News
Ashley House triumph in Annual Cross Country event
10th October 2008A total of 150 pupils and several staff contested this annual event in absolutely perfect running conditions. First away was year 7 where a very close race ensued between Ross MacFarlane of Slessor and Ewan Rufus of from Shaftesbury.
Eventually Ross pulled away with only 10 metres to go for an exciting and very close finish; Hugh Scannel was 3rd for Ashley. Sangramithra Saseendran and Lucy Whitfield were 1st and 2nd for Livingstone in the girls' race with Ruth Butcher 3rd from Slessor.
The year 8 race proved just as exciting as the previous one with two boys battling stride for stride for the honours. Luca Lepuri just out sprinted Edward Pratt to the line, so victory for Livingstone with Shaftesbury 2nd and Alex Gurd bringing Slessor home in 3rd place. With the top two year 8 girls' being away from school that race became a very open affair.
Yasmin Andrews-Urvoy picked up first place followed by Laura Coppard both of Ashley and Emily Francis of Slessor having dropped back suffering from a stitch held on for 3rd. No close race in year 9 as Tamsin Eddey of Slessor blasted into the lead from the start; only Ben Cheng of Ashley was able to stay with her. In typical Ben fashion, he made no running at all just sitting behind the hard working Tamsin before producing a sprint finish 50m from the line. Freddie Madgwick and Matthew Hoskin making it a clean sweep for Ashley boys followed Ben home. Tamsin had a really convincing win in the girls race, with Sian Rufus of Shaftesbury 2nd and Alice Gould of Slessor 3rd.
What an exciting affair the year 10 race produced. Paul Lang tried really hard to deny the Gomez twins victory and the lead changed hands several times, eventually Ben Gomez claimed victory from his brother Joe, with Paul 3rd. All three are in Ashley, so another clean sweep. Meanwhile the close race expected in the girls' event just did not happen. Normally in this age group there are five girls' all capable of winning, however, Felicity Squires of Shaftesbury completed dominated; easily running away from the others at the start to make the race her own. Obviously a lot of hard work has gone into her preparations. Alice Barnett of Ashley came 2nd with Freyia Crawford of Shaftesbury 3rd.
Edward Butcher from Slessor in the Year 11 race was clearly a class apart, completing dominating from the start with almost a two minute winning margin. Wilson Liu of Livingstone came 2nd and Jacob Lisle of Shaftesbury 3rd.
The girls' race was a complete contrast with Sophie Fitzsimmons-Denning of Ashley and Emma Gould of Slessor giving a repeat performance of last year and staying locked together throughout the entire race. In the end Emma stepped over the line first to reverse last years' positions; Katie Woodfine of Ashley came 3rd.
The 6th form displayed a fine example of sportsmanship, effort and participation; they really showed the rest of the school how to enjoy themselves. Comfortable victories in both races went to Livingstone. The boys was won by Filip Bakardzhiev, with Harry Inch of Shaftesbury 2nd and Carco Ng of Ashley 3rd. Francesca Baldwin won the girls' race, with Hannah Edwards also of Livingstone 2nd and Jessica Liu of Slessor 3rd.
All runners that completed the race scored points for their Houses; the points were divided by the number of pupils in each House. The final result was:
4th SLESSOR 24.64 average 37 runners
3rd SHAFTESBURY 24.74 average 34 runners
2nd LIVINGSTONE 25.42 average 40 runners
1st ASHLEY 27.43 average 39 runners
Edward Butcher running to victory for Slessor in Year 11
Sam Ashdown (Head Boy) attempts to keep ahead of Mr Pender-Cudlip and Mr Ennals.
