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It’s been a great summer of sport with the Lionesses, the British Lions and the England’s Men’s Cricket team all providing some inspirational moments.
It has also been a summer where Canford pupils have continued to explore their potential and excel across a number of sports. Below outlines just some of those achievements by our pupils both individually and as teams:
Rowing
Freya C was selected for the Great Britain Girls' VIII to take part in the Junior World Championships which took place in Lithuania in early August. After qualifying as the fastest crew, the girls and Freya held off the efforts of the rest of the world’s best to take home gold medals. An amazing achievement and all at Canford were very proud to see Freya wearing the GB vest.
Congratulations also to Archie J rowed for Wales for the 2nd year running in the recent Home International Regatta.
Archie was also part of our Boys VIII who excelled at the Henley Royal Regatta this year. An outstanding race against Boulogne (France) on the Tuesday was one of the best races of the regatta with the boys coming home with a late surge. We missed out on the last 16 to Eton College but the boys should be very proud of their efforts this year.
Athletics
Harry R represented the school and Dorset at the National Schools Athletics Championships in July at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium. An outstanding performance and PB in the Inter Boys 400m Hurdles saw Harry take the Silver Medal. From this Harry was then selected to represent England in the Home Nations event and also followed up with a Bronze Medal in the England Athletics Age Group Championships. An amazing summer for Harry and we look forward to seeing his continued progress as he enters the 5th form.
Cricket
This summer has seen Eddie Jack (now an OC) continue to develop, making his County Championship debut for Hampshire. He also represented the England Lions in matches against the touring Indian squad making a big impression by taking the wickets of batsman who went on to make a big impact in the summer test series. It has also been amazing to see him playing regularly alongside fellow OCs Tom Prest and Felix Organ in Hampshire XI’s in all formats of the game with incredibly almost a third of the Hampshire team being OC’s.
A large number of our current male and female cricketers have also been excelling in representative (Hampshire and Dorset) and club cricket over the summer looking to follow in Felix, Tom and Eddie’s footsteps.
Rugby
The end of the summer months saw 5th former Ivo R and L6 Lex V representing Bath Academy U17s at the Malvern Festival. It was a successful week and also saw Lex added to the U18 squad for the forthcoming NextGen Prem Academy League fixtures.
August also saw the Rugby Club have an excellent pre-season training camp at Canford. Relationships were enhanced and some quality time was utilised in improving the groups both tactically and technically. The senior group also got some much-needed practice at the Churcher’s Preseason Festival where all performed well heading into the year ahead.
Hockey
A group of approximately 30 girls spent a couple of days at Canford for pre-season training which included practice matches against Bryanston in preparation for the season ahead. Our U15s and Seniors will continue their start to the season with a number of fixtures at the Sherborne Invitational Tournament.
Coaching Staff Update
The summer period as always has seen some change with our staffing and we wish all who have departed Canford the best in their next destinations. Particular thanks goes to two of those leavers who have contributed hugely to our sporting successes over a number of years.
Ian Dryden, our long-serving Director of Rowing, left at the end of the year, having overseen some of the schools most successful rowing moments, including our recent Boys’ VIII’s strong performance at Henley and Freya’s GB selection. Ian's passion for both high standards and introducing the sport to newcomers will be greatly missed and recruitment to fill his role is underway currently. Assistant Head of Rowing Lottie Toogood will assume a role as interim Head of Rowing while that process is finalised.
Emma Bennett, our Head of Tennis, also leaves on a high note following the national success of our junior girls' team this summer and her 11 years of inspiring tennis players. She has also made a big impression on our pupils across both Hockey and Netball. At a time when participation in tennis has never been higher, she hands over to Brett Townsend, the current Dorset Tennis Coach of the Year and Royal Navy Head Coach, who will continue her excellent work.
There is also a change in our Real Tennis department where Nat Cherry departs to take an opportunity in Australia and will be replaced by Seb Sawrey-Cookson as assistant to James Ryan.
Our coaching support will also grow in two of our focus sports in the new term with Adam Tapper and Richard Miller adding great experience and expertise to our Hockey and Rugby programmes respectively. Adam comes across from Clayesmore where he has had a huge influence on their Hockey programme over the last few years alongside his work as Head of Coaching and performance at Bournemouth HC. Having Adam on board at Canford will further solidify the links between the club and Canford. Richard joins from Monkton where he was Director of Sport having previously held a similar position alongside the Head of Rugby role at Collegiate School in Bristol. We also welcome a new group of well qualified sporting Graduate Assistants in September including a couple of OCs back to help drive the standards of the current pupils.
Facilities Update
Sports facilities continue to be upgraded and this has seen a large amount of drainage work done on the Middle Tadmores pitches to help them be in the best condition possible when the worst of the winter weather arrives.
We all look forward to a year of sport that will enable all pupils to explore, express themselves and excel in whatever their sporting activity and whatever the level.
Find out more
- Canford offers Sport scholarships at both Year 9 and Sixth Form entry. Find out more here
- Find out more about Canford Sport