Sport plays a most valuable part in the education of pupils at King Edward VI School. Self-discipline, team work, confidence building and the need to rise to challenges complement our belief that sport should be enjoyed by all.
There is a thriving programme of sport throughout the School year, ranging in standard from inter-house activities to teams competing in national competitions. In excess of forty staff are involved with the coaching and development of pupils. Additional external coaches are employed to complement this team where necessary.
The school has excellent facilities for sport. At the main School site there is a very well equipped sports hall, fitness room, squash courts, table tennis room and a dedicated dance studio, as well as netball courts and a sand filled artificial hockey pitch, which was re-laid in 2010.
The school also has in excess of thirty acres available for sport at its Wellington ground in Stoneham Lane. The majority of school matches are played at this site. The water-based artificial hockey pitch is an outstanding facility.
Overseas tours have taken place for all the major sports. Rugby teams have visited Canada and South Africa, hockey has been played in Spain and Germany, and netball in Holland, whilst the cricketers have enjoyed the West Indies and in July went to Sri Lanka. The coming months see KES netballers visiting the Caribbean.
2nd Team Rugby at KES looks to be gaining momentum; a strong display against St George's College early in the season was backed up yesterday (5th November) with a stoic and robust display against a very determined Churcher's College. KES started well but conceded early and trailed Churcher's 7-3 at half time. However, with the likes of Alex Page, Angus Chaplin-Rogers and Mike Hannides in fine form, KES bullied their way to score a well deserved try with Alex Padgham forcing his way over from a scrum. Churcher's threw everything at the KES warriors who were too fit and resolute to concede the win. KES 2nd XV won a real battle 7-8 with the Man of the Match deservedly going to Angus Chaplin-Rogers.
In any senior rugby squad, the 1st XV will only ever be as strong as the 2nd XV - it all bodes well within the KES rugby fraternity.
A strangely mild November morning saw the KES 1st XV travel to Salisbury to play Bishop Wordsworth School. The opposition had not lost all season and had made some notible scalps with wins against Millfield and drawn games against Sherborne and Colston's; the KES players were under no illusion that this was to be a huge undertaking.
KES started well with a solid defence backed up with some strong running from Matt Cross and Joe Ring. It took BWS 17 minutes to make any dents in the KES defence and although the 1st half finished with KES trailing 17-0, there were promising signs through the determination of Tom Bailey and Dan Paton.
A series of strong attacks from BWS in the second half saw KES having to spend great patches of the game in defence; Jasper Evans and Hugh Pelly making double figures in their tackle counts. With the game slipping away from KES a moment of utter genius from the Captain, Rhodri Adamson, through the immaculate precision of a cross-field kick put Freddie Richards in at the BWS corner. As a side note, Rhodri slotted the touchline conversion as well!
With the sad injury to Hugo Thould, returning from injury for the first time in eight weeks, and BWS crossing the line for the 6th time, the referee (who was very good) blew to signal the end of a mighty game.
Hero’s to applaud: Bailey, Ring, Evans, Richards, Pelly, Cross, Rhodes (playing injured) and Adamson (as always).
Man of the Match (if we had won): Dan Paton – awesome
Quote of the day: Mr Duncan “these warriors make me want to play...”
There are few moments in my life where I can honestly step back and label them "momentous"; the birth of my first child = adequate, the birth of my first son = nice, the birth of my second son = good, representing my country = great, getting married = alright. However, what happened today was such a moment of epiphany for me; taking a squad of warriors to my old School to do battle with one of the truly great Rugby / Sport playing establishments in the UK (Sam Warburton, Elliott Kear, Geraint Thomas and Gareth Bale are just a few of its alumni) and WINNING - yes WINNING. Even now when I sit here in an empty School with just the sound of the keys on my laptop being hammered by my clumsy fists, I catch myself grinning as I replay each second of the game that we WON 11-10; I am reliving the incredible break by Will Tsang that set up the brilliant try by Rhodri Adamson, the fracas involving Dan Paton that led to the penalty that put us ahead by 1 point, and the drop goal by Will Tsang that sealed the WIN for the mighty KES 1st XV. This day, this day above all others I can label MOMENTOUS. To cap off a great day, the singing was outstanding, the food consumption was breath-taking and the camaraderie on show throughout the entire day was astounding.
MOTM: Will Tsang
Thank you for all your efforts today boys – I will never forget it. Coach x
FIXTURE AT WELLINGTON SPORTS GROUND?
SatNav postcode is SO50 9HT.
FIXTURE AT SCHOOL?
SatNav postcode is SO15 5UQ.
Please note that dogs are not permitted on the School site, at Wellington playing fields or Lovaton Cottage (except guide and assistance dogs).
Smoking is not permitted on any of our sites.