Inter-House Cross-Country Competition

Date: Tuesday 24 March 2009

All Form 7 and 8 pupils competed in the annual Inter-House Cross Country Competition. The course is a picturesque 2.5 mile run along the Crab and Winkle route to Blean Church and then looping back through the University fields. For once the weather was kind to us and the runners shed their warm layers as they ran in bright sunshine.

Almost every pupil tried their hardest with only a couple of ‘walkers’. The competition for the first 3 places was fierce and the sprint finishes were commendable and exciting. In the Form 8 Boys’ competition Theron Tickridge (Beckett) sprinted home first, closely followed by Christopher Neighbour (Chaucer), Robin Randall (Beckett) and Eric Yung (Roper). The girls, who ran at the same time as the boys, also saw a really close finish with Beth Symons’ (Beckett) final sprint seeing her safely over the line ahead of Stephanie Wethered (Roper) and Alice Kirkness (Marlowe).

The Form 7 competition was just as fierce as the Form 8 run, and all the children competed admirably. The first boy home was Ed Lawlor (Roper), followed by Benedict Walsh (Chaucer). Sam Mousley (Marlowe) and Thomas Phillis (Roper) competed fiercely neck-and-neck right to the finishing line with Sam edging ahead right on the line. The girls also tried really hard but Katherine Stacey (Roper) held her early lead right through to the end. The other places were taken by Poppy Arvidsson (Chaucer), Harriet Pittard (Chaucer) and Jessica Buck (Roper).

This year the Inter-House Cross Country was gratifyingly successful, and there was real improvement evident in all the children. Much of this we put down to the routine of fitness testing for all pupils at the beginning of each term.

The final House positions for the Inter-House Cross Country were:

1^st Becket

2^nd Chaucer

3^rd Roper

4^th Marlowe

Well done all and many thanks to the PE and Games Department for organising another splendid competition for so many children.