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St Edward’s:
150 Years
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FOOTBALL
The numbers of boys playing Football at St Edward’s is
growing each year and I am delighted to say that we now
have block fixtures against other schools in place to put this
enthusiasm to good use. The highly competitive nature of the
games has meant that the boys have substantially developed
their game awareness and skill level.
It has been a pleasure to supervise this development,
and the excellent work of all our coaches has resulted in St
Edward’s becoming a respected opponent both on and off
the field. This 2013 season has been our most successful in a
number of years, with the side enjoying victories over Radley,
Rugby, Bromsgrove, Oundle, Abingdon and Berkhampsted.
We are very lucky to have Wycombe Wanderers
academy coach Graham Malcolm working with our various
squads, and his impressive understanding of the game was
instrumental in our progression to the U19 County Cup semi-
final three years ago.
As Master in Charge of Football I am determined to
ensure that any player who dons the St Edward’s shirt will
give his utmost to represent the School with the effort our
tradition deserves. It is imperative that the players, and more
importantly teams, understand that sport provides an arena for
individual development on many fronts.
James Gaunt
Master in Charge of Football
HARRIERS
When I first joined the School in 2004, the ‘cross country club’
consisted of a handful of runners who were entered into one
race a year, the County Schools Cross Country at Radley. I
remember accompanying Edward Womersley (then in the
Fourth Form) to that race and watching him qualify for the
English Schools race with ease. Ed was a talented athlete and
hugely enthusiastic about his running, but most of his training
was organised outside School. It wasn’t hard to persuade
me to start training with him in School and between us we
discovered many good running routes around Port Meadow,
Wytham Woods and looping around Oxford alongside the
rivers and canals. When I stood up in School Assembly to
advertise the ‘St Edward’s Cross Country Club’, I was told by a
long-time member of the Common Room that the cross-country
runners were previously known as the ‘Harriers’, and that
they had a long and illustrious history within the School. The
Harriers were thus resurrected.
In 2004, the Harriers were a small group of runners who
met regularly and trained hard. The core group consisted of
characters such as Ed and Tom Womersley, Freddie Slemeck,
Jack Bibbings, Ben Pawson and Sam Smith. There was a lot of
natural talent and this was combined with friendly competition
between the boys and gruelling weekly sessions at the Iffley
Road track. We trained six days and covered more than 50 miles
travels to Radley, Harrow, Marlborough and Stowe to take part
in many large inter-school fixtures, as well as competing in the
Achilles Schools’ Relays.
The first Senior Girls 4x100m relay team was formed in
2007, when Shells girls were first allowed to choose athletics as
their games option. In 2008 this team (Charlton, Burt, Skull and
Hattingh) won the silver medal at the Achilles Schools’ Relays,
and the girls have been successful ever since. In this, our 150th
year, the Senior Girls 4x100m relay team (Endeley, Verdon,
Littlehales and Jolley) qualified emphatically for the final and
went on to win the bronze medal in this prestigious event;
the Inter Girls 4x100m team (Elliston, Blanchard, Montgomerie
and Sunderland) were able to match the performance of their
elders by also winning bronze. The Inter Girls 3x800m relay
team (Sunderland, Rayner and Akoulitchev) went one better by
winning the silver medal in their race.
In the Oxford City Championships the Teddies athletes
have always done incredibly well; the Inter Boys, Inter Girls
and Junior Boys teams are current champions. Many individual
athletes go on to represent the City Team at the Oxfordshire
County Championships; in the 2012 season 15 athletes competed
in the County Championships and 11 won medals, of which
four were gold: Storm Sunderland (1500m), Georgie Blanchard
(javelin), Charlie Smith (hurdles) and Jamie D’Alton (triple jump)
are the current County Champions. This year this number has
doubled, and 30 Teddies athletes will take part in this event.
In recent years Teddies have also been well represented
at the English Schools’ Track and Field Championship Finals.
In 2007 Teddies was very proud of Edward Womersley, who
became English Schools Champion in the 2,000m steeplechase
held at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham. In 2009 Ryan
Savage competed in the hurdles at the Don Valley Stadium,
Sheffield, and in 2011 James Chainey competed in the shot put
at the Gateshead International Stadium.
Becky Bowyer
Head of Athletics
Chapter 7 / Sport and Outdoors
Clockwise from top left: Senior Boys Athletes 2013: J. D’Alton, P. Sliwinski, P. Mark, C. Asembo; J. Bunce, Inter Boys 100m Hurdles and High Jump, 2013;
Storm Sunderland, Inter Girls 800m and 1500m, 2013; 1500m County Champion 2012 and 2013; T. Womersley, Senior Boys 800m and 1500m 2008–9;
Senior Girls 4x100m – C. Endeley, G. Verdon, M. Littlehales, J. Jolley – 2013 Achilles Relays bronze medalists.
Left: GeorgeAnthony-Jones holds off the close attentions
of a Wycliffe defender in a 1st XI’s 3–1 win, 2013.
Below: Blenheim 10k, 2012 (left to right): Lewis Faulkner,
Ruairi O’Hara, FergusMcAloon, NedCarr, JonnyThomson,
NicolaPerkins,HenryChitsenga,JoshEntwhistle,external
Harriers coach.