County League Athletics so far

At half term we have passed the half way stage in this year's County League athletics competition and a mixture of results have seen all 4 teams move up and down in the tables over the last few weeks. The year 8 boys started with a huge score of 58, which was then followed up with scores of 45 and 43 to place them in 6th position overall before their last match against STABS and Cheshunt saw them only gain 41 points. The year 10 boys scored 45 twice and one 59 pointer putting them into 5th position (1 outside the top 4 finish for a cup final spot) again before they scored 43 against the top 2 schools.

The girls have had similar results with our weaker matches seeing us score highly. The year 8 girls who are expected to perform well currently lie in 6th with a 41, 37 and 35 at the the halfway stage. The year 10 girls are slightly further down in 16th having scored 34, 42 and 27.

Hopefully all 4 teams can tally up some big scores in their final 2 matches with the luxury of some more favourable schools to compete with. If any teams finish in the top 4 they will be rewarded with a cup final berth and the top 8 will see them battle it out for the plate final. Let's hope we can reach these milestones with one final push!

County League is underway

We have now had 2 county league athletics matches which have both seen some outstanding performances and some big team scores. Last week saw us at Stevenage for match 1 where the year 8 boys scored 58, year 10 boys 45, year 8 girls 41 and 10 girls 34, which has given us a decent start in the league where we able to build on at last night's match in Welwyn. The year 8 boys scored 45, 10 boys 59, 8 girls 37 and 10 girls 42. It was almost a reverse of what we saw last week ensuring that all teams have managed to averaged their scores out in preparation for round 3 next week.

Y7 Athletes have a successful start

Last night the year 7 boys and girls kicked off the athletics season with a friendly match against JFK school, from Hemel Hempstead. Their were some outstanding performances from a number of athletes, including Tom Goodall 100m/800m (1st 13.5/3:05), Chloe Nichol 200m (1st 31.3), Aaron Jacobs Shot/Javelin (1st 7.96/21m), Luke Rhodes Long Jump (1st 4.15).

The season looked promising for the year 7's with a number of students set to compete in the County League for the year 8's this Thursday at Stevenage.

Year 10 Basketball team make history

The year 10 basketball team have gone further than any other side from Sandringham School this season reaching the last 8 in the whole of the country. We have seen the culmination of that run in what has been a very busy week for the boys as they went out in the National quarter-final last night.

On Tuesday the side travelled to Walsall to take on Pool Hayes Community School in the last 16 tie which saw us come out 51-42 winners in a pretty one sided and very scrappy game against a well organised zone defence. This then set up a quarter final place with one of the country's top teams in Burleigh Community College, Loughborough. The school is a Basketball Academy linked with the Leicester Riders.

The game was always going to be tough but off the back of a convincing win, the team was full of confidence. We started strong and quickly established a 4 point lead. Burleigh began by shooting the ball well, which meant we had to shift to a much tighter man to man defence. Michael Stubbs continued to dominate in the key and drew a number of fouls as well as forcing himself inside to score off a number of strong drives. The Burleigh defence saw this as a threat and began to double team Stubbs which gave Moody, Ryan and Marshal opportunities to attack. As the game drew to an end Burleigh's outside shooting took over and saw us 6 down with 2 minutes to play. The game became a 4 point game but eventually slipped away as time ran out.

The team have achieved so much in such a short space of time and have literally put Sandringham school on the basketball map. Congratulations and let's hope next year is even more successful.

The team:
Michael Stubbs
Riley Griffin
Charlie Marshal
George Holley
John Little
Jacob Moody
Oli Ryan
Sam Tanton
Max Hood
Will Holland
Leo Stamatiou

Year 7 and 10's crash out in District Semi's

Both the year 7 and 10 football teams failed in their bids to reach the District cup finals. The year 10s played Beaumont last night and went down 2-0 to two costly mistakes. The year 7 team played Verulam, this years county cup semi finalists. The team lost 1-0 to a super strike from 20 yards. The team battled hard and were unlucky not to sneak an equaliser in the dying moments.

Well done to both teams for reaching the semi finals. Let's hope they can both learn from the experiences and move on to bigger and better accomplishments next year.

Year 8's make County Final

The year 8's have made it to the county basketball final after a 68-62 win away at Turnford this evening. The boy's were always in control of the match but had to fight through a well organised full court press and an extremely physical side from Cheshunt. A solid team performance and some great individual contributions from Akutu, Frankl, Mair and Cleaver managed to overpower Turnford in what became a closer match than first expected.

The team has set up a county final against St. Columbas next Wednesday at 4:00pm, which will be a tough game!

Year 9 go out of County Cup battling

The year 9 boys basketball team lost in a great game against a strong Beaumont side in the County Cup Semi final yesterday. The team put in a solid performance against a side that have had much success and includes some fantastic players who have been playing up in age.

The game always seemed just out of reach but the team fought hard after going 23 points down to get the game back to single figures. A good defence from Oli Ryan, Max Hood and Jacob Moody restricted Beaumont's players scoring, but eventually landed us in foul trouble. Some great drives from Hood, Moody and Tanton helped us close the defecit as we chipped away at Beaumont's lead.

The game finished 72-61 and would have been very different if missed lay ups had have been converted. This year has been a very positive one for the team and has seen huge progress. I know that next season we will continue to close the gap and produce more fantastic results.