PE Students of the Month – October

Congratulations to the following students who are our PE Stars of the Month!

Netball

U14s

Well done to our U14 County Netball Team who, on Saturday 11th October, came 3rd overall in the county!!

Results:-

Won 8-7 against STAHS Won 9-1 against Leventhorpe Lost 13-4 against Berkhamstead Won 10-5 against RMS (2nd in the group…) Lost in the semi-finals to Broxbourne. Beat Haileybury in 3rd/4th playoffs so 3rd overall – AMAZING girls!

Star player was Ashley Buckle who was outstanding throughout!

Year 8

Well done to the Year 8 netballers who beat St Mary’s 16-2 last week! Some great play from all the girls. Star player was Jess Ward!

Year 7

Well done to the Year 7 netballers who won 25-0 against St Mary’s last week! Great first game. Star player was Neve McDonald!

Football

The U14 football team won 5-1 tonight against St Albans High School for Girls in the 2nd round of the County Cup.

It was a convincing display on a very tight pitch, with Presdales completely dominating the match. Very assured defensively and lots of fast attacking play! Goals were from Amber Leighton (3), Darci Gillett and Amelie Powis. Amber’s second goal was the highlight with a super strike into the top corner.

Evie Martin captained the side and led by example. Hannah Nash was cool and composed in defence. Amber had a good night in front of goal, scoring a hat trick.

A great all-round display from the girls, with good contributions from every player. Very proud of them and can’t wait for the next round!

­­­­­­­­­­­­­Equestrian Team

The Equestrian team have been competing again!

Aston Le Walls Hickstead Qualifier, 13^th October – The Presdales Equestrian Team were joined by one of our newest members, Evie Lodge, for the arena eventing at Aston Le Walls. Darcy Wright and Evie took part in the 80cm with Darcy narrowly missing out on 2nd place. Evie made a picture perfect round but missed out on a placing.

Connie Harrington, Ruby Barrs and Freya Naylor Stewart were in the 90cm team, and they came 3rd overall, missing out by one place to qualify for Hickstead at the end of next May.

Well done to everyone who took part and braved the mud!

National Schools Equestrian Championships at Addington, 19th and 20th October – The Presdales Equestrian Team were out in force this last weekend to hold our own against schools that had gathered at Addington Equestrian Centre in Buckinghamshire for this Championship. We had two classes to attend as a team and one class for an individual, Ruby Barrs. In the first class we had to go there at an ungodly hour on Saturday morning to take our slot as the second team in to take part in the 90/95 cm show jumping class. 55 different school teams from across the country were competing against us, and out of these, only 8 teams would go through to contest a second round. We had a great first round with some blindingly fast riding from all 4, Hannah Moloney, Connie Harrington, Freya Naylor Stewart and the fastest of them all, Ruby Barrs. As the day progressed, we held onto our place in the final with a fast time and 0 score on penalties. The class had started at 8am and finally by 3pm we found out we were through!

What a thrill it was to take part in the final round. This only started at 7.30pm, luckily all the ponies and horses had a stable to take a rest in all day. We were the first team to go, which is always tricky when you don’t know how the course rides for others. We were fast but knocked too many poles down, we eventually came an incredible 7th overall.

But it wasn’t all over yet, most of us having stayed the night, we all had another show jumping class to compete in, the 1m. Not as many teams in this class though, but still large with 36 teams and 40 individuals. This time around, despite our best efforts, we didn’t get through to the finals.

Ruby Barrs then stayed on for the afternoon to compete in a class which combines show jumping and cross country style fences, where you also get judged on your riding ability. There was a misunderstanding on the course between her and her pony so she gained a penalty which stopped them from progressing any further in the competition.

Well done to everyone who took part and braved the mud! Thank you to Hannah Moloney for coming back to represent Presdales, now that she is at Richard Hale. In the future, we might be competing against her, as Richard Hale will be joining the NSEA. What an achievement for such a small equestrian team. They all looked incredibly smart in the school colours as well.

Well done to everyone who has taken part, including parents for the transportation! A huge thank you also to Ms Naylor for the fantastic photos, reports of the team and organising the Equestrian team for all of these brilliant competitions!

Sailing

Hot on the heels of a successful summer that consolidated her winter and spring training with a number of wins, Daisy Robinson (Year 10) has earned her place in the RYA National Junior Squad for the coming year. This places her in the Top 24 girls in the country in her class of single-handed dinghy sailing. The Topper is an Olympic pathway boat at junior level, and she begins winter training this half-term at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, home of the 2012 Olympics. She has a busy year ahead training and competing across the UK, and next year her travels will take her to Lake Garda, Italy, for the World Championships. Daisy is pictured with her winner’s Trophy won at Royal Harwich Sailing Club, and at Largs, Scotland at the National Championships, August 2019.