Weekly Sports Roundup on 1^st February 2019

Netball

King's Bruton vs King's Taunton
The weekend of netball started on a slightly disappointing note when Queen's Taunton had to pull out of our regular triangular due to sickness, leaving just us against King's Taunton. However, the quality of the netball played by all the teams quickly made up for the single match. The seniors fielded 5 teams, with over 40 girls representing the school at this level. At first team level the game was very even until half time, where the continuous pressure from the King's Bruton girls was rewarded and they began to pull away. Even with a player from a superleague team on the opposition, our girls played superbly well, eventually pulling away to win 37-32. The 2nd V11 had a fantastic game, starting exceptionally well and finishing the first quarter 12-0 up. This allowed the coaches to try a variety of on court combinations, and still resulted in a 25-13 win. The 3rd V11 had a tougher game and with some changes to their team struggled to get into a rhythm, however, they played well and have begun to settle into a stronger team unit. At 4th team level the teams were more evenly matched and the result could have gone either way, ending in a win to King's College. King's Bruton came back strongly in the 5th team game and were eventual winners 7-3.
At junior level the U15A team played very well, and with a large squad a lot of girls offering a variety of positions, competition for places at this level is high. The team worked hard as a unit and came away 22-11 the winners. The B team played very well, in a tough match and unfortunately lost 10-16. As our U14 A team were representing Somerset at the regional finals, the last game was left to the U14 B team. They worked very hard and proved what a talented year group this is coming away as winners with a 12-8 score line.
Well done to everyone who played.

U14 A Regionals
Following the county tournament last term the U14 squad have been hard at work developing their skills and court play ready for the tournament at Bournemouth. The excited squad travelled down, minus one poorly player, ready for a challenging and educating day of netball. The day started with a tough game against Marlborough College and then against a team of strong club players from Parkstone Grammar. The girls then rallied and focused their attention on small aspects of their game and played the following 3 games with much more determination and focus. They had a fantastic win against Clifton College 11-8, and a very close loss, with a shot going up on the whistle, to lose 7-6 against Pates Grammar. The final game was against a very strong and tall team from Torquay Girls' Grammar, which they worked well and kept the enthusiasm strong. Having seen the standard of play at this level the girls have been inspired to keep training hard to improve their performances. They learnt a lot and we are proud of their positive attitude and determination to keep improving.  Well done.

Team Bath Trip
On Monday 26 of the junior girls travelled to Bath to watch Team Bath play in their first home televised superleague match of the season. Although the final result was not what we wanted it was a fantastic, nail biting game! We all had a brilliant evening and came home feeling very inspired!

Netball report by Netball Coach, Bethany Griffiths

Hockey

King's Bruton vs Exeter School
The boys hockey teams had a very enjoyable block fixture with Exeter school which saw some fantastic performances from the senior and junior teams. The 1st XI played well in parts and rode their luck at times as they drew 0-0 with man of the match Toby making some outstanding saves in the King’s goal. The 2nd XI produced their best performance of the season as they won 3-0 with two goals being scored by Jacob and one by Aidan. Man of the match was Lluis after a strong performance, however this was a real team effort. The 3rd XI played Blundell’s and recorded a 5-1 victory after scoring some well worked goals. The U15As has goal keeper and man of the match Murray to thank at times as they won 2-0, whilst the U15Bs had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon as they drew 2-2 in a match which saw them mix up the teams with Exeter. The U14As played in a very competitive fixture as they won 2-1 whilst the U14Bs were far too strong for their counterparts, recording a 6-2 victory. 

Hockey report by Director of Hockey, Henry Eriksson

Equestrian

The King’s riders were one of 30 teams competing from all over the South West at Moreton Equestrian Centre on Sunday 20th January in a National Schools Equestrian and Windsor Horse Qualifier in both the 90cm and 1m classes.
Marcia riding Rhuby as an individual and Kizzy in the team, Sam on Olly, Patrick on April and Amy on Heigh-Ho Silver, finished on a total team score of four faults in the 90cm class and narrowly missed out on qualifying as five other teams also finished on four faults, but our accumulative time pushed us to 6thplace, still a very impressive achievement against tough opposition.
Amy, Marcia and Sam then competed in the 1m class. It was a tough course with a number of related distance fences that unfortunately, caught us out, but everyone finished positively and enjoyed the experience in a very big competition.
Well done.

Equestrian report by Director of Sport - Pip Atkinson-Kennedy