New House Lent 2016

And then there was Lent...

After so golden a Michaelmas, we were certainly asking whether Lent could possibly live up to the fantastic highs of the previous term. Lent is shorter, comes hard on the heels of warm, homely Christmas festivities, and the skies get darker quickly even as we try to jolly ourselves along having left the Yuletide behind. In short, Michaelmas is a tough act to follow in more ways than one, even if it didn't have the added glister of a very first term in the House.

Blue and green for life...

One of the first things to point toward the special character of this term was a visit from three brilliant New Houseians, Matt Browning, Alex Needham and Elliott Lawley. Having such great old boys return after their first term at university to see friends in younger years was so heartening - young men retaining a strong bond with the House and with the School despite moving on to exciting new things. Of course, they're finding their feet brilliantly at university in the same way our new B Block and Lower Sixth are doing here in there second term - it's a special transitional time, and as you'll see from the pages to follow, the boys haven't stopped moving since the Christmas break...

Snack bar, open for business (takeaways, mainly!)

Around the lads as they went out achieving the things in the ensuing newsletter, small refinements to the House were being made; a new TV, a snack bar to sit and eat at, the facilities for cookery school and so forth, and there will be more in the pipeline in that regard, including the new sofas which will meet them on their return from the Easter holidays. Keeping things moving here then too, which all helps put the spectacle of Pedants and the - ahem - special performances from their Housemaster and other teachers a little bit further back in the memory...

Oh dear...
Enjoy the news from New!

Honours Board

Distinguished achievements

What follows is a brief and not exhaustive list of some of the impressive achievements from the boys this term:

Bill Foley & Callum Middleton stepped up and were made Prefects. They have shown insight and care in their duties so far; congratulations.

Bradley & Max Sharratt gained Silver DofE certificates, doing in a matter of months what many take a whole Repton career to do.

Liam Karai was among the first to receive the new CCF tie in recognition of his consistent top-quality service to the cadets over the past four years.

Future leader of the free world, Liam Karai.

Bill Foley earned Silver in the Chemistry Olympiad; an extremely challenging academic contest.

Daniel McGarrity successfully gained a place and completed a Computer Science course at the prestigious Villiers Park facility.

International hockey honours were gained by Harry Bennett, Simon Claris (England U18) Stuart Kentwell (USA U21) and there is real promise of a Wales U16 place as George Rice continues to attend training in Wrexham.

New House's contribution to the Indoor champs making Repton history

Callum Middleton, Harry Bennett, Simon Claris and Matthew Proudlove were part of the U18 Hockey squad who won the boys National Indoor Championships for the first time ever. Alex Ottewell, Ren Tabata and Will Tomalin played for the squad who became Midlands U14 Champs.

Midlands champions back before the National finals...

James Finnigan and the Derbyshire U18 tennis squad were victorious in the County Championships, and move up in the national tennis league.

A great springboard to James Finnigan's US tennis career

Tom Combe, Freddie Holt, Jacob Truelove-Cooke, Max Kennedy, George Kirtland and Will Tomalin all completed the Parker 100.

There have been not just successes but Distinctions in the following musical exams: Henry Blencowe, Grade 8 Sax; Liam Karai, Grade 8 Singing; Alistair Westwood, Grade 7 Bass; Matt Bankhurst, Grade 8 Drums and Electric Bass. Amazing work.

Our musicians continue to be men of distinction in Associated Board and other musical qualifications.

Henry Blencowe distinguished himself once again at the Derby Arts Festival, winning the Y13 And Under Woodwind Solo - brilliant stuff.

And finally, Simon Butler has secured a scholarship from Price Waterhouse Coopers to support his university studies - a very fine result in a competitive process.

Events

Intellectual sparring

General Knowledge Quiz

Six of the ‘sharpest’ minds from the house pitted their wits, one Sunday, against the annual General Knowledge Quiz. Kevin Hynes (U6), Will Cooling and Harry Griffiths (L6), Charlie Wilcock (O Block), myself as our A Block and Will Tomalin (B Block) set off to Pears School feeling hopeful and confident and despite not placing top three this year, or the last (in my experience), I feel our boys efforts deserve a lot of credit, as we held our ground well throughout and did so in a light-hearted manner. With some superb answers from Charlie and Kev in particular, and some nice food to keep us going at the halfway stage, I feel that we did New House proud once again. Maybe next time boys!

Will Balderston, A Block

House Chess - Checkmate to New House!

It came down to HoH Kevin's deep focus on the final board of the contest...

Believe it or not, chess is actually a sport. So when House Chess came around as it does every year, a trio of top class athletes emerged in the form of Kev, Padders and Steve. Having been in the chess team since B-Block but never winning, Kev had some unfinished business in this competition, whilst Steve and Padders were keen to make an impression as intellectual athletes.

We met Garden in the first round but the lads were quickest out of the blocks, crossing the finish line before the opposition had time to react. In the second round were a stubborn school house team. An unfortunate intellectual injury to Kev meant he had to be replaced by a very able chess player in the form of Harry Griffiths, who filled the role expertly and dispatched his opponent, as did Padders and Steve to send New House through to the final.

Well, doesn't that look serious?

Odds on favourite, Priory awaited in the final, and the atmosphere was as tense as the atmosphere at a chess match could be. New House took an early blow, with Padders crashing out against their best player. However Steve quickly pulled the scores level, overcoming his opponent with relative ease. It all came down to the final match where Kev was only marginally ahead by two points in chess terms. There were only a few minutes left on the clock and with such fine margins Kev didn’t dare to take any risks, pondering over each move. After 10 tense minutes the final whistle blew with Kev 3 points ahead and through adjudication New house won 2-1. Elation ensued followed by physical and intellectual exhaustion (of sorts) because after all, chess is a sport.

Kevin Hynes, U6 (witty use of the third person!)

Cookery School

This term, the House continued to take part in the New House cookery school, led by Mr Wilton (Jamie Oliver), Mrs Wilton (Delia Smith), Matron (Nigella Lawson) and assisted by The Chief Food Tasters; Betsy and Teddy.

There are definite perks to being a boarding-house kid...

The first lesson was making batter and cooking pancakes. Easier said than done...this turned out to be slightly more difficult than Matron thought. How difficult can it be to crack an egg? I think we all need a bit more practice. The demonstration didn't go quite to plan with the pancake failing to cook properly!

B Block master the egg-cracking which somewhat foiled the O Block!

After this minor hiccup we were all back to the cooking. When our year took to the hobs, Luke Tandy demonstrated his pancake flipping skills after dropping his first attempt. Meanwhile Charlie Wilcock was claiming that he was the 'best chef in the room' throughout the evening but produced the most overcooked pancake; he insists he likes them well done! Harry Fox was constantly smiling at the thought of pancakes and was delighted with his performance with the pan. Once the pancakes were done everyone was happy with the results and thankfully The Chief Food Tasters approved!

Our author makes a careful inspection of pancake-progress
Master Wilcock enjoying the fruits of his labours.

All this training culminated in a massive pancake-fest on Shrove Tuesday, with all year groups vying for top-banana on the pancake flipping front. It was an amazing night with some pretty unlikely topping combinations and some serious excessive sugar-consumption...

Our Head of House takes pancake toppings very seriously
All year groups in pancake collaboration - what better way to spend Shrove Tuesday?
Flipping impressive
We share Master Tomalin's dumbfoundedness as Master Rice is seemingly spirited away to pancake paradise
Now THAT is a pancake...

The second cookery session was how to create a steak stir fry. Charlie Wilcock again assured us all that he was the best cook, he knew this recipe and actually produced a really tasty dish with George Shirley acting as his sous chef. Eager to learn this new skill were Gianni Singh and Thomas Mueller. Thomas was a little sceptical about using the hobs at first, but picked it up quickly and with Gianni created a great meal.

Inspirational stir-frying, coached along by our author

Max Gracie-Ainscough and Kent Hirano very attentively followed Mr Wilton's entertaining and brilliant demonstration (and of course the safety tips) which resulted in them also creating a very tasty stir-fry.

Hirano and Meuller getting stuck in
Bowen barely contains his joy at stir-fry success

Despite the dining room now regularly turning into a massive steam room, the cookery sessions we have in House are great fun and the food is amazing!

George Shirley, O Block

Russell Cup

Skills

It very quickly came to the crunch...
Hello?

The New House boys commenced the day with what would seem as an easy exercise. However the medical skills of Matt Bankhurst fell short of our high standards. Though Harry Fortey and Callum Middleton were very enthusiastic about Dr ABC, we feel survival rates might have been worryingly low in the New House hospital.

SHOOT!

On a lighter note, the boys’ shooting was a cross between James Bond and Jason Bourne. But, unfortunately for Woody, and unlike those aforementioned heroes, his gun was rather prone to misfiring.

The more cerebral end of the competition

Kevin Hynes, our head of house and our apparent north star, led the way to one of the best scores we received that day; with map skills.

Any parents out there remember the Kinks song 'Apeman'?

Next up was our energetic, half ape, half man, rampaging powerhouse that was…Callum Middleton. He scaled both climbing wall and rope with ease, much like King Kong in New York & left the competition in his dust.

Deeply dippy

Matt Bankhurst redeemed himself by proving his self-proclaimed title ‘King of Dips’ and Harry Fortey made the rope challenge look like a walk in a park (trust me, it definitely wasn’t). Unfortunately, it just wasn’t our day, and much like Derby at Wembley, we were robbed.

Ed Salisbury, L6

Team Physical (plus a visiting Master Holt) admiring the Skills boys' efforts to climb the wall

Physical - VICTORY IS OURS!

The Russell cup tends to be one of the more eagerly anticipated house event by the lads. It is an event like no other where in order for success the team has to be talented in such a broad variety of disciplines.

Clean, precise balance from Master Sharratt

The Physical section for New House started with the obstacle course. New got off to a great start with Finnigan flying over the first obstacle with ease and simultaneously dolphin-diving onto the stretcher for our next section.

Tough going on the long run - grateful for a downhill finish!

Following this we had the barrel and tire rolling, Luke Tandy managed to finish his tyre roll swiftly and moved onto the Jerry Can walk. The timing which then followed on from the rest of the lads meant that there was no waiting around and we progressed smoothly onto the tractor tyre flip. Up stepped Liam Karai and Simon Butler who put in a solid performance to make lifting such a large weight effortless.

A sharp-shooting Tandy adopts a worryingly professional stance...

Following on from this was the cycling task which every single person completed flawlessly meaning we managed to cut a large chunk off our time. The last leg of the obstacle course meant a gruelling run around the school grounds. Brad Sharratt made it look easy as he managed to hurdle many of the obstacles coming in the way.

We ended the run coming in at least 2 minutes faster than any other team. Onwards to the pool task....

Liam and Matt direct operations - born leaders!

We were tasked with building a raft and navigating our way around a very tricky and quirky course. We all worked together as a team fantastically for the first stage where the raft was built and in the water in what seemed like seconds.

Steady as she goes...

The raft was well steered around the course with prowess which made the very basic raft look nimble and nippy. The teamwork carried on throughout this task which ended up being completed yet again in the fastest time out of any of the other houses.

Some serious coordination required here - by this point we were about a minute ahead of our nearest rival!

All this meant New house triumphed in physical and brought some new silverware into the house's already growing collection. It was a fine team performance in one of the most challenging events which Repton has to offer. Hopefully the same feats can be repeated next year.

Our excellent Skills boys join the victorious Physical squad around the trophy; top effort all round!
An absolutely superb show of leadership, teamwork and problem solving. A more convincing win it would be hard to imagine.

Matt Proudlove, L6

Barnes Squad

New House cadets aiming high...

On the afternoon of 22nd March, twelve of the fourteen New House A block were ‘extremely excited’ about the CCF tasks that lay ahead of them. With the Army and the RAF joining forces, we knew we had a great chance of being triumphant over the other Houses. The long afternoon started with a team-building command task, which looked challenging at first but it soon became apparent what we had to do. After debating who should be the team leader for this task, Thomas Combe was put forward and subsequently, with much liaising, we stunned the visiting army officers so much that they were speechless by our creative ability to work out how to lift a box out of a pretend minefield without handling it, but instead using only one rope between us all. We simply made it look easy!

The competition requires a collaborative hive-mind

​Next for New House was the Cycling and Alistair Westwood zoomed around the obstacles effortlessly; I am sure it was nothing compared to what he is used to at the Derby Velodrome! We learnt from Alistair and we all completed the cycling test well. In First Aid with only six people out of the twelve being chosen at random, the other half were relieved about not having to carry out CPR, DR ABC and an emergency response! The likes of Will Balderston and Henry Perks made sure the job was carried out properly. Then was the ‘much loved’ Drill; Harry Blach’s great enthusiasm and encouragement proved to pay off, as everyone performed well and there was only one small mistake at the end (but I shall not mention any names!)

Our author working methodically through the gun task

​We then had to build a raft in the swimming pool with equipment mainly consisting of two kayaks and two kayak paddles, as well as floats, helmets etc.. The aim was to keep the raft afloat with at least 6 people on it and with as many limbs out of the water as possible. Unfortunately, the kayaks gradually filled with water and we all suddenly sunk, but even Major Wadsworth said it was a good effort, and none of the other Houses stayed afloat anyway!

Inspecting officer on the end of Master Holt's gun - those medals must be for bravery!

Soon the time to shoot came and the pre-selected team of Thomas Combe, Will Needham and Alistair Westwood all performed to a worthy standard - especially bearing in mind the sights of the rifles were not accurate! After placing a sling on a rifle and also map reading, it was time for a climb! We simply had to climb the climbing wall as many times as we could to the top in order to obtain points. Freddie Holt and Edward Albone endlessly climbed up and down like monkeys to get us more valuable points to add to the total. All in all there was great determination from all of the boys throughout the afternoon and we felt we had put in a strong performance. There was no silverware for us, unfortunately, but we left proud of our efforts, which is the main thing.

A fine corps, led admirably by Karai and Blach

Will Needham, A Block

Sixth Form Black Tie Dinner

The gentlemen await...

The Sixth Form invitational dinner is a black tie event for the older members of New House, accompanied by a female guest of their choice. The event this year took place on the 12th March and was a new experience for the Lower Sixth, and they certainly made the most of it!

Eminently stylish guests - a classy affair!

A stupendous effort was made by the boys, Mr. and Mrs. Wilton, Matron, and not forgetting the kitchen staff who did a fantastic job providing a three course meal for all those who attended. To start with, there were drinks in a lavish Wilton private side. This was in many ways an ice breaker and allowed the boys and girls to mingle before the meal.

A little prosecco reception on Private Side

Once everybody had arrived and had a couple of drinks, they moved settings to the dining room. Many different things added to the exuberant atmosphere and warmheartedness of the evening, such as a quiz on the embarrassing misadventures of the Lower and Upper Sixth New House boys which was organised by Matt Proudlove, Cyril Chukwumah and Liam Karai; it was very amusing indeed. There was also a 'Face Swap' round where we had to try to identify a blend of twoNew Houseian faces...

Who on Earth is this?!

Everybody had a hand in creating a playlist for the music, through Mr. Wilton’s very crafty and up-to-date online Google document. After the meals were digested and the plates were cleared, everybody made their way back to private side. Many ravishing pictures were taken and new friends were made. To top off a thoroughly riveting evening, all the boys looked incredibly smart and debonair in their dinner jackets and the girls looked captivating!

At the urging of their old-romantic Housemaster, the boys were persuaded to give their guests a rose to take home

A big thanks goes to the Wiltons, Matron, and the kitchen staff as without them none of this could have taken place.

Our writer contemplates an evening of excellent, good natured carousing!

Harry Bennett, L6

Drama

Cabaret

Bill sings Horrible Histories to many a chortle

This year’s Cabaret was filled with enthusiasm and laughter from both the audience and the acts. This year the show was raising money towards the Derbyshire Air Ambulance.

Matt Bankhurst a House Band lynchpin

Many New House members took to the stage. Our three Sixth Formers, who fought to get their Cabaret instead of the musical finally got their wish and managed to star in the Cabaret. We had Matt Bankhurst playing guitar in house band, helping every act with their music, also accompanied by A-blockers Henry Blencowe (piano) and Alistair Westwood (bass guitar)

Liam tells us to sit down because we're rocking the boat

Liam Karai showed off his House Music winning singing capabilities with ‘Sit down, you’re rockin’ the boat’ by Frank Loesser. Liam also sang along with the Reptiles and starred alongside George Shirley (O block) in Debt Crisis. We also had Bill Foley singing in the Reptiles and sang ‘Born to Rule’ from Horrible Histories, with other fellow Sixth Form.

Excellent mask work from your writer

We had a large array of A-blockers in this year’s Cabaret. Starting with our musicians, James Donegan played the alto saxophone in the Jazz Band, along with Henry Blencowe on the tenor saxophone and Alistair Westwood on the bass guitar, not forgetting William Balderston on the trombone. Our musicians also starred in the Reptones, the junior Reptiles, with all our A- block musicians involved apart from Alistair. As for, actors we had Freddie Holt and Henry Perks starring in a silent movie using the mask techniques mastered in drama, and throughout the show we had behind the scenes stage manager Edward Albone. It was a fantastic experience both on and off the stage, and we hope the audience enjoyed it half as much!

Henry Perks, A Block

Music

Harmony

The much anticipated Harmony competition is the highlight of the year for some of us who feel positively religious about music. Mathew Bankhurst and myself wrote this year's arrangement of “She Said” by Plan B and would perform alongside the fine singers Middleton, Foley, Proudlove, Cooling, Bowen, Donegan, Holt, Westwood, Needham, Balderston, Blencowe & Furniss.

Dress rehearsal and things were sounding on point

After intense rehearsals as well as having a drop in session with a world renowned professional acapella group ‘The Swingle Singers’, we set our hopes high for the competition. Setting the stage was infact the hardest part, taking four hours to roll the three barrels to the Pears school and back to create the 'street corner' vibe we wanted for the song. We wanted to seem like broken hearted men meeting on the street to sing away their emotions. However, after the, ahem, interesting judgement, broken hearted men we really were, coming away with some compliments but no trophy. Nevertheless our performance was “Sick” (according to the Judge). Overall I think we did the house proud and showed a strong performance that won’t be forgotten. The house harmony always brings the house together not only in performance but also in support! For anyone that missed it, you can watch it here:

Liam Karai, U6

Rockit

Rock It this year was in my opinion the best yet, with an astonishing £445 raised through an enthusiastic audience of 178 pupils for the Lent charity Midlands Air Ambulance.

Liam on rhythm, Harry on the sticks

A total of 34 musicians played an incredible 32 songs. Immie Hunt (5G), Hannah McClarron (U6G) and Matt Bankhurst (U6N) playing ‘Four-Five Seconds’ which of course the audience sang along with.

One of Banky's many guitar changes

The ‘Flowers of Romance’ then took to the stage (consisting of Tikie Harrison (5F), Harry Blach (U6N), Phoebe Conway (5F), Matt Bankhurst and Liam Karai (U6N)) to perform ‘Seven Nation Army’.

Tight backing from New House men

Blood, Karai, Bankhurst, Davis, Glanville, Willbraham, Twelves & Atkinson performed ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’, ‘Crashed the Wedding’, ‘ Sweet Child O’Mine ‘ and’ Summer of 69’. The audience were heavily involved in the choruses of these classic rock songs, certainly creating a good atmosphere. Georgia Hair (U6G) then sang ‘Crazy’ with Bankhurst, Karai, Blakeman and Glanville.

These guys wail. In a good way.
Comedy, tunes and another Bankhurst guitar

The penultimate act was the Outlaws II consisting of Karai, Bankhurst (N), the Jarvi & Westwood performing ‘Ruby’, ‘My Generation’ and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’. The crowd certainly got involved in this set with crowd members wanting to join the musicians on stage to help with the tambourine.

New House really were all over this gig

The final set was Smoke ‘n’ Pancakes (Howle, Davis, Glanville, Bankhurst (N) and Wilbraham) performing ‘When The Sun Goes Down’, ‘All Star’, ‘She's So Lovely’,’ When You Were Young, ‘Sweet Caroline’ & ‘Naïve’. With a hint of crowd surfing and audience chants, the night certainly ended on a high. Overall, RockIt was a very fun-packed occasion with a great atmosphere and hopefully an unforgettable night of music!

The joy of the tambourine!

Liam Karai, U6 (edited from the full article for the Repton website available below)

House Music

Drumming. Hard not to make it look cool.

The House Music competition this year was once again a success for New House. We had several different students entering, including Matt Bankhurst, Alistair Westwood, Liam Karai, James Donegan, Will Foley, Charlie Wilcock and myself.

Liam had already banked Senior Popular song right at the start of term with an amazing rendition of Old Man River

Matt Bankhurst won the Senior Contemporary having narrowly missed out last year with a superb performance on the drums; although he was the only participant in the final, there's no doubt he would have been victorious whatever the competition. Alistair Westwood was finalist once again in the Junior Strings, though he couldn’t quite retain his trophy from last year. He did better in the Junior Contemporary, however, grabbing a well deserved Highly Commended award!

Liam once again a finalist, in one of the toughest fought categories, the Senior Woodwind.

Liam Karai got through to an astonishing three finals: Senior Woodwind, Senior Classical Song and Senior Popular Song, the latter of which he won in emphatic style. James Donegan entered the Junior Woodwind competition, narrowly missing out on the finals, but getting a Highly Commended for his audition; good job James!

Bill Foley tackles the Senior Brass competition

Bill Foley got through to two finals, Senior Popular Song and Senior Brass, with the singing competition being the first time he has performed solo in public. With two brilliant performances, it’s a shame that he didn’t get rewarded for his efforts! I got through to the Junior Woodwind and Jazz finals, managing to grab the Highly Commended award from 4 outstanding performances by the other competitors, and I was proud to receive an award not usually given in the Jazz, the Adjudicators Award. Finally, Charlie Wilcock was Highly Commended in the Classical Guitar section, which was a fantastic achievement too. All in all then, New House had great success in this year’s House Music, once again showing the breadth of talent we have throughout all our year groups!

Henry Blencowe, A Block

Sport

House Badminton

Some are born great, some achieve greatness in their lifetime and some have greatness thrust upon them. The members of the New House badminton team were very much a case of the latter, and despite a great deal of grunting and sweat, we were unable to overcome our far more experienced, if less talented opposition.

Like the Mona Lisa, it is very hard to read those smiles; I'm guessing 'pleasant surprise that it's gone over the net'...

A team consisting of Bill Foley, Simon Butler, Stewart Kentwell, Thomas Mueller, Alex Ottewell and myself, played 18 games in total. First we faced Cross house, and recorded 8 losses and one exceptional win, from Tom and Alex. The other match ups were close, competitive matches and in some cases we won one, or sometimes even two... points.

Serious concentration from boys more used to holding bigger, heavier rackets

Next to face our wrath were School House, against whom we also played 9 matches, this time failing to get all three points from any game, a 21-1 loss a particular highlight. Despite our bad luck and some dodgy refereeing, causing our less than favourable record, it was a great afternoon out that was enjoyed by everyone involved and was completed in the true spirit of badminton, whatever that may be.

Harry Griffiths, L6

Junior House Hockey

The House Hockey competition was upon us and New House had a very good collective team. We were hoping for a top place spot.

The first game was against the strong opposition of School House. It was a tight but excellent game and although a good finish from Stuart Kentwell and some brave defending from the back three of Will Needham, George Rice and Alex Ottewell, the game unfortunately finished in School House's favour with the result 2-1. The next opposition was Orchard, and the team moved on from the earlier loss against School with some high quality goals and pieces of play produced. Gilbert Filingham and Ren Tabata caused the Orchard defenders some real trouble and the final score was 5-0 to New.

Cross trying seriously hard to catch Kentwell

The third game was against Cross, and the boys carried on the winning form, beating them 3-0 with Captain Tom Hackett and forward James Donegan putting in great stints. The next match against Latham was interesting to say the least, with 11 goals being scored by New House and every player putting in effective performances. The final game against Priory was a far closer game, with Will Tomalin having to make some good saves that made sure we were still in the game. Jacob Truelove-Cooke and Will Balderston were linking up well and created some great opportunities, and the pressure resulted in Stuart kentwell scoring a great goal too. The final result was 2-0.

The strongest second place team I have ever seen (until the Seniors later in the term!)

Although there was great hockey played by New House, the boys had to settle for second as the early loss proved decisive: the very good School House team managed to secure the victory.

Luke Brown, A Block

House Five-A-Side

Junior

It had been a year since the previous 5-a-side football tournament and we were determined to get a result. We received a bye in the first round due to our success the previous year. It wasn’t going to be easy as we were up against the previous winners Cross who had depth throughout their squad.

A hopeful look down the line from Otty...

Our team was captained by William Balderston who did an excellent job in organising the team and using intelligent tactics. We had Stuart Kentwell in goal and he stopped some exceptional shots. Your writer, George Kirtland, was in defence who made some decisive passes and tackles. Our midfielder Tom Hackett was brilliant at receiving the ball and counter attacking. Alex Ottewell was very good at keeping the ball upfront for us to come up and support him.

Trying to create something up front...

It began with a phenomenal team goal by the Cross boys. This did not faze us and so we held our heads high trying to find that decisive moment. A free kick was awarded to us just outside of the eighteen yard box. George Kirtland stepped up to take it as what seemed to be a very difficult shot on goal. He managed to squeeze it through the gap in the wall and hit the top left hand corner of the net. 1-1 and it was game on. Half time blew and we were proud of the outcome of the first half. We stepped out for the second half hoping for a goal or two. Hopes faded when Cross scored twice with the exact same goal, due to poor marking. Our heads fell a bit as we only had five more minutes. Our football began to become poor, lacking in tempo. The final score was 5-1 but we still gave it a good effort, although they were the better side throughout the game. Onto next year’s tournament...

George Kirtland, B Block

Senior

The senior 5 a-side football team was composed of myself , Kevin Hynes, Callum Middleton, Luke Tandy, Kento Hirano and last but not least Matt Proudlove.

Orchard take aim after another restart

We were confident with a team like this that we could go a long way and maybe potentially win the competition. In the first round , we came up against the Orchard. They had a very strong team consisting of 4 first team players outfield compared to our 1. However, the game was much tighter at the start than it had appeared on the team sheet but towards the end of the first half orchard scored 3 quick fire goals for us to go 3-0 down at half time.

HoH leading by example - 100% effort!

At the start of the second half we were very much the stronger team, scoring two goals through Luke and Kevin which raised our confidence and our belief that we could go on and win the game. However towards the end an Orchard goal unfortunately meant that they were out of sight with a 4-2 lead. It was a disappointing competition for the result, but I never faulted the effort each and every New House member put into the game.

Harry Fortey, U6

Steeplechase

With Lent term coming to an end, everybody was looking eagerly ahead to the finish with the Easter holidays. But there stood one last hurdle before the end. Because of the weather causing the tracks to be flooded earlier in the term, the Steeplechase was moved to become that final obstacle before the end of the Lent term.

Your author, and first New House junior home, coming in an admirable third place overall, and first A Blocker (he was too modest to write that in the article! JDW)

For New House it was another hard fought challenge and a great way to earn a rest. There were most notable performances by Alex Ottewell,coming 8th in the Junior race and being the second B-blocker home, and with Matt Proudlove, giving an exceptional performance by being the first New House senior.

Otty holding much promise for future races

In the end, it was very close in the final standings, with us coming a narrow second in the Junior race.

Team New anxiously awaiting results...

With all of the efforts of the houses only 9 points separated the 2nd 3rd and 4th in the Seniors. For New House it did not matter what your time was or where you came because to the very last man everybody was cheered, encouraged and pushed to their maximum effort.

Freddie Holt, A Block

Senior House Hockey

On Wednesday 23rd of March 2016, the New House hockey team took to the pitch to challenge for the prestigious Repton house hockey trophy. The first challenge came in the form of holders, ‘The Priory’. Despite missing key forward player, Harry Bennett, it wasn’t long before New House unexpectedly went into the lead after James Finnigan’s pass was deflected home by Bowen. Not long after, team Captain, Cal Middleton, doubled the advantage showing some excellent individual skill to enter the circle before floating the ball into the top right hand corner of the goal, over the shoulder of the despairing Priory goalkeeper. With a two goal deficit, Priory were incensed and came forward in numbers, being repelled each time by the solid New House defence. Charlie Wilcock started well before being replaced by Kevin Hynes who, much like Ed Salisbury on the right hand side, joined the midfield on the counter attack. Claris played a pivotal role as sweeper, shutting down opposition attacks and throwing aerial balls up to rotating forwards, Kento Hirano, and the Harry's Griffiths and Fortey. Eventually, Priory’s pressure paid off when they managed to slip one in at the back post, just past Proudlove who had been impassable until then. Despite the opposition’s late surge, the team managed to hold on taking an unanticipated victory.

Callum, as usual, a blur

The next game was against ‘The Cross’, arguably the next strongest team in the competition. It was another hard fought match, defending against some of the schools best individuals. However, after another goal from Cal Middleton, New House surpassed expectation winning the match and therefore, the group of death, propelling them to the final against School House.

Claris putting his body on the line, as ever

On paper, we seemed the better team. However, games are not won on paper, and the match proved tough for the New House team. School House worked very well as a team and despite lacking some of New House’s individual talent, were able to penetrate our circle winning a number of penalty corners. Most of these were superbly defended by Proudlove and the backline but the pressure soon told, leading to an extremely dubious goal as a School house attacker hit a high shot from a corner, deflecting down into the goal. Nonetheless, the goal was awarded and the team sought an equaliser, dominating the rest of the game. Some intricate stick work in midfield drew fouls and cards for the opposition making it 7 vs. 9 for the final minutes. New House pushed hard but couldn’t find that elusive goal and ended up runners up in this years competition. It was a great event, well done to School House and many thanks to all the teachers involved as well as all the New House supporters on the day, especially Mr and Mrs Wilton. There’s always next year...

A superb team - could have easily gone their way!

Chris Bowen, L6

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