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É«ÖÐÉ«ÊÓƵ’s athletes have produced thrilling performances across multiple sports this week, from a nail-biting second-place finish in rowing to impressive performances in cross-country, rackets, football, chess, and fives.

Fencing

Harry and Murillo (both Sixth Form) competed over the weekend in the Surrey Youth Fencing Championships in the under-18 men’s Foil category, coming first and second respectively. After a difficult final, Harry won by a score of fifteen to eight.

Chess – 2024 British Team Challenge Qualifier

The SPS A team delivered a strong performance against competing schools, excelling particularly in rounds 1 and 4, where they won the majority of their games. They performed especially well against Sir William Borlase A, securing a 3-1 victory. The team finished in a respectable third place with 9 points.

The SPS B team also performed admirably, accumulating 8.5 points and finishing in joint fourth place. Both teams thoroughly enjoyed the competition and look forward to participating in future tournaments.

Congratulations to Lior (Fifth Form), Ian (Fourth Form), Liam (Sixth Form), Jason (Sixth Form), Richard (Sixth Form), Myroslav (Lower Eighth), Vedaant (Upper Eighth), and Tony (Sixth Form).

Cross Country – Regional Championship (South of England): 25 January

SPS athletes earned some notable results at Beckenham Place Park. Benjy Street (Upper Eighth, Co-Captain) placed sixth in the U20 8km race with a time of 25:44, competing a year above his age group.

In the U15 4.5km race, Leau Roch (Fifth Form) finished 15th in 14:40, while Cyrus Sheikh placed 109th in 16:14, also racing in an older age category.

Fives

SPS secured comfortable wins in the first match of the season against a slightly understrength Alleyn’s side:

• U18: 96-66
• U16: 104-55
• U15 IVs: 110-80

Football – SPS vs. Tonbridge

More than 110 pupils represented the senior school on Saturday.

The 1st XI were held to a 1-1 draw despite leading for much of the match. The 2nd XI made a flying start, with early goals from Kai Petersen and Sam Francombe in the first five minutes. However, inconsistency allowed Tonbridge back into the game. A sublime chip from Kai secured his second goal, sealing a 3-2 win for SPS.

• 3rd XI: L 3-5
• 4th XI: W 1-0
• 5th XI: L 1-5
• 6th XI: W 5-2
• 7th XI: L 0-3
• 8th XI: W 5-3

The U16A team performed well in a closely fought match, with Francesco Beber scoring a spectacular last-minute goal to secure a 2-1 win — a strong contender for goal of the weekend.

The U16B team also impressed with a 2-1 victory, while the U16C team played out an exciting 2-2 draw on the compact Pitch 9.

The U15A team continued their excellent form with a 4-0 win, while the U15B team secured their first victory of the season, 3-1.

Rackets – Success at the National Schools Singles Championships

É«ÖÐÉ«ÊÓƵ’s Rackets players enjoyed great success during the National Schools Singles Championships at The Queen’s Club in December, where many notable performances were produced throughout our 22-man squad across four different events.

The Foster Cup is the pinnacle of schoolboy rackets singles competition, where 16 of the country’s top players compete over five days for this prestigious trophy. To be selected for this event is, in itself, highly esteemed, and É«ÖÐÉ«ÊÓƵ’s had four players picked to take part. Aryan Sankaye, as 4th seed, cruised to the semi-finals to face the highly rated 1st seed from Haileybury, where he narrowly lost in an exciting five-game match: 8/15, 11/15, 17/16, 15/11, 10/15. Gabriel Ashton won his first match comfortably 3-0 but then faced the 2nd seed from Malvern, who had beaten Konstantin Vujnovic 3-0 in the first round. In this match, as a Lower Eighth player, Gabriel played outstandingly against an experienced Upper Eighth Malvernian and won in another exciting, somewhat topsy-turvy five-game match: 6/15, 15/5, 15/3, 2/15, 15/12. Our fourth player in this event was Alex Hogben, who had unfortunately drawn the top-seeded Haileyburian in the first round. Although Alex played well, he sadly went down in a similar fashion to Konstantin, losing 0-3.

Sachin also excelled as the top seed in the second-tier event for senior boys, but in the quarter-finals, he met an unseeded Wellingtonian who played, what we call, “purple,” the entire match, defeating Sachin 15/6, 16/17, 15/8.

In the U-15 event, the Jim Dear Cup, Alexei Fletcher was seeded 3rd and again cruised to the semi-finals, only to come up against an outstanding protégé from Harrow—the U-18 Real Tennis Champion—who has been playing these games for over five years already! Unfortunately, as good as Alexei is, his opponent had more weapons in attack, retrieved relentlessly, and served immaculately, which is the essence of a successful performance. He won 2-0.

Spring Term Fixtures

Match vs. Haileybury (Away)

The 1st Pair, Gabriel Ashton and Konstantin, played like champions in this five-game thriller on an away court against arguably the top national schools’ pair. In fact, our boys should have won 3-1 had they secured the first game. However, at 2-1 in our favor, a few unforced errors led us to drop the next two games 7/15, 10/15, ultimately losing 2-3.

The U-15 Pair, Joe Burch and Haofei Du, won in fantastic style, kicking off with a 15/0 first game, where Haofei served without error. From there, our boys conceded just nine more points, winning 15/3, 15/6, and taking the match 3-0.

It was quite ironic that our U-14 Pair, Costi Poulios and Santi Rio, won in almost identical fashion to Joe and Haofei, with Costi dominating the first game, serving without error for a 15/0 start. The boys then won the next two games 15/5, 15/7, sealing a 3-0 victory

Match vs. Harrow (Away)

This fixture always seems to spark great rivalry and fierce competition, and this meeting was no different. Playing as 1st Pair, Alex Hogben and Sachin performed fantastically against a fired-up Harrovian pair that had narrowly beaten Aryan Sankaye and Konstantin Vujnovic 3-2 away at Harrow last term. As the scoreline suggests, this match was a great contest and a wonderful spectacle. All players performed well, and although we should probably have won 3-0, Harrow took their chances well in the second game to tie things up. However, our boys pulled it together convincingly, winning the next two games 15/7, 15/12.

The U-16 match saw Anish Dhar partnered with the very able U-15 player, Alexei Fletcher, who together won convincingly 3-1 (15/12, 9/15, 15/0, 15/3), with Alexei destroying their opponents single-handedly in the third game, serving 15 straight points.

Fresh off the back of an outstanding U-15 win at Haileybury the previous week, Haofei Du and Joe Burch continued their winning streak with another 3-0 victory, winning 15/5, 15/4, 15/3.

Rowing

At the season-opening Quintin Head on Saturday, January 25, the 1st VIII, starting first in the event, secured an impressive second place, missing the overall title by just 1.1 seconds to London Rowing Club’s senior men’s eight. They were, however, a commanding 20 seconds ahead of the next-fastest junior crew.

The 2nd VIII delivered a solid performance, finishing among the pack of second eights, signalling a competitive season ahead. The J15 and J16 A and B crews competed in mixed eights, with one of the J16 eights winning the J16 title by nearly 16 seconds over their closest competitor. Meanwhile, the J15 mixed eights achieved second and third place, finishing behind KCS Wimbledon’s A boat, and the J15C eight was notably the fastest C boat of the day.