Who would have thought at the beginning of this term, that we would be so lucky to play a full programme of fixtures, and get to the end of the academic year with a sense that normality is round the corner?
Both the boys and girls have embraced the opportunity to represent the School and their Houses this term. It has been nice to see so many pupils in the cricket nets, on the tennis courts and running around the track outside of official games lessons. They are taking every opportunity to play sport, to make up for all those months lost during lockdown.
Inter-House Girls Sport
Volleyball
On Saturday 26 June, Fletcherites and Sutton battled it out on the volleyball court. We played a 'best of three' style competition, the winner of each game being the first team to score a total of 21 points. The first game was closely fought, with the score oscillating between each team. But Fletcherites eventually came out victorious, beating Sutton 21-20.
The second game was also fiercely contested, but Fletcherites dominated the field, winning an amazing victory of 21-5. Some great serves were played by Fletcherites’ Matilde in both matches. Special mention must go to Elizabeth in Sutton, who having never played before, did an excellent job.
Everyone played very well, and it was so much fun to be a part Charterhouse’s first Girls’ Inter-House Volleyball Competition.
- Report written by Millie
Badminton
A much anticipated event, the Girls’ Badminton Inter-House Plate competition saw some of the finest players go head-to-head over the course of an extraordinary afternoon. In a story of changing fortunes, incredible highs and close shaves, our talented girls from three Houses, Sutton, Chetwynd and Fletcherites, put on a fabulous performance. The aim was simple - to win the Plate for their House but of course, this was only the beginning of a long journey...
Chetwynd stars, Astrid and Viviana let the charge with consistent, high-quality games. With their determination to succeed and pride for their House, the two girls became an unstoppable force, achieving comprehensive victories against the might of Fletcherites and Sutton and winning 7 matches, the highest across all those played.
Fletcherites pair Eva and Kandy played with incredible flair and confidence, but it took a lot of resilience to win their matches against the unyielding Susie and Tiwani and dynamic Iryna and Akaesha from Sutton.
Susie’s racquet could have easily been a brick wall, and her opponents struggled to see any way through. Tiwani was the perfect partner, always watching and always ready. Like a beautiful recipe, the two girls complemented each other, enhancing their strengths and adding real flavour to their game.
The matches also saw some of players demonstrate a rare quality - great positivity in the face of adversity. Olivia and Harriet had to dig deep and played with great teamwork against some very stiff opposition. Yet, they maintained a smile and a ‘can-do’ attitude throughout and never gave up.
The Sutton girls knew that this was never going to be easy but they were up for the challenge. Tatiana and Harriet were put through their paces as the matches wore on but they worked extremely hard for every point and never let the opposition take them for granted. They were some delightful moments of laughter and joy as the duo let their emotions loose and played with all their heart and soul.
Sutton’s Iryna was often seen dancing gracefully across the court, staying light on her feet and playing effortlessly as a seasoned concert pianist. She was supported strongly by Akaesha, whose wit and humour were as sharp as some of her returns.
In the final moments, the air was filled with excitement and tension and as the shuttlecock sailed high in the courts, time stopped momentarily and the players took their positions contemplating the importance of their next move.
When the dust settled though, there was a clear winner. Chetwynd took the Inter-House Plate and rightfully so, for they consistently demonstrated skill, grit and a real determination to win. However, there would be no competition without the competitors and in this respect, Sutton and Fletcherites girls have won my true admiration.
All of their girls played with great enthusiasm, great spirit and showed great sportsmanship. Above all, regardless of who won the matches, they showed that they were great friends, and that for me is the ultimate victory.
- Report written by Dr Ganesh Balasubramanian
Climbing
Tuesday 22 June, played host to our first ever Inter-House Girls' Climbing Competition. We had five climbers representing all three girls' Houses: Sutton, Chetwynd and Fletcherites.
All climbers had to complete five different routes of various grades. It was a close run contest as many were topping out on their first attempt and the pressure was on to maintain focus and not make any mistakes. As the routes became more technical in their nature, a few shone through and in the end Sutton were victorious, closely pursued by Fletcherites then Chetwynd.
Keeping us on the edge, both Sutton Girls ended the day on equal points, so to decide who would be the first ever winner of the coveted Phoebe Nelson Trophy, the girls did an Olympic style speed climb.
Again, it was close, but massive congratulations to Tatiana for winning the overall event, hotly pursued by Akaesha. Also close in the running were Ayla, Elena and Laura. All girls climbed to a wonderfully high standard and should be all proud of their efforts. I look forward to seeing them all back on the wall next in September.
Phoebe Nelson (D 2015, daughter of Mrs Nelson) is a very accomplished and talented climber, who during her time at Charterhouse climbed a number of technically demanding routes on the School wall, pushing the envelope to such a degree that some of her routes have never been climbed since. Phoebe went on to climb nationally, winning many competitions while both at School and Durham University.
Swimming
Tuesday 22 June, we were also able to hold the Girls' House Swimming Competition. We had all three girls houses taking part and it was great to see them back into the pool to compete for the Lyle Cup. The overall winning house changed several times over the course of the eight events with the final relay becoming the deciding race. After a huge swim from Chetwynd to take the win in the relay, it just wasn’t enough to prevent Sutton from taking the overall win by 1 point. This year we have also introduced a Best Senior Swimmer Trophy, The Maria Steyn Award in the Girls' House Swimming. Maria was a captain of swimming in 1991 and it was fitting to name this award after her. This is awarded to the top performing girl in an individual event. This year the trophy was received by Camilla, Chetwynd, who won the 50m Freestyle and 50m Breaststroke.
Tennis
There has been plenty of tennis taking place in the past fortnight with lots of competitions. Where to begin?!
We had the Junior Boys' House Tennis which saw 66 players competing for their Houses. After an action-packed afternoon, Gownboys came out victorious.
The staff teams took on both a selected Specialist Team (including departing Year 13 pupils, Henry and Jamie) as well as the U14A team, on a very warm Friday afternoon. In the staff ranks, our professional coach Shane Hurst provided some extra strength in depth - he has competed with the Bryan brothers after all! A lovely afternoon of tennis - although the staff were victorious, it was the occasion which really stood out.
The Boys Singles competitions also drew to a close, with Jamie winning the senior event, Alexander winning the senior plate event and Ethan winning the junior event. Some excellent singles play from our leading players.
The inaugural Aryaman Nagpal Trophy took place - for those unaware, Aryaman was a member of our boys 1st team who sadly died in a car accident last year. As a tribute to him, a new competition was started in which the leading six boys and six girls in Year 12 played a mixed doubles in a round robin event. It was a closely fought event with Emma and Mackenzie taking the winning trophy. All 12 players played the Aryaman Nagpal Trophy in the right way - Charterhouse at its finest.
Finally, the family doubles returned in 2021! The sun was shining and 36 pairs took to the courts with students from the 4th form up to the 2nd Year Specialists. It was a lovely afternoon with plenty of tennis for everyone. The Main Draw winners were the Wilkinson family, the Plate Draw winners were the Sacco family, the Bowl Draw winners were the Richardson family, the Shield Draw winners were the Capuano family and the Thomas Sutton Draw winners were the Waller family. Tennis was the ultimate winner of the day though.
A huge thank you to all the staff and families who have helped support Charterhouse Tennis in 2021. The future is looking extremely bright.
Cricket
Once again the great British summer continues to hamper our efforts to play cricket. The games against Winchester and Lord Wandsworth were all abandoned or unable to start due to unseasonal deluges. On Saturday another 1st XI game was called off due to a COVID case in the camp. We did play one game where we beat Westminster convincingly. Batting first we scored 223-6 before declaring. Sam with 72 and Jonty 49. In reply, Westminster struggled from the start as Ayush and Jonty took three wickets each. Saturday saw a Junior House style cricket tournament. The six-a-side competition threw up plenty of great games and entertained the watching crowds.
The girls unfortunately had their last match cancelled due to COVID isolation but this certainly didn’t dampen their spirits. Training still happened and we saw Lucy and Laura go off to Westminster to play in the U15B side, which was fantastic to see. On Saturday 26 June, we saw an internal match occur between the girls, with the sun shining, spectators sitting having their picnics, it was going to be a nice occasion. The battle of the two teams commenced, with fast bowling, plenty of boundaries and several catches, the match could have gone either way. In the end Team Galbraith were victorious.
Football
The team started quickly with two fast goals from Omos and the boys were stringing passes together like they had been playing for the whole season. The glory days of Mr Silvey’s and Mr Brown’s coaching were being relived. It was a complete domination in the first half as goals from Sam, James (somehow), and Marcus followed and Freddy came close with an excellent header from a corner. Max showed great skill to beat a Westminster defender with a classy nutmeg and skipper Sam and Dan resembled Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek with a dominant midfield display (*Editor’s note from Mr Hayward – Captain Sam is obviously a West Ham fan, not sure too many people would want to be likened to Soucek?). Our first half performance demonstrated why the team would have had such good potential this season had we had any matches in the autumn term.
Despite our good football in the first half, end of term tiredness after exams caught up with us in the second half and our lack of fitness really started to show! TJ and James gave a much-needed boost of energy as second half subs and Jamie (the goalkeeper) showed his versatility with a good performance at centre back. After Chapel had finished and a crowd had gathered Dan missed a glorious chance to score on Big Ground when he put the ball over the bar from 18 yards with the goal begging. Dan also showed the competitiveness that had been lacking in his game by putting in some big tackles and Mr Hayward, for once, wasn’t too disappointed with a yellow card. Gabriel produced the best moment of the game that didn’t lead to a goal with a fantastic ‘rabona’ cross from the left wing while James defended well and found moments to get forward and whip dangerous crosses into the box.
The game finished with an impressive 5-0 win for Charterhouse, demonstrating how far we had come since our poor season in Year 9. It was a great experience and we are all very grateful to Mr Hayward and Mr Sandbach for giving us the chance to play one final game on Big Ground as leavers. It was sad that this team and our football at Charterhouse had come to an end but we have some great memories and we had some great performances as a team over the last five years and I couldn’t have asked to do it with a better set of lads!
- Report written by departing Year 13 pupil, Sam
We as a sports department would like to take this opportunity to thank all the teachers who have helped run sports teams, supervise activities, and motivate all pupils to stay fit and active. Without you, our programme wouldn’t run as smoothly as it does. We wish all our departing pupils all the very best for the future, keep in touch and we look forward to seeing you return as Old Carthusians.
Everybody else, have a lovely holiday, keep safe and we will see you all in September for another fantastic year of sport!
