St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Chapter 7 / Sport and Outdoors

Left: Tennis, 1898. Below left: Girls playing in the indoor courts recently on a surface akin to grass with none of its downsides. Below right: PT squad, 1928.

TENNIS It was as early as 1879 that Teddies first lawn tennis courts were established, and 1913 saw the first OSE take part in a Davis Cup Match: John Foulkes for Canada. It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that the School began to enjoy real success on the court – from 1961 to 1963 the 1st VI remained unbeaten. In 1963 the School opened its first hard courts and the 1st VI was unbeaten again in 1965. However, it was the late 1970s and early 1980s that proved to be the School’s most successful era, under the guidance of coach Guy Rigault. From 1977 to 1980 the 1st VI were unbeaten, winning the Public Schools Tennis Championship in 1978. In 1981 and 1982, the U15 side won the LTA Cup two years in a row and in 1983 the 1st VI were again unbeaten, reaching the semi-final of the Youll Cup. It was not until 1994 that the first girls began playing tennis. Charlotte Harris and Catherine Wilson were the first ever Teddies girls pairing to compete. Since that time tennis has become the major girls’ summer sport and is run alongside the boys’ tennis, which is a minor sport. Zak Jones Director of Tennis

ATHLETICS Whatever shortcomings the first School buildings might have had in New Inn Hall Street, there was no effort spared in ensuring the boys had the facilities and time to blow off steam. Use was made of the University facilities when they were free. During the Easter term Sports Days were held on these grounds with many different challenges for runners, jumpers and relay teams; there were also competitions where the teachers could take part, and the whole occasion was considered one of the highlights of the year. Copious records were kept and appeared in the Chronicles from 1872 onwards. Despite lack of proper training beforehand and not everyone having the right footwear, there appeared some quite exceptional athletes whose records stood for many years in some cases. Once the School moved to Summertown the fitness of the whole School was considered of paramount importance, and time was given for mass PE between lessons on the Meads (today’s Quad). In the 1880s there was an initiative from within the School led

Katie Withers Green battles for the ball vs Cheltenham, 2011.

going fully co-ed in 1997 and culminating in the successes of 2006 and 2007. In 2006 the Girls 1st XI became Divisional Champions and reached the National Finals for the first time in the School’s history. They repeated the feat again in 2007, when they were unbeaten in school fixtures, having played 29, won 28 and drawn one, scoring 143 goals while conceding just 25, with captain Zoe Shipperley scoring a School record 51 goals. The boys played in the varsity opener in 1982 at Lords where they drew 1–1 with Dulwich College and played again in 1997 when they beat Monkton Coombe 3–2. Teddies have a long and proud history of Blues: Ettrick Gordon Maltby, 1908–9; John Woodcock, 1946; Martin Claridge, 1946/8; James Beard, 1958; Simon Gill, 1980–2; Nicholas Haddock, 1979–81; Chris Lawless, 1981–3; Howard Blackett, 1981; Richard Hall, (all won Oxford Blues); Adrian Garne won a Blue for Cambridge in 1971; and also Simon Offen, who achieved the rare feat of playing for Cambridge in 1985 and Oxford in 1987. Although there have been fewer in recent times, Ben Battcock, the

School’s 2005 captain, earned three Blues and also captained Oxford University while Jasper Joyce earned his Cambridge Blue in 2013. On the girls’ side Sarah Baggs became our first girls’ hockey Blue, playing for Cambridge in 2009 and 2010. At present, Teddies is fortunate to have an enthusiastic coaching staff that includes two current senior internationals. Past coaches and teachers have included, in the early years Edward Hewetson, an Oxford blue at three sports including hockey, Richard Oliver (England and GB), Peter Badger, (captain) Freddie Hudson, Bram Van Asselt, Steven Batchelor (England and GB), Gavin Featherstone and more recently Ben Cope (Oxford 1996) and Gareth Playfair (1995–8). We have undertaken overseas tours to Australia, South Africa and more recently South America in 2006 where the pupils have learnt a great deal from playing away from home in very different environments. Zak Jones Director of Hockey

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