30th March 2012 - Sir John Lawes School

For the first time in 6 years SJL has not won a Football Cup. Although the headline is disappointing it has been aseason of 'so near but yet so far'. Three of our sides lost penalty shoot outs this year after very tight games thatall presented opportunities for victory. But that’s sport and fine margins divide success and disappointment at alllevels.However, it is not all doom and gloom! There have been some great performances over the course of the year -the Seniors had some brilliant wins not least from 2 - 0 down against a very strong East Barnet side in the NationalCup and an excellent turn round against Marlborough who they beat 3-1 in the District Cup having lost 5-1 twoweeks earlier in the County League. The year 8 side lost heavily to Roundwood Park last season but this yeartook them to sudden death penalties before finally missing out on a semi final place. The best achievement interms of the County Cup this year was the Year 10s who reached the quarter final only to lose narrowly to a strongRichard Hale side.So our attention now turns to Athletics, Cricket and Tennis but already we are excited about renewing the Footballchallenge next season.Well done to all those involved.BasketballSpring term saw the Year 7 and 8 basketball teams play in their District leagues. The Year 7 team made a goodstart to their lives in the district basketball playing excellently against St. Georges, Nicholas Breakspear and manyother schools. The team consisted of Luca Denton, Jack Brand, Dan Toy, Ollie Todd, Danny Dytham, Max Hills,Christian Roberts, Matt Corocan and Nick Bailey. Throughout the season the boys have played really well andhave learnt new skills and have all contributed towards the good results.The Year 8 team have had another good season progressing on from last year and winning a lot of their games.The team consisted of Jon Lacey, Henry Parkinson, Louis Gabaldoni, Ben Purvis, Dan Campfield, Dan Sambrook,Adam Wilmshurst, Oscar Layzell, Patrick Rutherford and Findlay Eldridge. Against Roundwood Park the boysworked hard and secured victory with fine passes and movement, and the baskets they scored proved what agood team they are. They are starting to show more consistency with their lay ups, particularly under pressure in agame situation.Well done to all the boys over the year and hopefully they will all come back for next year's campaign.NetballThe netball teams have had a full term of league and cup matches, and have culminated the season with theirDistrict Tournaments last week. The Year 7s were in a very tough draw, and played some strong schools, but itwas great to see their level of play improve as the tournament progressed. The Year 8, 9 and 10 teams all wentthrough to the semi finals, after some excellent wins in their group matches. Unfortunately, each of these teamscame across the eventual tournament winners in these matches, but did extremely well to get so far in a verystrong field.The Year 9 and 10 players now look forward to the Sports Tour in Holland, where I am sure they will have afantastic time, and learn lots. The coaches out there are excellent, and they always make a real impact on theplayers.For those players who may be interested, there are two local netball clubs which take junior players, and wouldwelcome new members:Harpenden Netball Club at St Georges School on Wednesday Evenings from 6-7pm. If interested, ringSam on 07525 703153 for more information.Hatfield Netball Club – for more information go to www.hatfield-netballclub.co.uk . This website containsinformation on their training dates and venues.HockeyAfter an exciting season of hockey, I would like to congratulate all the girls for their continued hard work and effortboth at training and fixtures. The year 8, 9 and 10 squads all fought hard in their County Cup battles, butunfortunately we did not make it through to the semi finals of these tournaments. However there were somepromising performances particularly in the year 9 and 10 games against some tough opposition. We did fare muchbetter in the District Tournaments however, with both the year 8 and year 9 teams winning games against local