Game(s) for anything!

There’s been a buzz about the boarding houses of late and that’s not because the daddy long legs have been out in force. Come Monday night, there has been a pounding of trainer-clad feet down the corridors and stairwells and the occasional muffled thump as dimpled rubber hits concrete or carpet (yes you know you shouldn’t Thomas!).

“What are you going on about?” you may ask. Well, indoor sports fever has hit the Ashford School boarding community and it’s spreading! With the brand new sports hall now open, our boarders now have the opportunity to keep fit, learn new skills and have fun out of the cold and rain.

Under the leadership of Mr Butt, the new set of evening sports activities has got off to a roaring start and our Head of Boys Games couldn’t be happier. He explained to me just how important the state-of-the-art facility will be: “The [new] sports hall will have a massive impact on boarders lives and we now have a good resource to keep boarders active and enthused.” Mr Butt  then added “We have been able to do lots of activities which just weren’t possible before. This along with employing some outside coaches to take sessions and has transformed the activity program.”

Looking at the list of activities below, you can see his point.

On six days out of seven boarders will be able to make use of the new sports hall and on four of those nights have the benefit of the following specialist coaches:

·         My Hyde (Football) is an ex professional football who played for Leicester in the premier league. He is also a UEFA B coach.

·         Mr Gray (Volleyball) is a national league volleyball player

·         Mr Luker (Karate) has represented and captained the United Kingdom in Karate from 1994-2000 and has coached numerous people to national level.

·         Mr Sunderland (Basketball) is a Basketball coach who coaches the south of England team and runs the basketball academy at the north school who are one of the top schools nationally.

This is on top of our existing team of dedicated sports staff. The new facility has clearly begun to pay dividends. On Thursday our first V basketball team took on the North School, regulars in the top school competitions around the country (see above). In the corresponding fixture last year our team went down to a thumping 80-point loss. Though again defeated, this time out they restored pride in the jersey by coming out on the wrong side of a narrow 41-60 score line. Returning from the match our boarding hoopsters were far from despondent: “We lost, but it was a good game.” said Jeff. “Better than last year!” added captain Jeffrey. I spoke to Mr M. live from the side-line with 7 minutes to go and the pride in his voice was audible.

It’s certainly clear that with our new sports hall and the dedication of staff and students, the sporting prowess of Ashford School is on the up.

In other sporting news, our boarding rugby players have all had a busy few weeks, with some notable successes. On Saturday our first XV, with many first choice players missing, took on and defeated a strong Cranbrooke School 3^rd XV 19-5. This was their second victory on the bounce after last week’s win over St Lawrence. New boarder and now first choice prop forward Mwaniki set up tries in both games, the first coming from a deft reverse flick pass. Our Under 13s also trounced Buckswood 52-0, while the Under 15s narrowly lost by two tries to one to the same opponents.

On a sporting themed blog it would seem odd to mention music, but it appears that our senior rugby boys will be taking to the Brake Hall stage in the near future to encourage the school to sing up. Sounds like that could create quite a buzz too.