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Lots to report on from the last week of Advent Term with the fiercely competitive Boys' House football and Girls' House hockey tournaments.
House Football
In the first competition between the Junior teams, it was brilliant to see six Houses take part for the very first time. The tournament went to the very last match to decide the winner, with Head’s, School, and Gibbs' all in contention for top spot. In a tense finish, Head's scored with two minutes to play to beat School House and retain the trophy from last year.
Final standings:
- 6th – Second’s
- 5th – Saints’
- 4th – Teme
- 3rd – School
- 2nd – Gibbs’
- 1st – Head’s
Player of the tournament – Sutirth K (Head’s)
Top Goalscorer(s) – Gethin W (Head’s), Marley R (School) and Theo S F (Saints'), all with three goals.
The Senior competition was equally competitive and went down to the final match between last year’s winners School House and favourites Head’s. In a closely fought final the unbeaten Head’s House held on to draw the match 1-1 and secure the tournament win by a single point. Huge credit to both teams: to School House for the effort and desire to come back and keep going to the very final second, whilst praise must go to Head’s House who showed resilience to hold on in the final few minutes, putting their bodies on the line to protect the goal, having shown incredible teamwork throughout the tournament.
Final standings:
- 5th – Second’s
- 4th – Gibbs’
- 3rd – Teme + Saints’ (combined team)
- 2nd – School
- 1st – Head’s
Player of the tournament – Harry S (Head’s)
Top Goalscorer – Ozzy R (School) with three goals
Finally, an enormous thank you to all the pupils, staff and spectators that took part and supported the tournament.
House Hockey
First up was the Junior event which saw defending champions Handford look to secure the trophy for another year. With all Houses very well supported on what was a lovely day, the stage was set.
The group stage saw some very competitive hockey with many of the games being incredibly close, with Sankey's beginning to pull away at the top of the table.
With Sankey's through to the final, Saints' and Handford battled it out in the semi-final to join them, in what was again a very close game in which Saints' got the win.
In a final which went back and forth throughout, Sankey's and Saints' could not be separated in regulation time and penalties were needed to decide the winners.
A very tense shootout followed with Sankey's just edging it to become this year's Junior House Hockey champions.
Our Senior event was also very well supported, with the Juniors – fresh from their event – eager to watch the Senior girls compete for their Houses.
As with the junior event, the group stage was a very close affair with very little to split the teams in a lot of close fixtures.
Sankey's topped the group again to qualify for the final, whilst Handford and Manor battled to join them. Manor was victorious in the semi-final with a 1-0 win.
The final was an excellent showcase for Senior hockey as the game was a closely contested, high-paced game. Both teams had multiple goal scoring chances with both goalkeepers producing good saves to keep their side in the game. Sankey's eventually got the winner late on, to make it a fantastic double win across Juniors and Seniors.
Skiing
Looking back to the beginning of the holiday, we had a busy week in Les Menuires with ten of our best skiers. The journey out started very early on Sunday morning but was uneventful except for a lengthy delay once on board due to a wait for the de-icing machine to come round.
Once in resort, we met our opposition: Hurstpierpoint, Cheltenham Ladies’ College and Wycombe Abbey.
Our first day on the slopes was glorious with blue skies and fresh powder! Due to forecast bad weather later in the week, our instructor/coach took us on a whirlwind tour of the Three Valleys: Meribel and Courcheval in the morning and up to Val Thorens in the afternoon. The students skied well and were very patient, waiting for me (Dr Norris) and Ms Porter! We enjoyed our ski-in ski-out hotel and there was plentiful food on offer at breakfast, lunch and supper.
Conditions were very different the following morning, with low cloud and poor visibility. This continued into the first day of racing on ski Day 3, with the bottom half of a very challenging slalom course barely visible from the top. Despite this, the Lancing skiers all put in at least one good run, with our top-placed racer being Manor’s Julia K at Fourth in the Senior Girls. It later transpired that the course builders had misunderstood the instruction for a medium level youth race and set a medium level senior national standard course!
Day 4 continued with the Giant Slalom with Julia K again leading the way in the general classification, closely followed by Ben C, although the fastest individual run of the day for Lancing came via Nicholas R.
In the parallel team slalom, the Lancing team progressed out of their group stage to the medal races, and were placed third following very close encounters with Hurst and eventual winners Wycombe Abbey.
Overall, although no individual medals were brought home, the team acquitted themselves extremely well over the week. They looked out for each other and really bonded as a team. None of the other schools’ staff could believe that they represented four different year groups and were not all already good friends before the event. Behaviour and manners were outstanding and Ms Porter and I enjoyed the week immensely (even if we struggled to keep up at times!).
Swimming
A flurry of competitions kept our swimmers busy almost up to Christmas. They competed at Portsmouth from 2–4 December with Alessio M and Isaac B picking up medals as well as adding to their haul of County qualifying times.
Grace W, Logan B and Prep swimmer Joshua C experienced long course racing in the Mountbatten Centre's 50m pool and the Portsmouth SC hosts made very positive comments about our swimmers and invited us to a home gala with them in 2023.
On 10 December in a closely fought competition, Lancing finished third in the National Arena League Final round at Bexley Heath, against Redhill, Beacon, Hailsham and Erith & District with only 9 points separating the top three clubs.
Lancing Club Captain James R won 200IM and 100 Breast, and Isaac B won 100Fly, 100 freestyle, with Alessio second on 100 Back and third in 100 Breast. All were racing extra fast to get back to watch the World Cup football semi-final! A good team effort and a great competition to race.
Only a week later Lancing competed at Hailsham against four other clubs on points, with Hastings coming out clear winners and Lancing in third overall. Some of our more experienced swimmers stood aside so it was great to see 20+ younger and new-to-competition swimmers racing for points. In the medals were Lancing boys Logan B, who won gold in 100 Fly and 200IM, and Silver in 100m and 50m freestyle; and Lewis Marchi, who took silver in the 100m Freestyle.
After a few days' break over Christmas, all were back in the pool training and getting ready for County Championships just over a month away. Well done to ALL and good luck for Counties.