Sports Reports

Cross Country 

Following his third place finish at the Lancashire Schools XC Championships on Saturday, Kirkham Grammar Fourth Year pupil, Stan, has qualified for the English Schools' Cross Country Championships taking place at Nottingham in March.

Hockey Competition 

Kirkham Grammar School's U13 A&B teams travelled to AKS to take part in the first round of the National Mini Hockey competition.

The A team were made to wait a while for their first game but flew out of the traps against AKS. Imi Osborne, Hollie Bailey and Lily Miles worked well together in attack to create chances but couldn’t convert the opportunities. Hermione Edwards, Lucie Wilson and Alys Williams were strong in defence and worked hard to be first to every 50:50 ball. Despite early dominance and missed chances, KGS succumbed to a 2-0 defeat as AKS showed the importance of clinical finishing.

In their second game, the girls proved too strong for LSA with a dominant 4-0 win. They moved the ball quickly in attacking areas and LSA found it hard to deal with the width and speed KGS offered. This left the A team as runners up in the tournament.

The B team performed brilliantly throughout the day, winning all 3 of their matches without conceding a goal, to finish the day as winners of the B team tournament. In their first game they showed good adaptability to beat AKS C, thanks to some interesting short corner routines. In the second game they overcame AKS B comfortably, again thanks to some well adapted short corner routines. In the final game, the B team sealed the tournament win with an emphatic victory over LSA B. Goals were shared throughout the day between Chloe Murro, Evie Mannion, Anna Whittle, Bella Coupe Carroll, Sophia Melling and Megan Hartley-Smith

1st XI vs RGS Newcastle - Wednesday 1 February 

The 1st XI had a tough game on their hands against a strong RGS Newcastle side in their third tier 1 cup match. KGS started well and dominated in the midfield. Merrick set Cole through behind the RGS defence to slot the ball away to take the score to 1-0. Great defending from Marsh and Milligan kept the ball out with some excellent saves from Jackson in goal. However, RGS continued to press hard resulting in a great goal from top D. 

In the second half, KGS continued to apply pressure resulting in well-worked short corners but unfortunately no further goals for the home side. 

The final score was 4-1. KGS take on Denstone College next week in their fourth match of the competition.

Hockey - Wednesday 8 February

1st XI v The King's School, Chester

KGS 1st XI hosted The King's School, Chester. The game started well with KGS opening the score line within the first few minutes. The girls continued to apply pressure throughout the first half with Cole and Margerison converting further chances. In the second half, great work from Merrick, Tomlinson and Schofield created chances for Tomes and Merrick on goal.

Further goals were scored to leave the final score at 8-1 to KGS.

2nd XI Match Report v Kings Chester

The 2nd XI also played against The Kings School, Chester. Both teams started well with lots of attacking from both teams. After a long period of build-up play, there was a break away from Procter who slotted the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-0 to KGS. The game continued with lots of end to end attacking play and the game could have been taken from either way. Towards the latter end of the game, KGS had lots of possession and again, another break away from Procter to make the game a 2-0 win for KGS. Well played, girls! 

Rugby

U13s

The KGS under 13s finished off their season with a triangular fixture with St Anselm's College and Audenshaw School. After a tough game versus a strong Anselm's side, the under 13s finished their regular season with a good win.

The group have had a successful season playing 26 matches, winning 16 and drawing 2. Highlights have been their victories over Lancaster RGS and Stonyhurst St Mary's.

They have been a privilege to coach this year and have played an exciting brand of rugby, playing a ball-movement game. They will be looking forward to their 7s season where they will have 4 tournaments.

U12s

Kirkham Grammar's Under 12 squad was tested to the limit on Saturday and acquitted themselves really well against a very combative St. Anselms. There was little to choose between the two sides in the first half, as Kirkham played up a significant slope. Possession was shared, Kirkham tackled furiously for their part but on the stroke of half time were very unlucky to concede a try to go 1-0 down.

The second half was equally as tight but Anselm`s gained the upper hand scoring 3 tries near the end to Kirkham`s solitary score from Tumi Milligan who led by example with his foraging and weavy running.

KGS U14s Rugby

Kirkham U14s completed a challenging week with one win and two narrow defeats. With a small squad, it was always going to be a challenge to maintain their level of performance, but with a strong resolve some tired bodies battled to the end.

U14s v Scarisbrick Hall

First up on Tuesday was Scarisbrick Hall in the quarter final of the Lancashire plate. Kirkham started well with Stafford charging in, from 30 metres from a training ground move after five minutes, for the first try which was converted by Yates. KGS were next to score after a period of pressure with forwards and backs combining well. A Scarisbrick goal line drop-out landed in the hands of Shaw, who put on the afterburners to beat several defenders before scoring in the corner. From the restart, Davies attacked the blind side and rampaged over from half way, Yates converted from wide out to make it 19-0 at half time.

The second half was a much closer affair with Scarisbrick Hall's strong running number 8, causing lots of problems. Scarisbrick scored twice to make it 19-12 with 10 minutes remaining. However, KGS rose to the occasion and forced a 5 metre scrum, once again from the clearance kick Shaw sprinted round several defenders to score. Scarisbrick scored with the last play of the game to make it 24-12 to KGS which earns them a semi-final against Audenshaw.

U14s v Hutton Grammar School

Thursday saw KGS take on local rivals Hutton, and, in typical fashion, both teams gave it their all. First half tries from Shaw, Mkpadi and Stafford, with two converted by Yates, left KGS 2 points adrift 19-21.

After a Hutton score, Stafford who had an excellent game, scored again to keep KGS in contention. Two late scores from Hutton, with all their scores converted, gave them a deserved but rather flattering win 42-24.

On Saturday, a tired and depleted squad, performed well against St Anselm’s creating enough chances to win the game comfortably but came away rueing their missed chances. Uphill scored an excellent team try but KGS came away losing 15-5.

KGS U17s v St Anselm's College 1st XV

The U17 A squad travelled over to the Wirral on Saturday morning to face old friends St Anselm's College 1st XV. This was the first set of block fixtures the two schools have played against each other in many years and it was great to see some old and new faces.

Kirkham began the game strongly, with their driving maul making good ground and the backs crossing the gain line with ease. The Kirkham backs scored four tries in the first half: two from centre Luke Denn, and one each from Archie Barbour and Alex Smith.  Barbour converted three tries successfully. St Anselm's scored two tries of their own, both coming from errors from Kirkham which allowed Anselm's to establish good field position. Once in Kirkhams 22, Anselm's seemed to find another gear and became very difficult to stop. The half time score was 26-13 to Kirkham.

In the second half, both teams battled hard. Anselm's caused lots of problems for the Kirkham side at the breakdown, however, it was the Kirkham set piece that eventually won the arm wrestle. Back row Henry Whitton scored the only try of the half making the final score 31-13 to Kirkham. This was the last fifteen a side game of the season and they now shift the focus to sevens.