Spring Sporting Achievements

It has been another fantastic term of sport on and off the Park! Our Netball teams have enjoyed a fantastic season with Head of Netball, Zoe Macpherson, at the helm. Fryer girls played in the Reading schools league showing huge development across the season, the U14’s won their Reading league beating ten other schools, and in the U15’s and 16’s, many of the girls played up an age group, including in the ISA U16 National tournament held at the University of Nottingham, placing 5th overall!

Our Seniors have managed to put together three strong teams all competing in their respective Super leagues. Coaches Heidi Kenny and Alice Ledson are ecstatic with the efforts the girls have put into training every week. The 1st team have gone from strength to strength finishing third in their Super league and playing some of the best Netball Zoe has seen in Leighton Park colours, on tour, where they came up against Denstone and Rugby School. Sports scholar, Club and 1st team Captain, Liv, has been outstanding leading from the front and has developed as player and person over the last three years.

It has been another busy term for football with 52 fixtures taking place. The U14 team had success in the ISA 6 a side as well as finishing top of the Super 5 league against local schools. The Senior footballers picked up a number of wins between the three teams in their Super leagues and girls football has continued to grow with regular fixtures for the U12 and U13 teams. There were representative selections for Jack, Hamish, Emil, Luca and Oliver who have made ISFA regional squads. Head of Football, Tim Green, has produced another fantastic set of fixtures and worked tirelessly with his squads and coaches to put on more football then we’ve ever had before at the School.

The Fryer rugby squads have enjoyed great success where every Fryer boy has represented the School in a competitive fixture. Our four strong squads have seen more competition for places than ever before. Much of this credit must go to Head of Rugby, Andy Gallacher, who has lead the boys in skills sessions, fixtures and tournaments, which culminated in the U13A’s coming very close to winning the Crosfields 7’s tournament only to be denied by a refereeing decision. All the boys have completed the RFU concussion course and the first Fryer parents rugby information evening was held.

The boys hockey 1st XI had a thorough term of fixtures, having played 7 and won 4. The highlight game being against St James’ where Leighton Park fought back from 3-0 down at half time to win 4-3 on the final whistle. Will, came out as top goal scorer with some special goals. The U15 boys showed good development all round through the term. They all trained with good dedication and played some very competitive fixtures.

A big success this term came with the Fryer U13 girls and boys teams. They both attended their respective In2Hockey tournament days where there were over 15 different schools competing. The girls came 3rd place in the plate competition, and the boys ran out winners in their plate competition which brought home another bit of silverware. Oli, as Captain, led the team with his trickery and flair. Matt Richards, Head of Hockey commented “We look ahead now towards a busy hockey term for the girls when we return after summer. Well done all on a great season”.

Our cross-country squads have done superbly well this term with Mia and Ben both qualifying for national schools races, with Nic and Harry joining them to qualify for the ISA nationals. Our biggest squad ever attended the ISA regional event held at Sherfield; cross-country certainly seems to be on the up thanks to Head of Athletics, Jakki Marr.

The senior basketball squad enjoyed a great season in their Berkshire and Hampshire Super league winning two of their four matches. Skipper, Drin, was delighted with the team and is confident that with Philippos in Year 11 taking the lead next year, basketball is in good hands.

The last few weeks have shown how important it is to move your body and connect with other people, and simply put, this is what sport achieves. The PE department, who are currently providing popular live workout sessions every weekday, will continue to do so over Easter to keep the community together and physically active.