Barnehurst Sport Summer 2

A review of all sporting events at the school during the final half term of the year.

The last term of the sporting year has been another busy one!

After finishing runners-up at the Bexley Games, our girls Kwik-Cricket team advanced to the London Youth Games on Wednesday 27th of June where they were the representatives of Bexley borough. Our first game was a loss to a very good Redbridge team that ended up finishing 3rd, however the girls bowled really well with the compulsory over-arm rule - much improved from a few weeks earlier! In the second game against Barking and Dagenham the girls were much sharper with their fielding; BAD finishing on 254. The girls knew they'd have to be much more aggressive with their batting and running between the wickets if they were to be competitive and they duly did that - it was really pleasing to watch them all visibly grow in confidence, as they started to move their feet more and more and smash the boundaries! We ended up with 279 so a great win; probably the best Barnehurst has had at this level of cricket. We ended up as runners-up in the group and placed a credible overall joint 7th in Greater London; a lovely sunny day and the girls certainly enjoyed themselves, so a great day all round! Well done and congratulations to Leah, Isobel, Leah, Grace A, Ruby, Jasmine, Bethany and Grace O! 

The next week our second set of Bexley representatives competed in the London Youth Games summer finals on July 5th, having brilliantly won the Bexley Quadkids event in May. Competing in Crystal Palace athletics stadium, Mason, Lucas, Teddy, Thomas, Harry, Ruby, Millie, Alissia, Jasmine and Madeleine produced some amazing performances; every single pupil smashing at least one of their personal bests in the four events of vortex throwing, 75m, standing long jump and 600m. All children were placed in the 'gold' category at the end, whilst Jasmine (our Bexley cross-country champion) made the London top 15 for her time in the 600m and Mason top 10 in 75m! Lucas' vortex throw was even the joint furthest distance in the whole of greater London! These amazing efforts meant our placing for Bexley was 18th, which is our best placing to date in the three years we have competed at this extraordinarily high level. Thanks so much to the children for their efforts - we really couldn't have asked for more!

The final Bexley events of the year were in cricket, and on the 5th of June we sent two teams to the mixed kwik-cricket qualifiers at Chistlehurst and Sidcup school. Team 1 performed fantastically to sweep through Danson, Hurst B and Longlands and qualify for the finals; team 2 performed equally well to beat Danson B but just missed out against Hurst by a few runs, who went on to do very well in the finals a week later. Very unlucky but also very well played to Harry, Oliver, Tommy, James, Ethan, Leah, Grace, Pavan and Jake. At the finals on Wednesday the 13th at Sidcup cricket ground team one performed just as well, beating St. Stephens, West Lodge and Uplands to finish 7th overall - just missing on the first position matches due to defeat to Harris Garrard. Well done to Oliver, Bobby, Ruby, Bethany, Thomas, Harry, Elliot and Kieran! The final event of the year, the Bexley extended overs competition, was a strange one - on two separate occasions our knock-out opposition pulled out of the ties, meaning we advanced to the final on Monday July 16th. However with just a couple of hours to go before the game our opponents also pulled out, meaning we were handed the trophy without actually playing a game! Not the way we'd want to win a competition, but we'll definitely take it all the same! The competition has been going since 1986 so we'll relish the chance to get the Barnehurst name on the shield for the first time! Well done to the children involved!

Earlier that day our annual School Games sports day took place, and as usual it was a pleasure observing all the children displaying values of hard work, determination, skill and fair play. The highlight as always was the Barnehurst chase - congratulations to the winners; Ola and Maiah in year 3; Connor A-J and Abigail in year 4; Daniel and Alice in year 5 and Mason and Ruby in year 6. Also very well done to the greens who won the most points overall during the whole day!

Also big congratulations to Tayan in year 5, who has won a place in next years Bexley District football team for next season. A true honour, and the 5th year in a row Barnehurst students have won places in the prestigious squads, after the previous efforts of Teddy, Mya, Ronnie, Ruby and Mason! And so another sporting year ends, and it has been our most successful ever! 8 trophies in football, hockey, cricket, athletics and orienteering; 19 children representing Bexley borough; the School Games gold award and so many other amazing individual performances. Thanks to all the coaches that work with the children during the week and of course all parents and carers that assist in transporting the children to the various events - without your help each year none of it would be possible. Most of all, thank you to our amazing children! We say a fond farewell to our year 6s as their time at Barnehurst ends - our most successful year-group ever, whose efforts are truly appreciated and will not be forgotten. From new early years to year 5: have a great summer and we'll see you in September when it all starts again!