Sports Reports

Lancashire Rugby Festival

The U12s Kirkham team had a fantastic day at Preston Grasshoppers taking part in the Lancashire Rugby Festival. They came top of their group having beaten Bolton, Ormskirk, St Mary’s hall and MGS. Unfortunately, they just lost out in the final against a strong Lancaster side. The boys played some of the best rugby they have played all season and were a credit to the school and their coaches.

QEGS Swimming Championships 2022

The KGS mixed swimming team travelled to QEGS Blackburn to compete in their annual swim championships against QEGS, Lancaster Royal Grammar School, Hutton Grammar, Ripley St Thomas and Bury Grammar.

The gala started with the 4X1 IM and the KGS swimmers certainly did not disappoint. Aimee Harling lead the way followed by Seth Gregson, Gordon Ballantyne and Scarlett Tushingham earning the team valuable points.  Further positive results were gained from Anna Whittle and Scarlett Tushingham in the 50M breaststroke, and Ari Milligan and Ellis Mcnamee-Sloggett in the 50M backstroke. At the half way point KGS were in 4th position overall.

In the butterfly event, Aimee Harling took 2nd place in the U12 event whilst Hailey Ballantyne took 3rd in the U16 event. In the final event before the relays, Eve Sharkey was victorious in the U12 50M freestyle with Harry and Emily Marsh finishing in 3rd place in the older age groups.

The medley relays saw the U12 team finish in 2nd place, U13 in 6th, U14 in 2nd, U16 in 5th and U18 in 3rd overall.

The freestyle relays were equally as successful resulting in KGS finishing in third place overall with 131 points.

KGS U13 & U12 boys’ Hockey Reports

Thirty boys from the First and Second year travelled to Sedbergh prep school to play in their first hockey games of the year. Four games of 7-a-side were played across the afternoon with good performances in all the games.

The A and C team took to the astro-turf first. The A team faced a strong Sedbergh team but were not deterred. With some good link ups between Jack Dawson-Gerrard, Seb Clarke and Jonty Faith, and strong running with the ball from Jack Gillet and Thomas Barton, KGS put pressure onto the Sedbergh team when they attacked. However, the boys struggled to keep possession throughout the game, which resulted in no goals. However, there was some courageous defence on show that stopped a strong Sedbergh team scoring more goals - Alex Fuller who had a strong performance in net also helped this.

The C team, made up of seven first years, started the game slowly and quickly found themselves 1-0 down. However, the intensity and desire shown by the players helped with their determination to keep the possession and move the ball into space. This enabled the Kirkham team to play quickly and be on the front foot. With this style of hockey being played, it resulted in a plethora of chances but the boys were unable to find the back of the net on this occasion. The game finished 1-0 to Sedbergh.

The B and D team took to the field second; two excellent performances were played resulting in one win and a draw. The B team also performed strongly but found themselves 2-0 down after 10 minutes. The boys then moved the ball well and into space to put an attack together which resulted in a goal through Harvey Barton. Sedbergh retaliated and broke through the KGS defence to make it 3-1. Sedbergh were persistent in attack but Declan Calderbank in goal made some outstanding saves to put KGS back onto the attack. The next two goals were scored through Ethan Davies with some link up play with Harvey & Brodie Black. Davies found himself in space to put the ball in the back of the net on more than one occasion.

The D team made up of both First and Second years started the game very strongly and quickly; the boys moved the ball well around the field, which created space for the following goal scorers to run into. Goals scored by James Palmer, George Aldeen and Felix Stott-Perrins (2). A strong performance resulted in a 4-0 victory over Sedbergh.

Warwick School Sevens

The U16 VII took part in the prestigious Warwick School Sevens on Saturday 5 March. In the group stages, Kirkham beat Dulwich College 46-7 and Wimbledon College 31-12. They then narrowly lost to Solihull School 14-15. Kirkham finished second in the group and qualified for the Cup quarterfinal where they faced Welsh school Bro Edern. In this game Kirkham produced one on the finest sevens performances of the season so far winning 33-7, Harry Tomlinson. Harry Reay, Oliver Greenwood and Monty Loggenberg were outstanding. Kirkham then faced Kings School Macclesfield in the semi-final. Kirkham started well going 10-0 up with two unconverted tries. Macclesfield responded well and scored three converted tries before half-time, making the score 10-21. In the second half, Kirkham fought hard and managed to score a third try, also not converted. This meant that if Kirkham could score a converted try in the remaining minutes they would reach the final. Unfortunately, the clock beat them as the game finished 15-21 to Macc. This was a great tournament performance from the Kirkham side who look forward to the challenge ahead at the Rossyln Park National School Sevens in two weeks.

The U15s took a development squad to Warwick last weekend. In a tough group, which included the hosts, the group did well to compete, but ended up falling into the Shield Competition. Here they met Warwick 2nd VII, in what was an a close encounter, but KGS held their nerve and won the game thanks to a last minute try from Taran Mathauda with Hugo Loggenberg adding the crucial conversion to win the game 26-24. In the final, they met Solihull School and played fantastically well, with Jasper Johnson, Harry Case and Freddie Tomlinson shining. Tries from Norman and Mathauda at crucial times saw us take a 19-5 lead with two minutes to play. Solihull then made it interesting scoring with just under a minute to play (19-12) but heroic defence from Luke Schmid managed to stop an almost certain try and a penalty for KGS meant we could kick the ball off to seal the victory and win the Shield. Considering the lack of sevens experience from the squad, their improvement throughout the day was outstanding and they should look forward to the tournament next week at King's School, Macclesfield. 

J2 Netball v St Mary's Hall

It was a glorious morning of netball at St Mary's Hall. KGJS’ J2 girls took to the court in their first netball game. The teams put their skills into practice and played some great netball. Well done to Jessica and Scarlett for getting player of the match.