Sports – Half Term Focus

As we reach the end of this half term, it brings a close to a very busy and action packed period of sport. The rugby fixtures against Donhead started last Wednesday with our eight U8 sides travelling away to showcase their talents. The tagging from the children has continually improved leading up to this last fixture whilst maintaining the effective attack through good passing and evasion skills. Donhead was the location the day after again for rugby matches, but this time with our U9s. The whole year group fixture resulted in six wins out of six for Cranmore which is no mean feat considering Donhead play rugby from the very start of September. Also on Thursday, our U8 girls hockey team participated in the Cranleigh festival. The girls played extremely well on the afternoon which meant across the two teams, Cranmore secured four wins and a draw. This talented group of girls backed up their effort and fantastic attitude on Friday, but this time demonstrating their ever improving netball skills. The two U8 teams travelled to CLFS to participate in practice style matches. Defensive marking and moving the ball up the court were just two areas of the game which vastly improved on the afternoon. 

 On Friday, 12 of our squash players from our wider squash squad played very well against CLFS. The matches were held at Cranmore, and in line with most squash fixtures that Cranmore competes in the matches were officiated by the children themselves. This discipline and skill learned is a great addition to the sport itself and this was evident of Friday. On Sunday our rowers competed in the indoor rowing championships with two top five placings from Cranmore pupils, and on Monday Cranmore had the distinguished opportunity to host the IAPS Regional Qualifiers for swimming. The very best swimmers from our swim squad were able to be timed alongside six other schools to see if they are to progress though to next round of the competition. 

 A windy but beautiful Saturday morning on the Henderson Fields was the setting for the annual match up between Cranmore and Donhead, both competing for ‘The Dunckley Shield’. This is 24th year the event has taken place with both schools winning the prestigious shield roughly the same amount of times. Across the six matches (U9s to U11s), Cranmore played superbly well and again this is testament to the determination and hard work all the children have put into the rugby season. Cranmore managed four wins and a draw which meant the overall winners for the 2019 Dunkley Shield was Cranmore!