2 7 t h F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 7 V o l u m e 1 1, I s s u e 1 Sports Report St Moritz, Switzerland Giant Slalom: Gold Slalom: Silver Giant Slalom: Silver Slalom: Gold Skiing Sixth Form pupil, Millie Knight glided into the Christmas break with a podium position for all seven World Cup races in which her skiing team took part. After suffering from a four month illness, Millie was delighted to scoop up one bronze, three silvers and three golds with her teammates. She is particularly proud to receive a gold in Slalom, her weakest discipline. The team are now ranked No. 1 in the world for Giant Slalom. December World Cup race results: Kuhtai, Austria Slalom: Silver Giant Slalom: Bronze Giant Slalom (GS): Gold At the next event she became World No.1 in Downhill and is now ranked 1st in three of her five disciplines. Millie won World Champion Gold in Downhill, completing the course in 1 minute 13.42 seconds. However, she suffered a tumble at the end when she hit the barriers at 105km/h, getting stuck underneath. She recovered from a few bumps and bruises and still managed to achieve one gold and three silvers in the Para-Alpine Word Championships. Her gold in the Downhill was quickly followed by silver medals in the Super Combined, Giant Slalom and Slalom events. Millie was particularly proud of her silver in the Slalom as it's her least favourite discipline. Arthur Elveden did brilliantly in the Welsh Slalom Championships to take his first national level podium place with a well deserved bronze. A few weeks later he went on to win a silver in Slalom and a bronze in Giant Slalom at The British Independent Schools Alpine Championships in Pila, competing for King s.
Hockey Despite the weather being unkind with a mixture of freezing temperatures and heavy spells of rain, the boys hockey schedule has remained relatively unaffected. With only one fixture and one games session cancelled in the past half term, there has been plenty of hockey action on show. The 1st XI have had some excellent Saturday results with solid wins against St Lawrence and Reigate. In the Frank Mason the 1st XI qualified for the afternoon knockout round but were unfortunate to lose to Eltham College in the quarter-final in a very close encounter. The highlight for the 1st XI was their run in the Kent Cup where they beat St Lawrence on penalty strokes after a thrilling 2-2 draw. This secured the team a spot at Kent Cup Finals day where they were unfortunately knocked out by a very strong Langley Park side in the semi-final. The 2nd XI are making good improvements and had the best performance yet in their recent 1-1 draw with Reigate. The U15As are making good progress and played superbly in their draw against Alleyn s who are a very strong hockey school and King s were unlucky not to come away with the win. The team almost got their first win of the season against Reigate when they were 1-0 up but were unlucky to concede in the dying minutes to end the game with a 1-1 draw. The highlight for the U14As was their success in the Granville Hockey Tournament. They won their pool beating King s Rochester and Duke of Yorks in the process. They then went on to beat Cranbrook 1-0 in the final. The highlight for the U14B team was their 1-0 win against St Lawrence. Both teams have made huge progress and are really starting to gel as a squad. Netball It has been a promising start for the netball teams this season. The 1st VII girls have managed to implement everything they learnt at pre-season, their intensity and focus has been consistent throughout training and matches. They have all gained great awareness of their strengths and weaknesses over the weeks and understand how to use the former to benefit their game. They have been very successful in their matches and have displayed some high quality netball. The 2nd team have been solid from the start, demonstrating fantastic cohesion and dynamic movement on court. Individuals have shown great versatility, playing a variety of positions. Their work rate is second to none and they have a promising season ahead of them. The 3rd VII have started the season well with a fantastic win over Canterbury Christ Church University 3rd team 18-16. They have managed to raise their game for each match adjusting to their opposition. The U15A team had a very exciting start to the season with marked improvement since their first game. They finished strongly before half term with a convincing win against Kent College in their final fixture. They are a very talented group of girls who are soaking up everything they get taught. With the team structure and set-plays now in place, we are looking forward to improving their individual skills over the next few weeks. The U15B team have been undefeated. Ella Hemming has shown excellent leadership skills, being named captain, and India Boyd was named vice-captain. Kimberly Chiimba, Ruth Spencer and Anna Arkhipova are to be commended on their willingness to play in defensive positions to benefit the team, and are turning into excellent all-rounders. The team is cohesive, willing, and lively on court, and the girls have great attitudes and are very keen to do well in every match. The U14 netballers are a talented group. They approach training with enthusiasm and have demonstrated sound basic skills. The A team have stormed ahead winning all of their fixtures so far with a notable win against Kent College 14-13. The team have bonded excellently and have a wonderful drive and enthusiasm to do their absolute best.
Lacrosse On January 31st, the King s School under 14 lacrosse team played at Benenden School s round robin along with Walthamstow Hall. After a week of not practicing due to the frost, the King s side lost its first game to the Benenden A team. Towards the end of the game, King s seemed to warm up with players like Arwen Withey-Harrison leading the defence. Although King s lost its second game to the Benenden B team, the team looked much better. Rima Shahab Kayali led the offense in possession time, showing some flare with her dodges. In King s final game against Walthamstow Hall, King s lost in a close match. Ava Samoilys was awarded the man of the match award for her leadership on the offense. On February 1st, the under 15 lacrosse players participated in Benenden School's U15 indoor tournament. For their first match, the King's A and B teams lined up against each other. The A team ended with the victory 4-0. From there, the A team went on to play Walthamstow Hall's B team who managed to score a last minute goal against them, bringing the game to a draw. After some tactical changes, defenders Sophia Smith, Millie Lark and Jessie Venton did not give up any easy goals, losing a close match against the Walthamstow Hall A team, 2-1. The B team, under the leadership of defender Valerie Chong, held their own against their experienced opposition. Each game the girls became more aware on both sides of the ball, ending with a tough match against the Benenden A team to finish the day. They ended up placing 6th in the tournament while the A team placed 5th. On February 4th the King s School participated in the South East Schools Festival Tournament with nine other teams. While the King s side had a slow start after losing its first two matches, it picked itself up and rallied around Amber Kendall s goal against St. Georges. Immediately following that game, King s defeated The Royal School 2-0 with Sophia Hamlin scoring a penalty shot. The shutout can be attributed both to keeper, Bella Whitney, and to the exceptional defensive efforts of Miranda Dobson. After that match, King s lost 3-0 in the quarterfinals to St. Jame s school. Determined not to end the day on a loss, the team channelled its efforts to beating St. Helen s School, 4-1, putting them in seventh place in the tournament. Both Ollie Lark and Laura Clarke led the team offensively in its final game, scoring fast break goals off of the draw. At the U14 Benenden indoor tournament, the first match was Kings v Walthamstow Hall A. The score was a 9-1 loss with a blinding goal from Millie Lark, whilst Arwen Withey- Harrison gave 100% and fought for every ground ball. The second game was against Benenden B's with a 7-0 loss to Kings, Katya Yurova preventing attacking opportunities and Skye Rae-Smith making some insane blocks against shots. Game 3 was against Walthamstow Hall B which showed great improvement compared to the starting games finishing with a 5-0 loss. Lily Weir, leading the attack, unfortunately had some shots that just missed. Shirley Fu made some great interceptions and Ava Samoilys won the majority of ground balls. The final game v Benenden A saw a loss of 10-0 however showing further improvement as a team and Skye Rae-Smith made some fantastic blocks and along with Bella Roskill and K Stark put enough pressure on to prevent the offence from shooting from a distance. Cissy Williamson transitioned the ball effectively from defence to attack. It was a fantastic 5-3 win for U15 King s team against Worth. The first half saw King s go 3-0 up with Annabel Biloune scoring in the first few minutes dodging past 3 defenders, shortly followed by two further goals. King s were, however, playing a man down in the second half after losing top scorer Annabel Biloune to injury. The second half saw Lily Weir leading the defence from the goal, making some amazing saves and keeping the score from being much closer. The straight defence of Arwen, Katya and Cissy slowed down the attack and worked well off each other despite being a man down. Rima Shahab Kalani (VC) won the majority of the draws and with Captain Millie Lark, co-ordinated the midfield with picture perfect transitioning from defence to attack. Ava Samoilys played behind goal creating many attacking opportunities for her teammates. MVP Sophia Smith scored the final two goals for King s making an unstoppable drive from defence to attack to secure King s the win.
Football We had a great block fixture against Sevenoaks, with the 1st XI leading the way with a 2-0 win and an important clean sheet. The 2nd XI have played 5 and won 4 so far this term and are looking forward to greater challenges after half term. The U15s had a solid 6-3 win against Bethany School having been 1-3 down in the first half. The U16As had a tight loss against Sevenoaks, but have won all other games and the B team are unbeaten so far this season. The U15B team had a cracking 1-1 draw against Christ's Hospital, unfortunately missing a late penalty to win the game. The U14As have won all their games so far and are hopeful of challenging for the SKIL league title. The U14B team mirroring their U15 counterparts had a very encouraging 1-1 draw against Christ s Hospital, with some great football being played by both sides. Weather has hindered the first half of the term, but the vast majority of games have been rearranged and one of the highlights of the season was the two great games played against the OKS, with a fiercely competitive 1-1 draw for the 1st XI and the 2nd XI prevailing 6-4 in a high scoring affair. Girls Cricket On the Friday before half term, King s excelled at the East Kent round of the Lady Taverners National Indoor Girls Cricket tournament at the Kent County Cricket Ground in Canterbury. With short 7 over matches of 8 players a- side, the team convincingly beat Herne Bay High School and Ashford School in the group stages posting whopping scores of 75 and 99 runs respectively to top the group and set up a final against Kent College. The winner would progress through to the county finals stage of this National competition. Kirstie Main was a superb captain throughout the day and got the team off to a flying start in the final against Kent College with her double wicket maiden in the first over of the match. King s continued to dominate with an excellent bowling and fielding display to bowl Kent College out in the last over for just 59 runs. With assistant coach and maths teacher Miss De Villiers quickly working out King s would need just under 9 runs an over to win the match, Grace Francis and Flo Brealy started positively getting the team well on their way to victory and looking comfortable. Needing just 11 runs with two overs to spare, wickets started to fall and the scoreboard pressure meant runs suddenly were hard to come by. Kent College upped their fielding and pulled off some spectacular catches to bowl King s all out for 57 meaning they had fallen short by just three runs. The team couldn t have been any closer to progressing through to the Kent Finals Day and should be phenomenally proud of their performances throughout the day. In only the second year of its reintroduction into the sports programme, the girls cricket team at King s are a force to be reckoned with and are catching up fast with the much more experienced teams in the area and the summer ahead is certainly looking promising!
Swimming The King s girls teams travelled to Benenden and returned triumphant winning the Intermediate, Senior and Overall categories. The girls were in great form and won 18 out of the 24 Races. Stand out performance came from Florence Brealy in the 50 butterfly, Abigail Brooke in the 50 freestyle and Caitlin Hunt swimming in the senior 50 backstroke. Swimming Scholars Emma Bradshaw, Phoebe Brockington, Stephanie Andrews and Louisa Long all won 3 individual races. The swim team travelled to Tonbridge and the girls continued their fine form returning triumphant with 3 trophies. The girls competed against Benenden, Epsom, Sevenoaks and Eastbourne and won the junior, intermediate and senior age group despite some tough opposition. Stephanie Andrews came first in the 100m breaststroke and the 100m individual medley with the latter being swum in a new school record in the under 16 age group. Louisa Long (100m free/50m fly) and Emma Bradshaw (100m free/50m fly) also triumphed in both of their individual events. There were further race wins recorded by Phoebe Brockington (100m back), Annabel Walker and Caitlin Hunt (50m back) and Florence Brealy (50m breast). There was a thrilling climax to the senior competition with the relay team beating a very strong Eastbourne quartet to clinch the trophy by just 1 point. The boys showed great team spirit and recorded many new personal best times swimming against Tonbridge, Eastbourne, Epsom and Sevenoaks. Edouard de Vitry recorded new best times on 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly, a feat mirrored by Charles Lin. Further personal bests were logged by James Senabulya and Daniel Koo (50m back), Ben Sheppard Barron (100m back), Ed Gaut (50m breast and back), Matthew Jenkins (50/100m free), Chris Sit (100m breast) and Dylan Turner (50m breast). Congratulations to the three King s swimmers who took part in the recent Kent County Swimming Championships, Oleg Prisnazhnyuk (JKS), Phoebe Brockington (HH) and Stephanie Andrews (BR). The event was staged over four weekends, at Crystal Palace and the Olympic Pool, Stratford. Phoebe swam the most demanding program, and put on a very strong performance throughout, coming in the top 10 in her age group in nine of her ten events. Her best result came in the women's 100m butterfly, where her time of 1:14:26 placed her 4th. Stephanie swam a reduced program of just four events, and as previously saved the best until last, with a personal best time of 34:41 in the final event, the women's 50m breaststroke. This broke her previous school open record & won her gold in her age group, ranking her 14th in Britain; but was sadly 2/100ths short of the qualifying time she needed for the Junior European Trials in April. Oleg also put in an excellent performance in the 50m breaststroke, with personal best times in both the heat and the final (37:79), coming 7th in his age group. Louisa Long (BR) and Emma Bradshaw (KD) will soon be competing in their respective county championships and we all wish them the very best of luck
Rowing On Thursday 2nd the Kent School Games Indoor Rowing Finals took place. Pupils had already raced in December at the heats to qualify for these finals. 20 pupils represented the school with all pupils coming back with at least 2 medals each. A great show of strength for the club through all age groups. The shells girls of Taisy Sosina, Eleanor Nieman, Maja Coben and Elise Batchelor kicked off winning their team and then their relay event. Over the half term there was quite a bit of preparation for the GB trials. On 11th February Sarah Beevers raced at the South Yorkshire Head being the fastest Junior women's single sculler as well as winning the senior women's single. During the week Freddie Allinson trained with his Kingston Grammar School partner both at Kingston and at Westbere. Sacha Tanna coxed the Kent University women's Eight to get recordings to submit for the GB trials process. On the 18th and 19th February at Boston the GB trials took place over a 5k course. On Saturday Sarah Beevers raced her single but finding the competition a bit tough came in 47th. Freddie Allinson rowing in a pair with his KGS partner came in a very good 11th out of the 40 pairs. On Sunday Sarah Beevers moved into a pair coming 12th. Freddie in the same combination but just swapping seats stroked the pair to an even better 6th putting him very positively in GB selection area. Sacha Tanna spent the weekend meeting the GB selection staff. Horse Riding Current Harvey House pupils Electra Ogilvy Watson, Olivia Griffith, Stephanie Solly and Sakura Belkin (all 6b) took part in the first of a series of Equestrian Competitions organised by Spires Academy in January. There were four teams competing with the girls placing first overall. Electra, in class one, scooped up first place with Olivia coming in third for class two and both Stephanie and Sakura obtaining second place in the class three and class four rounds. This gave the King's team an overall score of 15 marks, resulting in them winning this first competition. The intention is to get local schools involved in meeting, sharing and competing in Equestrianism to encourage, develop and push this wonderful sport. King's competed against St. Edmund's School, Spires Academy and Christ Church University, who will all host the next competitions in due course. Squash Squash has had a successful half term, with the boys 1st and 2nd V winning against Sevenoaks and Tonbridge and the girls 1st V winning against Sevenoaks. The girls also reached the last 16 in the National Schools competition. They played a very strong High Wycombe side and lost, but it's a great achievement to get to the last 16 in the country!
Scholars and Excellence Programme News Huge congratulations to Matt Stonier who ran at the weekend at the SEAA Regional XC Championships - Parliament Hill. He was personally disappointed not to finish in the top 20 but he came in number 24 th at the main XC fixture in the South of England. An absolutely phenomenal performance. He covered 4.5km in 15:31 (the winner came across the line in 14:36 Matt was well in the chase for this race!). At the National XC Championships, in only our second year ever taking students, and running against some of the best XC runners in England, Matt continued his fine form finishing an awe-inspiring 21 st position overall, which is a massive improvement on his 146 place last year! Allegra Hinds running in the same event, finished in the middle of the pack (in 246 th position) against a very tough field. Congratulations to the many players who have been rewarded for their additional hour of training in the JAC (Junior Academy Centre) programme and have been selected for the England Hockey JAC Tier 2 training. Performance Centre training squad: Charlie Griffiths (U17) Sophia Smith (U17) Victoria Glaister (U15) Henry McLeod Scott (U15) JAC Kent age group selection for the Tier 2 after Tier 1 training: Joe Kennedy (U17) Freddie Stringer (U16) Grace Francis (U16) Sophie Stonier (U16) Mark Burns (U15) Ella Hemming (U15) Iona Boyd (U14) Charlie Griffiths has also been accepted onto the England Hockey Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) programme. The AASE and Performance Centre Programme for selected Year 12 hockey athletes is led by the Performance Department at England Hockey. Their aim is to ensure that hockey s performance athletes of the future are supported, motivated and inspired to maximise their talent, development and potential. Louisa Long had a good weekend at the Sussex County swimming Champs. From the four events swum Louisa achieved 3 PBs, 2 County Bronze Medals and 1 Regional Time in the 50m Fly. Louisa was just a second away from a Regional Time in the 100m Backstroke and 400ths of a second (that is a tenth of an eye blink!) from a Regional Time in 50m Backstroke. Louisa will swim the 50m Fly and 100m Back at the Guildford Level 1 meet on 25/26 March and the 50m Fly, 100m Fly and 50m Free at Crawley Level 1 Meet on 8/9 April.