Stopfordian 2010–2011 - Stockport Grammar School

The Stopfordian 2010–2011
Wednesday 6th July saw First to Third Year teams compete in
the league finals; all were very successful. The First and
Second Year Boys were both winners, as were the Second Year
Girls. The First and Third Year Girls and Third Year Boys
finished second out of the six competing schools.
A huge thank you must go to all the staff that have helped out
over the season with fixtures and training. Mr Corbett, Miss
Withington, Mr Wright and Mr Morton have all given up their
precious time to make this a very successful season.
Finally we always like to finish with some Old Stopfordian
news. Last year we profiled Jess Coulson coming back into
school to help coach our athletes. This year praise must go to
a contemporary of Jess’. Ross Millington, who is now based in
America, has made great strides in the last twelve months. He
won a silver medal in the European U23s 5000m and has
recently broken the Stockport Harriers all time record for the
mile, in a time of 3m 59.86s. In the last couple of days he
won the Mountain West Cross Country Title at Colorado
State University.
Well done to all athletes on a fantastic summer.
A. S. Hanson and K. Wilkinson
FENCING
It has been another
eventful year for fencing
at Stockport Grammar,
with members of the
club performing well
domestically and on
the world stage. Arran
Mackay finished a
superb 25th in
the Newcastle Cadet
International in
November, which has
placed her in the top 40
of the Cadet (U17)
women’s épée rankings
in the UK. This
achievement is even
more spectacular given that Arran had only recently switched
to épée from sabre. First Year Lara O’Donoghue, who only
started fencing this year, fenced well at the North West Leon
Paul Junior Series, her first competition, where she came
second and recently gained a Bronze medal in the Lancashire
Schools’ U14 competition. I expect Lara to continue to
improve on these results and I anticipate that she will go on to
exceptional national and hopefully international success.
Jamie Simpson (L7) has yet again had a fantastic year, being
selected for Ireland at Cadet, Junior (U20) and Senior level.
His international season kicked off with a bang, when he
finished 19th in the European Cadet Circuit Event in Ankara,
Turkey and it continued in this fashion throughout the year, as
he remained in the top 100 of the World Cadet rankings. In
February, while Jamie was in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the
European Cadet Circuit and Junior World Cup events, the Irish
Fencing Federation announced that he had been selected for
the European Cadet Championships in Klagenfurt-am-
Wörthersee in Austria. In addition, Jamie also made the top
70 of the UK adult men’s épée rankings and the top 10 of the
Irish men’s épée rankings. Recently he became the youngest
ever Irish All-Weapon Champion and in April he received his
first Senior call up from Ireland, for the Quad match in
Inverclyde, Scotland.
Jamie Simpson, Arran Mackay and Kim St Clair were
delighted to find out that they had been selected for the Cadet
Winton, an inter-regional team event, held just before
Christmas in Somerset.
In March the school team took part in Public School Fencing
Championships, held at Crystal Palace, London - the most
important event in the school’s fencing calendar. The team
comprised of Ali Drabu, Kim St.Clair, Arran Mackay, Kristian
Lee, Luke Dobson and captain Jamie Simpson; former captain
Karol Jaworski also attended as the school’s referee. Everyone
competed to the best of their ability, but special mention
should go to Ali Drabu, who in his first competition made the
third round in the Mount-Haes (Second and Third Year) foil
event, which had a tough field. He has since joined
Manchester Fencing Club and will hopefully become a
mainstay of the school team. Kim St.Clair and Arran Mackay
must both be commended in reaching the third round of the
Junior (Fourth and Fifth Year) and Senior (Sixth Form) sabre
events respectively, both narrowly losing their direct
94 Sport