The Year 9 Cricket team played against The Downs School in their most recent league game. A thoroughly enjoyable game for all involved in very hot conditions! St Bart’s kept the unbeaten league record intact in a close fought victory. Players of the match went to Daisy Wallis on debut and Wilf Busby.
On a scenic hilltop plateau overlooking where The Great British Bake-Off is filmed, star bowler of this exceedingly good-natured ONA fixture was returnee Will Freer, playing his first cricket since Y11. Still the poster boy of a display board in the hub, Will tucked into the school’s top six with an almost greedy 4 for 8, proving there was nothing stale about his skills or enthusiasm. Only local hero, Archie, (a current Y11), could cook up much resistance to an unrelentingly stingy diet of ONA bowling – finishing on an enterprising 29 that included one show-stopper of a straight six. The icing on the cake for the ONA was George Shakespeare having a valiant Mr Robbins, who had earlier roamed the boundary with the brooding intensity of a Byronic hero, stumped as the coup de grace.
In the first innings of the game, Y13 Poppy (guesting for the ONA again) recorded a composed 20 before Elliot Crouch got going with a crunchy 52 (retired out). Ever-reliable run-baker Matt Richardson chipped in with 32 as the next highest scorer. Y9 James was the pick of a mixed St Bart’s bowling effort, extracting sharp bounce from his disciplined lines. Yet the ONA’s total of 157 was always likely to be a tricky chase, even without Mr Clayton deeming Y11 Leo lbw for nought. No bat involved? The umpire thought so.
It was great to see so many recent alumni in the victorious ONA side, capably organised by Captain Edan Camplin, but all present were grateful to the triumvirate of teachers who helped staff the school team. Mr Robbins is already mentioned in dispatches, but Mr Weekes can dine out for months on a leg glance redolent of a Richie Richardson highlights reel (that’s what YouTube is for, kids!), while Mr Horn fielded with the ardour of a Roman gladiator (if only he’d worn his plumed helmet!) and was millimetres from skewering a wicket. Final thanks to Ian Herrington for use of the Welford Park’s ground and the Lawsons for scoring en famille.
The PE Department are delighted to announce that St Bart’s have achieved the School Games Mark Gold Award for the third year in a row.
The School Games Mark is a government-led award scheme, which aims to celebrate keeping young people active and recognises a schools’ sports engagement, provision and uptake against a national benchmark. The scheme considers ‘active minutes’ across KS3 and KS4, wide PE curriculum, physical literacy in students, equal opportunities, the schools’ sports culture, opportunities for participation, celebration and leadership, as well as the experience of students.
We are so delighted that the PE Department have been recognised in this way. This is an excellent achievement and acknowledgement of all the work that goes into providing an extensive and inclusive PE programme here at St Bart’s.
Congratulations to Lucia (7D3), Amy (7D2) and Eva (9E2) who play for Swindon Town FC Girls Centre of Excellence and were recently taken to Football Cup Barcelona. This is an international youth football tournament for girls, held in Salou and Cambrils, south of Barcelona.
Lucia captained Swindon and got nominated “club ambassador” for the quality of her football in addition to her behaviour and leadership.
Swindon got to the final after a run of all wins, 20 goals scored and 0 conceded, but unfortunately lost on penalties after a 0-0 full time score to FC Evolution, also from England. They got the 2nd place trophy to celebrate and they were all happy and singing nonetheless! Well done girls!
At the end of June the inaugural Fives Cooper Cup Competition took place at St Bart’s; the splendid cup has been kindly donated by David Cooper – a long-time supporter of Fives at the school.
Despite the very hot conditions, eight Year 8 students took part and soon got the hang of the timed games in the round robin stage, with some excellent and competitive Fives being played.
A totalling of individual scores after the round robin stage produced the draw for the semi-final stage; one semi-final went to a dramatic golden point, with the score being level after 15 minutes play.
The keenly contested Final was between Freddie and Gabriel v Oscar and Ethan, and was watched by a good sized crowd from Newbury Fives Club. The final also went to a golden point, Oscar and Ethan coming out as winners; congratulations to them and well played to all, who were a credit to the school and the game of Fives.
Fives continues until the end of term on Wednesday lunchtimes and Friday after school, with coaching provided by Newbury Fives Club; new players are always welcome and should sign up with Mr Talbot.
Fives is the greatest game played on a court and St Bart’s are very fortunate to have three great courts.
Year 7 Cricket
Year 7 played their second league match, hosting The Downs at Brown’s Meadow. The Downs won the toss and put St Bart’s into bat first. The team has been rotated each match, and Bart’s scored a respectable 76 runs, for the loss of 8 wickets. The Downs replied with 106 runs of their allotted 75 balls, for 4 wickets. Andrew Antony Rosewelt made a catch from behind the stumps (bowled by James Hale), Matthew Brown bowled one wicket, Joe Shadrach ran out one batsmen (bowled by Joshi Hunt), and James Hale bowled the fourth wicket taken by St Bart’s. Player of the match was Thomas Lee Rodriguez, for his batting and his positive teamwork and encouragement in the field.
Year 8 Cricket
St Bart’s won against The Downs in their penultimate game of the cricket season. Bart’s batted first and posted a score of 111/5. The Downs were then unsuccessful with chasing down the total scoring 72/9. Players of the match were Tom and Joe L for their batting. Joe L scored 14 runs and Tom retired on 20. Sibi, Joe R and Freddie P were also named players of the match for their bowling. Joe R took 2 wickets and Freddie and Sibi both took 3 wickets.
1st XI cricket: 10 out of Y10s for effort
The next generation of 1st XI cricketers announced themselves in some style against Didcot’s St Birinus, albeit in a losing cause. As the public exam season drew to a close, there could have been no sterner test for Yudeesh and Luke, coming together at 9-3 in the third over after an Oxfordshire U18 left-arm pacer had ripped out our Y11 top three with a display of toe-crunching Yorkers redolent of prime Wasim Akram. With resolute character and excellent technique, the Y10 pair saw him and his Kent U19 colleague off and then set about the second-string bowling.
Luke’s rasping square cut was only pipped for shot of day by Yudeesh’s back-foot drive, the full face of the blade flashing in the direction of point. When Luke unluckily fell to a catch that was juggled at deep mid-wicket with more comic dexterity than something out of Gifford’s Circus (back touring this summer, folks), they had put on 73 in 10 overs, forcing the Akram-esque captain to bring himself back on. Yudeesh would continue to resist until he was within two of a splendid 50, but was snaffled on the off-drive by that Kentish close fielder. (It’s doubtful a lesser player would have clung on.) St Birinus rightly won the day by 50 runs, and passed what was effectively an audition for joining the Toby Radford Trophy competition with flying colours.
They accelerated brilliantly from 70-1 off 10 overs to 172-6, with their No 5 enjoying himself immensely, with 34 off 11 balls. Y11 Archie was the ultimate beneficiary of the end of the innings mayhem with 4-8 in two overs, but Y10 bowlers Sidney and Jimmy had the moments, while Ed was ebullient and energetic behind the stumps. It was great to see Y13 James return at short notice and be straight on the money with his leg-spin, too. All in all, much potential for the future.
Regional B Final at Winchester, Wednesday 18th June 2025
Boys
Congratulations to both of the boys’ teams who did brilliantly at the ESAA Track and Field Cup Regional B Final at Winchester. The Junior Boys (Y7 and 8) finished 4th out of 7 schools, scoring 308 points (38 more than they scored in round 1) and narrowly missing out on 3rd place by only 4 points. The Intermediate Boys (9 and 10) finished 2nd out of 8 schools, with a very impressive 396 points, also improving on their round 1 score, and this score would have placed them amongst the schools who participated in the A final.
Junior Boys
Hurdles Zack Shore – 15.7 11pts, Evan McCowie 17.0 5pts
100m Thom Holland – 13.9 12pts Joe Hunter-Smart 15.4 5pts
200m Abdul Wahab – 28.3 16pts Joe Robertshaw 28.8 15pts
300m Jude Harvey – 44.4 16pts Adam Bancak 44.9 15pts
800m Hugo Morhmore – 2:39.1 17pts Tom Adams 2:36.4 18pts
1500m Dexter Brown – 5:14.8 18pts Alex Rowe 5:14.4 18pts
Long Jump Alex Rowe – 3.97 11pts Thom Holland 4.46 16pts
High Jump Joe Hunter-Smart – 1.28 12pts Zack Shore 1.25 11pts
Triple Jump Tom Adams – 8.47 11pts
Shot Jude Harvey – 5.97 6pts Abdul Wahab 9.22 17pts
Discus Joe Shadrach – 15.53 10pts Dexter Brown 13.09 7pts
Javelin Euan Jones – 31.71 24pts Adam Bancak 13.85 6pts
Relay Joe Shadrach, Hugo Morhmore , Euan Jones , Luca Meir 61.1 11pts
Intermediate Boys
Hurdles Chris Broadfoot – 13.7 16pts Harry Fenner 14.2 14pts
100m James Wheeler – 12.9 14pts Joe Richards 13.2 11pts
200m Jacob Tang – 24.8 21pts Ed Hancock 26.2 16pts
300m Antonio Valdivia – 39.1 23pts Josh Burgess 40.5 20pts
800m Henry Wilson – 2:08.7 25pts James Higgs 2:30.2 16pts
1500m Eli Bodin – 4:55.4 18pts Daniyal Mohammed 6:03.2 5pts
Long Jump Deacon Cullum – 5.01 15pts Josh Burgess 4.38 8pts
High Jump Ed Hancock – 1.51 16pts James Higgs 1.39 12pts
Triple Jump Jacob Tang – 9.89 11pts Antonio Valdivia 10.54 14pts
Shot Joe Richards – 11.12 19pts James Wheeler 9.98 15pts
Discus Alex Sliwinski – 21.17 12pts
Javelin Chris Broadfoot – 34.04 16pts Harry Fenner 38.09 19pts
Hammer Oscar Hook – 42.66 25pts
Relay Oscar Hook, Alex Sliwinski, Henry Wilson , Eli Bodin 53.4 15pts
Girls
Congratulations to the Junior and Inter ‘ Athletics teams, who following on from their success in the first round of the competition went on to compete on a roasting hot day, which did not deter the girls teams from competing at their highest levels and achieving some excellent team and individual results as follows.
A huge thank you to you all for your support and determination. It was a superb day made all the more enjoyable as you were a delight to be with!
Junior Girls
A great team score of 334 points, which was almost a 30 point improvement on the first round secured a 3rd place a tremendous result and reflects excellent team work as well as some excellent individual achievements as follows:
Penny Prowse 100m 13.5 24pts, Mabel Roberson 800m 2.46 22pts, Tilly Clare 1500m 5.23 26 pts,Avvi Hadadi 300m 47.7 18 pts, Summer Wrzsenski 800m 2.55 19pts,, Jessie McCurtin 1500m 5.28 25pts and H-J 1.29 17pts, Tilly Clare Javelin 22.28 22pts.
Inter Girls
Again the inter girls had a great team score of 339 pts, which was a 20 point improvement on their first round and secured a very creditable 5th place in a Regional Final. Excellent team work and some great individual scores all contributed to this impressive points total.
High individual achievers include Emi Lloyd 800m 2.45 18pts, Anna Hall 1500m 5.19 24pts, Sofia Hughes 1500m 5.50 17pts, Eva Mahoney 200m 29.0 17pts,Chloe Yorston H-J 1.37 16pts, Georgia Hillyer 300m 48.3 16pts.
Very well done and thank you all for a great and very successful season of Athletics!
Well done to these Year 7 girls who took part in the Athletics Festival on Wednesday 11 June at Trinity School.
This event was an opportunity for students to go and try a variety of different events and enjoy the opportunity of friendly competition against other local schools.
The events included 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 4 x 100m Relay and Shot and Javelin, and students could select as many events to take part in as they liked.
A highly successful evening which saw six of our local secondary schools involved and over 100 students participating.
Year 8 girls played their league finals. The A team were playing for 1st place and the B’s for 3rd.
St Bart’s A, 46 v Park House School A, 52. It was a very close competitive game, Freya taking best batter and Darcey took best bowler.
St Bart’s B, 73 v Theale, 88, was an exciting fun game. Summer took best player for her incredible batting and Martha for her bowling.
St Bart’s finished 2nd and 4th in the league. Well done girls.
Year 7 girls’ cricket A team won both their league matches convincingly.
St Bart’s A, 69 v Park House School B 23, Flo taking the best player nomination.
St Bart’s A, 70 v Park House School A, 58, Katie taking best player nomination
The B team had a close game against Trinity School and player of the match was awarded to Alexandra.
St Bart’s B, 39 v Trinity, 57.
