English Schools Swimming Finals 2022
Results: 2nd in the country (freestyle) + 4th in the country (medley)
Following the IAPS Finals in London last weekend, our U11 Boys headed to Sheffield to compete at Ponds Forge for the English Schools National Finals. Having qualified 1st in the West Midlands region in both the freestyle and medley events, our BCS team were excited to race against the top schools across the country. After the warm up, the boys led the West Midlands regional finalist teams around the poolside, following the other regions before coming together to sing the national anthem. Once the opening ceremony had ended our boys raced in the first event, placing 5th in the heat ahead of the final. With a strong opening backstroke leg led by Remy, Arjun had a fast takeover to break out into breaststroke. Vivek stormed through the pool in fly, chasing down the competition with Ethan finishing fast taking 4th place in the final, narrowly missing out on a podium position despite a new personal best for the team.
Hungry for some silverware, the team turned their attention to the 4 x 25m freestyle heats where they broke the school record again despite only beating it a week earlier in the IAPS finals. The time enabled them to qualify 4th fastest into the final with less than 1 second between 2nd-6th place after the heats. After a closely contested battle our U11 team sprinted their way into 2nd place with another new school record and Vivek also breaking the school record for the 25m freestyle! The poolside was electric during the event and the boys were ecstatic with their final performance!
In their final gala for BCS the U11 team have done themselves proud. The 2nd and 4th place finishes in the country are a testament to their hard work and determination in the pool this year. We are incredibly proud of the boys and all their achievements.
ECA Regional Hardball Cricket Finals
Results: BCS overall winners
Player of the Match: James Longworth
The U11 Cricket team travelled to the splendid Shrewsbury School to take part in the regional cricket finals. This was the first time BCS had taken part in this and the other competing schools of Packwood Haugh from Shropshire and RGS The Grange from Worcestershire have incredibly strong cricketing pedigree. We arrived nice and early and were able to watch some of the Packwood Haugh v RGS game which went to the final ball with RGS winning. Our first game was against Packwood Haugh who after a few words from their coach came out energised. Our innings didn’t start particularly well as the normally dependable Aarya seemed fazed by the occasion, but thankfully Greg wielding his 3lb bat smashed a few boundaries!!! This was the story of the innings as we kept losing wickets but kept scoring runs and in the end we set a respectable total of 59.
That said, the boys though responded amazingly with the exceptional bowling of James, Kanav and Remy. In the end we defended the total comfortably with Packwood Haugh managing a school of 46. This meant the next game was a shoot out for a spot at the National Finals. If the lads were nervous they didn’t show it as normal service was resumed as Aarya and Greg got us off to a flyer from which we never looked back. The next pair of Aditya and Toby batted without constraint extending the lead further and whilst we lost 4 wickets in the final two pairs we still managed to set a total of 99. This proved to be plenty as although we didn’t bowl as well as the first game we picked up wickets regularly and this meant we entered the final over with RGS needing 36 to win! Thankfully we were playing on a big ground and Remy bowled a nerveless last over to take us to finals day! This was a brilliant team effort and the boys deserve it for all the hard work they have put in over the last 3-4 years.
Mr Protherough and Mr Gregory
U10C Boys’ Cricket V West House
Results: BCS won by 31 runs
Players of the Match: Leon Seymour and Fotios Matapoulos
BCS elected to bat first with James and Fotios opening. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the bowling didn’t allow many of our batters to form any real rhythm and timing. Regardless, the display of batting was high which allowed for sensible running between the wickets. Leon and Arush were outstanding, hitting multiple boundaries and looked to run on every occasion, retiring with a grand total of 36 runs. Additionally, William and Taran, along with Arjun and Munashe scored an encouraging total of 27 runs in each of their innings. After a good innings with the bat, our focus was to not give away cheap and easy runs. The response from our bowlers was brilliant. Over after over, each bowler put the batsmen under immense pressure. To add to the pressure, we got to experience two superb catches from Fotios and Leon. A great team effort today.
Mr Melia
U10D Boys’ Cricket V West House
Results: BCS won by 21 runs
Player of the Match: Daven Rawal
A lovely hot sunny afternoon of Cricket. The Boys lost the toss and were put into bat. Hassan and Thomas opened the batting and with some mixed bowling the boys did well to hit the ball and notch up some runs. This was backed up by the next pair Daven and Sammy, with Daven hitting a fair few boundaries. Blue Coat continued to run hard between the wickets and kept the score ticking over. It was then our turn to field and again our boys put on a good display, most of the boys bowled with good speed and length and worked hard to keep that arm straight. A confident win boys, well done!
Miss Crews
U10 Silver Commonwealth Games Netball Festival
Players of the Match: Umaiza Kashif, Tarini Vemuri, Shreya Raja, Madalen Cotterill, Mei-Li Taylor
This Monday a very lucky handful of girls represented BCS in a Commonwealth Netball Festival, in celebration of the Birmingham 2022 Games. In true Commonwealth style, the focus was on having fun! Each school was given a country to represent. BCS represented Ghana for the day and dressed up in colours of the Ghana flag (red, green, and yellow). During the first half of the morning, schools rotated around skill-based activities (shooting, reactions, attacking and footwork), led by some very experienced coaches, the famous Colette Thomson being one of them. For those of you who aren’t aware, Colette was the assistant coach for the England Netball team in the 2018 Commonwealth Games. This is the Games that saw England secure a historic gold medal, so the girls were very lucky to work with her!
In the afternoon, we participated in a five aside fun tournament. The girls were very excited to put some of their new learned skills into practice. The winners of the tournament would be the team that scored the highest number of goals throughout all four games. Our first match was against team New Zealand, a very tall team that knew how to pass and move very well. However, we demonstrated some excellent defending skills and were able to intercept and take the ball to goal successfully. An excellent first performance from the BCS girls (Team Ghana) finishing 3-0.
Moving into the second game we faced Team Uganda. The girls had a storming performance, winning 5-0. In particular, there was some very impressive shooting from Mei-Li and Madalen, well done girls! In the third game we faced Team England, who happened to be KEHS. This was two fairly evenly matched teams and a lot of the play in this game went end to end. The final score in this game was 0-0. In our fourth and final game we played Team Malawi. The girls worked really well as a team in this last game and demonstrated some lovely passages of play down the court and then into the circle. In particular, Umaiza played really well in the shooting circle. The final score in this last game was 2-0.
As the tournament came to an end, we finished with the celebratory closing ceremony and results. The girls were ecstatic to have won and it really was a great way to end a fantastic day. Well done girls.
Miss Somerville
U9C Boys’ Cricket vs West House
Result: BCS lost by 37 runs
Player of the Match: Myle Farax
In scorching heat the U9C Cricket team hosted West House. BCS elected to bat first and despite a slow start managed to score some early boundaries with Liam and Brandon striking to ball powerfully and score some fours. Zimo, Alessandro, and Raess continued this theme striking the ball into the gaps giving the fielders no chance of stopping the ball. Siyuan and Junius then displayed some clever running between the wickets with clear calls and early decisions to maximise the team’s runs. The team finished on a total of 253 off their allotted overs. BCS knew they had to bowl accurately to give themselves the chance of success with James, Myle, and Judah all doing that with James even bowling a maiden over. Jago and Finn had great energy in the field always ready to stop the ball, and attack the ball stopping the batters running with Jago getting a run out. However, more through the amount of wide bowled which cost 2 runs every time West House were able to pass the BCS total and be the victors. Plenty to learn and work on particularly with the acccuracy of bowling and then fielders being ready and concentrating to take catching chances to take wickets for their team.
Mr Gregory
U9D Boys’ Cricket V West House
Result: BCS lost by 10 runs
Player of the Match: Joobin Hariri
Before the game, I asked the boys’ to look to score runs on every occasion, to always look if there is another run possible and to force the fielders into mistakes. Our first two sets of batters did this tremendously well, Jack and Lucian scoring 38 runs and Trystan and Jayden scoring 32 runs. With good communication, the batters forced the fielders to overthrow a lot of the balls, creating more opportunities to run.
In the field, I asked the boys to remain attentive to the ball and to back up the wicket keeper or bowler. At times, this was done very well – at times I felt like the heat may have got the better of us! BCS put West House under good pressure with their bowling and after 12 overs it was neck and neck. Despite Joobin’s bowling a wicket in the last bowl of the game West House just edged ahead by 10 runs. BCS have shown a lot of progress in terms of their individual performance and their understanding of the game over the past 10 weeks. They were unlucky to have lost out today as I feel they were the better team.
Mr Melia
U11 Jets Boys’ House Cricket
Result: St Philip’s won by 96 runs
Player of the Match: Adam Abdul-Galeel
In their last ever house matches representing red or green it was St Philip’s who roared to victory with a comfortable win due to some fierce batting from their team. St George’s batted first and batted well throughout their innings with Joshua, Luca, and Wahid able to find the boundary regularly to help their team to a good score. Adam, Zayn and Eisah bowled with good pace for the St Philip’s bowling attack. Needing 278 to win, St Philip’s went about the chase in an aggressive manner with Adam striking three boundaries off the first over. This continued with Shawn and Faiz striking some huge sixes to lead St Philip’s to a total of 371 to win by 96 runs. Player of the match for his reading of the game was Adam who was able to pierce the ball through gaps in the field and take a couple of wickets for his team.
Mr Gregory
U11 Pears Boys’ House Cricket
Result: St Philip’s won by 47 runs
This was a game packed with action. After 10 overs there was 1 run difference between the two teams! With St Philip’s having set a good score of 150, St George’s were on track to equal their score. Jack was certainly getting everyone’s attention on the front field as he was hitting ball after ball over the boundary…and every window possible! However, the smart thinking St Philip’s adapted their bowling and field positions to prevent “Soundy the Slogger” scoring any more runs. In the end, St Philip’s bowling proved too much for St George’s who couldn’t quite make up the deficit. This game highlighted how far all pupils have progressed over the year in terms of their individual skill set and their game understanding. It was a pleasure to umpire for the afternoon.
Mr Melia
U11 Bears Boys’ House Cricket
Result: St Philip’s won by 10 runs
A fantastic game of cricket was played out by the two houses in a great atmosphere with BCS values shining through! St George’s showed great character to cope with missing two of their star men in Remy and Aarya who were representing Warwickshire. Harry got them off to a flying start however; some tight and accurate bowling pegged them back until the last pair of Vivek and Greg made the score a respectable 275. This for much of the St Philip’s innings looked to be enough as accurate bowling kept St Philip’s at bay, however the last pair of James and Arjun played beautifully to see St Phillip’s home.
Mr Protherough
U8C Boys’ Cricket v West House
Result: BCS won by 37 runs
Player of the Match: George Garner
The U8C team travelled to West House for their first cricket fixture representing BCS and put in an assured performance. The team elected to field first and put in an excellent bowling performance with all bowlers hitting a great line and length, making it difficult for the West House players to score runs. Jacob, George, Arin and Reuben all bowled with pace and accuracy, and Shivesh bowled some dangerous leg spinners that bamboozled the batters. George got a very smart run out to minus five runs off the total and Jonathan got an amazing catch as wicket keeper showing cat like reflexes to take this catch. BCS limited West House to 263 runs off their 16 overs.
With their turn to bat BCS confidentally strode out to bat and Arin and Jacob dsiplayed some brilliant running between the wickets to get some runs for the the team. This continued with Reuben and Jonathan and then Max and Thomas making smart decisions when to leave the ball when it was wide and when to look to score runs. Into the final batting pair George and Shivesh walked out to bat and some great calling turning one run into two runs, pinching some singles and then George hit a great boundary meant BCS passed the West House total and finshed on 300 to win the game by 37 runs.
Mr Gregory
U8D Boys’ Cricket v West House
Result: BCS won by 33 runs
Player of the Match: Finley Rees
BCS elected to bowl first with Paul as our opener. Within two balls BCS already claim their first wicket! BCS continued to put West House under pressure with their accurate bowling and fantastic fielding. A special mention to Samson and Etienne who forced West House to score negative runs. BCS continued their momentum in bat with Finley and Paul opening. It took only 2 balls again until we had our first boundary of the game. BCS batted sensibly but also ran effectively between the wickets. It wasn’t until the last ball of the game til we lost our first and only wicket. Paul and Finley scored 33 runs, Etienne and Emmanuel scored 33, Jack and Samson scored 24 and Charles and Alex scored 26. Overall, a dominating performance with plenty of promise for future games.
Mr Melia
