County and national sporting success for Stamford schoolchildren

Cross-Country

Stamford School Under 15s cross-country team have qualified for the English Schools Athletics Association (ESAA) County Cup National Finals after a strong team performance in the regional rounds.

The Stamford team came through the first round at Crowland in the East Midlands region coming second and progressed to run against 13 other schools at Mount St Marys College.

On an undulating course, the team performed brilliantly achieving third place and securing qualification for the National Finals at Woodbridge School.

The team has been led superbly by Sam Hughes, who along with Tom Hattee, have finished in the top seven in every race so far. The team competition, which comprises six runners with the top four runners scoring, have been superbly supported by James Rothwell, Oliver Macintosh, Elliot Dee and Sam Gordon-Kerr.

Stamford School cross-country coach, James Mitchell, commented: “The finals will be a fantastic opportunity for the boys to test themselves against the best teams from across the country and I am sure they will do Stamford proud.”

Hockey

The Stamford High School Under 13 A hockey team travelled to Lincoln to compete for and defend their County Championship crown.

The Stamford team won all three of their matches to retain their title and now look forward to the Regionals at Bedford on Thursday November 29.

They started by betaing Bourne Grammar 6-0 with P. Phelan and E. Stones scoring two goals each and M. Hindmarch and C. Packer scoring one each.

The second match saw Stamford beat Lincoln Minster 5-0 with goals by C. Dean (3), C. Packer and M. Hindmarch.

Last came a 3-0 win against St Hughes with E. Stones (2) and P. Phelan on target.

Gymnastics

The Stamford Endowed Schools’ gymnasts had four teams (Under 9, Under 10, Under 11 and Under 15) competing at the Independent Schools Gymnastics Championships at Stamford Junior School and they won loads of medals.

With over 600 gymnasts taking part from as far afield as Belgium and Holland, the fiercely contested competition was of an incredibly high standard and also acted as a qualifying event for the Nationals in March.

The Under 9 and Under 10 teams made the podium, receiving bronze medals, while the Under 11 team just missed out.

The Under 15 team also won bronze medals and special mention goes to Elysee Mordel and Daisy Fox, who placed third and fifth respectively on the individual front.

Trudy Smith, Head of Gymnastics and teacher at the Stamford Endowed Schools as well as organiser of the recent ISGA Championships at Stamford Junior School, commented: “We are thrilled that the effort and hard work from all our teams has been rewarded with these very well-deserved medals. It was a mammoth, yet highly rewarding weekend which I hope will continue to inspire our pupils and encourage them to enjoy their gymnastics.”

Equestrian

The newly established Stamford Endowed Schools’ equestrian team were crowned Lincolnshire County Showjumping champions in the 80cm and 90cm competition at the National Schools’ Equestrian Association (NSEA) event at Epworth, near Doncaster.

They will now automatically qualify to compete at the NSEA showjumping finals at Bury Farm, Buckinghamshire in April 2019.

The 80cm team Lincolnshire Champions are Tom Wagstaffe, Izzy Key, Tash Williams and James Wagstaffe.

The 90cm team Lincolnshire Champions are James Wagstaffe, Izzy Key, Tash Williams and Jess Gargan.

The individual performances were also exceptional with the following results achieved:

Izzy Key - 1st (90cm) qualifying for the Nationals

Tash Williams – 3rd (90cm)

James Wagstaffe – 6th (90cm)

Tom Wagstaffe - 3rd (70cm)