At the start of the season we had 3 weeks to create some rugby players before our first match against the mighty Millfield!!
The week before we had wittled them down into an "A Team" squad, therefore we had only one training session as a team. As it turned out that was all we needed as we were victorious by 25 points to nil! A great start to the season. All the parents made the trip up to Millfield, they were shocked how well they played as a team so early on in the season (Mr Thompson obviously took all the credit)!
After that great win we had then laid down the gauntlet for the rest of the season. We had a break of about a month aswell as half term before our next match. This turned out to be crucial (and not in our favour).
Our next opponents were Kingswood school from Bath with a great rugby tradition. It was a freezing cold day, Harry Thompson was absent and Tom Scammell had freezing hands the whole way through, not our greatest day. We went down 25 points to five.
Our next test would be crucial, this could change how the rest of the season would pan out. We faced K.E.S school Bath who were another big rugby school.
With Harry Thompson back in the side and Tom Scammell had feeling in his hands again we a dangerous outfit all over again. There were some great individual performances from Edward Metherall (captain), Morgan Churchley, Harry Thompson and Hitin Patel. All in all it was agood team performance. We were back to winning ways with a thumping 55-10 victory. The team moral was looking good again.
Our last match of the this season was against Kings Hawford in Worcester.
Other year groups from the same school have reached the national finals on several occasions so this would be a humdinger to end the season on, and we were not to be disappointed.
We took a blow before the match with skipper Edward Metherall out with an illness, so Will Comley came in at the last moment to step up.
It was a ferocious match fro the start, we held the ball up on our own line three times in the first five minutes. We were camped on our own try line we won the ball from the scrum and passed it all the way along the line still on our own try line for Tom Scammell to run the length of the pitch and score the opening try of the match!
Nick Batchelor stood in as skipper and did a grat job firing up the troops and leading by example. Fly half Cameron Scott controlled the back line well with Hitin Patel soring himself and setting up Harry Thompson for the first of his two tries. Morgan Churchley also got on the score sheet making some great runs in attack, Hamish Potokar and Will Darby were the real heroes both making try saving tackles as well as Harry Ellingworth ripping the ball off the opposition in the dying seconds. We narrowly escaped with a 25-20 win.
However this was not the end of the rugby season for Bristol Grammar. Early on in January we took part in the Colston's festival. We played four teams, three of them were English and the other was welsh. Unfortunately we lost to the welsh team however we won all our other matches including some revenge against Kingswood school. Anglo Champions!!!
The last throw of the dice was at Bryanston school for a regional tournament with qualifications for the national finals at Epsom on offer. The timing could not of been worse. The whole team had been in bed all week with the worst case of flu I had ever seen. We turned up with three players missing and the rest of the squad had pulled themselves out of bed just to play in the tournament.
Our first match was against Plymouth College, it was very tight and it finished 0-0.
Without a break we were straight on again against Farley, the illness ws starting to show and we went down 10-0.
However we could still go through to the semi-final if he result went our way, unfortunately it didn't.
We had to settle for a place in the final of the plate against our old adversaries Colston's Collegiate who had twice cancelled fixtures against us this year(we know why)!
Another great team performance With Ed Baker looking dangerous in the loose and Will Archer with a man of the match performance! He scored two tries and a try saving tackle on a very large boy unfortunately when he tackled him he landed on top of Will!!!
We ended up with an emphatic 25-0 win a great way to finish the season. Next Year we will make sure that we get to Epsom!!!
Due to a few fixtures being cancelled the U9B's only played two matches this year.
The first was against K.E.S Bath.The side was led by Ed Baker with Oscar Gray and Callum Whitely making up a fearsome front row.
In the backs were Moses Din who has improved as the season has gone on with Theo Hill making up the half back combination. The rest of the team was made up of sheer pace. Harry Ellingworth, Sam Bayliss, Ben Gordon, and Hugo Cantrell.
There first match was an impressive start with a great team performance overcoming the almighty K.E.S 44-22 with four tries and man of the match going to Harry Ellingworth.
In there second match against Kings Hawford it was not as convincing however the forwards played hard and well, letting the backs finish it off with two tries from Sam Bayliss, one from Harry Ellingworth and the match winning try from Hugo Cantrell!
We had a bad start to the festival before we had walked on the pitch with skipper Edward Metherall and stand in scrum half Will Comley too ill to travel with the flu and chicken pox!! I hope both of you are making a speedy recovery.
In our pool we had 2 teams to play who were both formidable opponents. Our first match was against Plymouth College. It was a hard fought game and with neither team budging - a great defensive performance by all the team. The match finished 0-0.
We were straight on against Farleigh School: This was a lot tougher. This was Farleigh's first game and we had not had a break from a very draining first match. We showed some good early signs with a chance of a break away try. Eventually they forced their way over the line to score their first try.
We came back straight away and came very close to scoring just before half time. Farleigh scored once more to edge to a 10-0 victory.
We still had a chance of going through to the semi-finals if Farleigh were to beat Plymouth by 2 tries or more. On the results we thought we had a fairly good chance. But Plymouth played well and held them to a 0-0 draw.
That left us in the final of the plate to play our old adversaries, Colstons!!!! Twice Colston's had shied off playing us this year.........with good reason!
The first 5 minutes were neck and neck until Will Archer decided he had had enough of standing on the wing. Some quick thinking by stand in scrum half Hamish Potokar, Will ran across the width of the field and the length of the pitch, out-pacing the entire Colston's team!!! Where have you been all season Will??
We took a 5-0 lead into half time, a few stern words from Mr Thompson (radio celeb) at half time prompted them into action. From the start Harry Thompson got his hands on the ball and dissected the whole team to score our second.
From then on the flood gates opened - Will Archer wasn't finished as he got his second, Hitin Patel and Morgan Churchley all got on the score sheet to round off a fantastic team performance in the battle of the Bristol Schools!
Well done boys - what a great send off to the end of the Season.
Mr Thompson had a big smile on his face all the way back to Bristol!
P.S. Congratulations to the u11's who managed to qualify for the National Finals to Epsom for the second year running.
This was the last match of the season and potentially a very tough match, we weren't dissappointed!
We took a blow before we walked on the pitch, because captain Edward Metherall pulled out at the last moment. So Nick Batchelor had the privilege of stepping up and skippering the side for the day.
Kings Hawford were out of the starting blocks first charging through our defence and we held them up on our own try line three times in the first five minutes. We were awarded a scrum on our own try line. Stand in scrum half Will Comley fired a quick ball out and the backs flew the ball along the line to our flying winger Tom Scammell who ran the length of the pitch from behind our own try line to open the scoring!
It wasn't long before we capitalised on our lead with some excellent work by the forwards. Will Darby was our human battering ram knocking there players flying! Morgan Churchley showed some quick thinking by stealing the ball and raced towards the line to extend the lead to 10-0.Hamish Potokar didn't see much of the ball but tackled like his life depended on it!
Kings Hawford weren't going to give up easily and came straight back with a try just before half time.
This match wasn't finished by a long shot with the second half twice as explosive as the first half.
Early in the second half B.G.S worked a well rehearsed penalty move with Harry Thompson taking the ball at pace and sliced the Kings defence in half to open the pathway for Hitin Patel to dart his way through four defenders to open his account for the day!
Kings came back again with some dazzling footwork combined with power from the forwards to cross the line once again. The score was now getting closer at 20-15
B.G.S were still not finished, Harry Thompson took the ball at pace again from another well worked set move to run through the whole team single handidly to score his second try.
The match was nicely poised at 25-15 with no more than five minutes to go. Kings came straight back, however some great defensive work from Cameron Scott and Harry Ellingworth thwarted them momentarily, but eventually they made there way over the line with a good team effort.
25-20 with no more than two minutes to go the nerves were being felt by the spectators, and Kings were almost sure to score in the dying seconds until they came across Will Darby!!!
A try saving tackle which made the crowd whince and he took a knock for his troubles. Will was in a great deal of pain but like all true heroes wouldn't let his team down. Seconds later the final whistle was blown!!!
