Repton Sport Commentary

Last week the Girls' 1st Tennis pair won the Independent Schools Tennis Association Championships at Eton College. This doubles competition was won by Kadi Liis Saar and Hetty Alton defeating Cranleigh 6-2 6-1 in the final. The boys 1st pair of Will Reay and Jamie Muirhead performed equally well, although the lost to a strong Reed's pair in the semi final.

The girls 1st IV then moved immediately on to The Aberdare Cup, the National Schools Competition played at Queenswood. This competition takes in four singles matches and 2 doubles matches to make 6 rubbers in each round. After beating Queenswood and Millfield, they met the champions of the last four years, Cheam High School, in the final. After being 2-3 down going into the last doubles, Repton forced the match to a tie break shoot out after the 3-3 draw. Cheam showed their quality defeating Repton 10-5 in the tie break but this was an excellent achievement by the four girls, in particular reaching the last two schools nationally for the first time in 22 years.

After two outstanding seasons in our 1st XI, Sophie Hawkins (pictured playing for the 1st XI in the National Finals) made her debut for England U18 girls against Germany this week. After representing England at U16 level, these were her first U18 appearances. Sophie joined Reptonian Joanna Leigh in the squad whilst Repton has further international representation this Summer on the hockey field. Will Byas played and scored against Germany U18 boys whilst Shona McCallin made her England U21 debut after promotion from the U18 squad. Rhiannon Rogers and Wiz Mumby will play for Wales in the U18 Home Nations later this month.
At senior international level, three Old Reptonians played for England on Saturday 10th against Argentina in the Champions Trophy. This was the first time Susie Gilbert, Georgie Twigg and Charlotte Craddock have all played in the same senior international side.

The last few days of term saw four different cricketers score individual hundreds for the school. In the U14 County Final Jason Taft scored a rapid 111, Eddie Ikin scored his first 1st XI hundred with 103 against KES Birmingham but Aaron Hibell got the headlines with 148* against Wolverhampton GS in the final U14 game of the season. Sam Graham wrapped up a fine season for Repton and the 1st XI with 118 on Speech Day against the Repton Pilgrims.

Johnny Gorman (Lower Sixth) starts his senior international career age 17 years and 212 days with a loss to Turkey as Northern Ireland are defeated 2-0, but he gets some good pitch time in his first game.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/irish/8707379.stm

Lower 6th pupil 17 year old Johnny Gorman will make his full senior international football debut for Northern Ireland tonight against Turkey. He has made the starting line up for the game being played in the USA and will play as part of a five man midfield.

For BBC Sport coverage, click below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8705330.stm

When playing against Malvern for Repton's 15B's yesterday, Fraser Lane managed the incredible feat of taking 5 wickets in 6 balls, including a hat-trick! He finished with the figures of 5.4 overs 6 for 5! It will be tough for anyone to beat that this year!

Johnny Gorman, who is still in the Lower Sixth at Repton, has recently been selected in the full Northern Ireland squad for senior international against Chile and Turkey. Johnny, already a junior international with Northern Ireland and an academy footballer at Wolverhampton Wanderers, will start his senior career with a tour to the USA in the next few weeks where they will play against Turkey and Chile. Further details can be found on the Irish FA website.

http://www.irishfa.com/the-ifa/news/5670/northern-ireland-squad-named/

Today Repton's Captain of Hockey in 2007-8, Georgie Twigg, made her senior international debut for Great Britain as they beat Germany 2-1 at Bisham Abbey. Just two years ago, Georgie captained Repton to the fourth of our six successive National hockey titles. Also playing in this game was Repton's Captain of Hockey in 2006-7, Susie Gilbert, who has now won nearly 40 international caps at the age of just 21.

http://www.greatbritainhockey.co.uk/results.asp?itemid=213&itemTitle=Great+Britain+%28women%29+v+Germany§ion=000100010014§ionTitle=Fixtures+%26+Results&start_date=2010/05/01%2000:00:00&result=1

Today Repton was delighted to host Malezi School, a touring tennis team from Kenya. The African players, many from deprived backgrounds, played our senior boys and girls teams in their first game on English soil. The athleticism of the African players, some of which compete at national level in their own countries, was something no one could fail to be impressed by.

This Sunday sees the group stages of the HMC Schools T20 cricket competition. Repton, Trent College, Loughborough GS and Nottingham HS go head to head over a total of six games, starting at 1000. The draw can be found at http://www.repton.org.uk/boys-1st-xi-2020-cricket-5022010

The Girls' 1st Team Tennis consisting of: H.Alton [Abbey] K.Saar[Garden] S.Patel [Garden] and C.Jameson[Mitre] have been pre-seeded for the AEGON Team Tennis Schools National Championships 2010. This is the first time the girls have been pre-seeded for over 25 years and it gives them a direct entry to the competition without havng to qualify.
The finals will take place at Queenswood School on Tuesday 6th - Friday 9th July 2010.

The 1st XI Cricket team knock off 273 for the loss of nine wickets to beat a strong MCC side. Captain Chris Murrall scores 123 as the 1st XI secure their fifth victory of the season with one ball to spare.

Sam Graham scores the first hundred of the cricket season in the 1st XI game v Malvern College. Sam batted all the way through the 50 overs, scoring 101 not out from the 1st XI's 318-4.

Our U18 Boys take part in the National Hockey Finals on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th April. They are there by right of being Midlands Champions. The format is identical to the girls finals in March, which was won for the 6th year running by Repton. There are two groups of five, the winner of each group playing in the National Final on Tuesday evening.

Monday 19th March

Repton 1-0 The Perse School

Repton 2-0 Calday Grange School

Tuesday 20th March

1420     Repton 1  - 0  Langley Park School

1630     Repton 2 - 1   Dean Close School

National Final

Repton 3 -1   Whitgift School

Repton  are National U18 Boys Hockey Champions 2009-10

Repton's 1st XI cricket team started their season on Tuesday in La Manga, Spain. In cool and damp conditions, Repton beat Blundells School from Devon by 8 wickets. Bowling first, a decent all round performance kept the opposition to 163 in 45 overs. Henry Eldred (2-16) was the pick of the bowlers with Eddy Ikin (2-18), Declan Blackwood, Matt Sanderson and Matt Hodges offering economical support.

After the early loss of Jacques and Fearns, despite both playing some impressive shots down the ground early in their innings, Sam Graham (72 not out) and George Hodson-Walker (41 not out) shared a partnership of 133 and finished the game with five overs to spare.

We took on St Edwards from Oxford on Wednesday, this time batting first. Despite the early loss of Ikin, Sanderson (43) and Murrall (75) shared a century partnership and when Cosford (66 retired) and Eldred (43 not out) shared a 50 partnership towards the end, Repton felt in control of the game, finishing on 259-5. Despite a slow start to our bowling performance, we secured a win by 114 runs after restricting St Edwards to 145-7 in 45 overs. Hodges (5 overs 2-10, Sanderson (5 overs 1-5) and Ahmed (6 overs for 10 runs) were the pick of the bowlers, with impressive spells from Shirilagi, Cosford and Blackwood.

Thursday sees Repton take on Torreviaja CC at 1100 on Thursday in a Twenty/20 game.