St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Chapter 7 / Sport and Outdoors

Left: GeorgeAnthony-Jones holds off the close attentions of a Wycliffe defender in a 1st XI’s 3–1 win, 2013. Below: Blenheim 10k, 2012 (left to right): Lewis Faulkner, Ruairi O’Hara, FergusMcAloon, NedCarr, JonnyThomson, NicolaPerkins,HenryChitsenga,JoshEntwhistle,external Harriers coach.

HARRIERS When I first joined the School in 2004, the ‘cross country club’ consisted of a handful of runners who were entered into one race a year, the County Schools Cross Country at Radley. I remember accompanying Edward Womersley (then in the Fourth Form) to that race and watching him qualify for the English Schools race with ease. Ed was a talented athlete and hugely enthusiastic about his running, but most of his training was organised outside School. It wasn’t hard to persuade me to start training with him in School and between us we discovered many good running routes around Port Meadow, Wytham Woods and looping around Oxford alongside the rivers and canals. When I stood up in School Assembly to advertise the ‘St Edward’s Cross Country Club’, I was told by a long-time member of the Common Room that the cross-country runners were previously known as the ‘Harriers’, and that they had a long and illustrious history within the School. The Harriers were thus resurrected. In 2004, the Harriers were a small group of runners who met regularly and trained hard. The core group consisted of characters such as Ed and Tom Womersley, Freddie Slemeck, Jack Bibbings, Ben Pawson and Sam Smith. There was a lot of natural talent and this was combined with friendly competition between the boys and gruelling weekly sessions at the Iffley Road track. We trained six days and covered more than 50 miles

FOOTBALL The numbers of boys playing Football at St Edward’s is growing each year and I am delighted to say that we now have block fixtures against other schools in place to put this enthusiasm to good use. The highly competitive nature of the games has meant that the boys have substantially developed their game awareness and skill level. It has been a pleasure to supervise this development, and the excellent work of all our coaches has resulted in St Edward’s becoming a respected opponent both on and off the field. This 2013 season has been our most successful in a number of years, with the side enjoying victories over Radley, Rugby, Bromsgrove, Oundle, Abingdon and Berkhampsted. We are very lucky to have Wycombe Wanderers academy coach Graham Malcolm working with our various squads, and his impressive understanding of the game was instrumental in our progression to the U19 County Cup semi- final three years ago. As Master in Charge of Football I am determined to ensure that any player who dons the St Edward’s shirt will give his utmost to represent the School with the effort our tradition deserves. It is imperative that the players, and more importantly teams, understand that sport provides an arena for individual development on many fronts. James Gaunt Master in Charge of Football

Clockwise from top left: Senior Boys Athletes 2013: J. D’Alton, P. Sliwinski, P. Mark, C. Asembo; J. Bunce, Inter Boys 100m Hurdles and High Jump, 2013; Storm Sunderland, Inter Girls 800m and 1500m, 2013; 1500m County Champion 2012 and 2013; T. Womersley, Senior Boys 800m and 1500m 2008–9; Senior Girls 4x100m – C. Endeley, G. Verdon, M. Littlehales, J. Jolley – 2013 Achilles Relays bronze medalists.

travels to Radley, Harrow, Marlborough and Stowe to take part in many large inter-school fixtures, as well as competing in the Achilles Schools’ Relays. The first Senior Girls 4x100m relay team was formed in 2007, when Shells girls were first allowed to choose athletics as their games option. In 2008 this team (Charlton, Burt, Skull and Hattingh) won the silver medal at the Achilles Schools’ Relays, and the girls have been successful ever since. In this, our 150th year, the Senior Girls 4x100m relay team (Endeley, Verdon, Littlehales and Jolley) qualified emphatically for the final and went on to win the bronze medal in this prestigious event; the Inter Girls 4x100m team (Elliston, Blanchard, Montgomerie and Sunderland) were able to match the performance of their elders by also winning bronze. The Inter Girls 3x800m relay team (Sunderland, Rayner and Akoulitchev) went one better by winning the silver medal in their race. In the Oxford City Championships the Teddies athletes have always done incredibly well; the Inter Boys, Inter Girls

and Junior Boys teams are current champions. Many individual athletes go on to represent the City Team at the Oxfordshire County Championships; in the 2012 season 15 athletes competed in the County Championships and 11 won medals, of which four were gold: Storm Sunderland (1500m), Georgie Blanchard (javelin), Charlie Smith (hurdles) and Jamie D’Alton (triple jump) are the current County Champions. This year this number has doubled, and 30 Teddies athletes will take part in this event. In recent years Teddies have also been well represented at the English Schools’ Track and Field Championship Finals. In 2007 Teddies was very proud of Edward Womersley, who became English Schools Champion in the 2,000m steeplechase held at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham. In 2009 Ryan Savage competed in the hurdles at the Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield, and in 2011 James Chainey competed in the shot put at the Gateshead International Stadium. Becky Bowyer Head of Athletics

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