Exeter Cathedral in a mixture of contact and touch matches. The touch team played some exciting passages of play and despite poor weather conditions, managed to score in the corner. An enjoyable but damp afternoon of rugby was had by all.

The U13/U12 contact game was a close encounter with a late comeback by the Queen’s boys. Exeter’s size was an intimidating factor for the boys and they had to deal with many attacks through the midfield – which they did bravely and consistently. Max and Kirk were excellent in taking the ball forward and James and Mo were relentless in defence. A first-half try by Jayden was added to in the second half by Max, Joe and James. Unfortunately, it was too little too late and just not enough to pinch the win.

Hockey 

On Saturday hockey had a block of fixtures Vs Plymouth College. The U13/12’s played first. The A team drew with Plymouth College back in September at the Blundells tournament, so this was a rematch. Queen’s came out wanting the win. There were several top performances from the squad, helping Queen’s score an abundance of goals. A similar pattern to what happened in the B team fixture. Both teams ended up with resounding victories.

There were also two senior matches. These were very closely contested and both 1st and 2nd XI were drawing at the half-time interval. In the 3rd quarter, the 1st XI pulled away scoring some of our plentiful opportunities and went 3-1 up. However, fitness played a part in the final quarter, with Plymouth coming back to draw 3-3. The 2nd XI finished their match with a 2-2 draw.

A big well done to all the squads this weekend, but also well done to Emily and Evvie who made their 1st XI debuts as year 9 pupils. A great achievement, and thoroughly deserved.

Basketball by Isla

So far the season has seen massive improvement for the team’s chemistry and skill. Highlights include:

A tense match against Wells that really kicked off the season with both teams trading basket for basket for the majority of the game. Queens Battled for a well deserved victory following a strong final quarter. With MVP Jackie Yip scoring over the sum of the other teams’ total points alone. Also a top scorer: Chadz Cheung scored half of the total three pointers (all with 100% accuracy). Captain and Centre / Point Guard Scorfield Chan was pivotal for the team’s success – holding down the middle court and defence against the Well’s team’s strong attack.

The following match against Wellington was even more successful. The improvement in team dynamics was clear in the communication and teamwork displayed. MVP Mike Yip aka ‘point demon’ remained competitive and energetic in his plays throughout the court – A massive improvement from his 5 minutes of fame in the match against Wells. 

Overall the season so far has been an impressive show of the team’s training and hard work – a credit to Queens sport and a promising start to this year’s season.