Sports Blogs

Lyndhurst House School Cross Country Competition Friday 3rd March 2017

The rain had eased as the coach pulled up at Mill Hill School where the cross-country competition was to take place between our school, Hereward House and Lyndhurst School.

Although we wouldn’t now get soaked as we ran, it still meant the course was extremely muddy and slippery in parts, especially on the hills. Luckily, we’d been advised to wear spikes and thank goodness we did!

The U9s went first at 2.30pm, and put in a strong performance; then it was my turn as I lined up with 61 other U11s, including 6  Norfolk House team-mates, at the starting line.

My stomach fluttered with nerves as the other schools, especially Hereward House, had provided difficult competition last year and I was determined to improve on my position of fifth in 2016.

There was the usual jostling for position while we waited for the steward’s start and then we were off!

The course was marked out over 1.7km of hills and flat fields. For the first 500m I was running comfortably in the front third of the group, aware I would need to pace myself carefully over the fairly tricky ground.  I got a little bunched in a narrow, uphill part of the course where my instinct would have been to run faster. But I couldn’t comfortably get by and the ground was slippery underfoot.

As we reached the top and the course opened up and flattened out into open grassland, I was able to make gains, overtaking a number of competitors. I was mentally listening to music in my head and tried to block out any other distractions.

As I ran on for the next 200m or so, I got it into my head that we were nearing the end of the race and I still had to make up some ground. I started counting the boys in front of me and telling myself to focus, and within minutes, I realised there was only one more boy to beat.  I could do this! I could win it! I dug deep and sprinted down the final hill (thank you spikes!) bending round a corner onto the home straight.  But the front-runner from Hereward found extra reserves too and went flat out for home. I just couldn’t catch him in the end. Still, I beat last year’s time and place, coming in a highly respectable second with a time of 7 minutes and 54 seconds. I was winded but proud of myself and all of my Norfolk House team-mates. We had the smallest team of all the schools but we can hold our heads high following a great all round performance. Thanks to all the sports teachers and Mrs Embleton for encouraging and pushing us, making sure we are mentally and physically ready for the challenge of competing.

Zac 

ISA Netball

On Friday 3rd Norfolk House embarked on a tough netballing day at ISA. We took a line up of all Y6, giving girls yet to attend a match a brilliant opportunity and two talented Y5 girls. One (Georgina Chan), was even singled out as ‘Women of the Tournament’ by Mrs Smith and Mr Holt for her positive attitude and, of course, her brilliant playing as WA and a bit of C. We had a strong line up for the first game although, in my belief it was my amazing attack players (GA-Daisy, WA-Georgina and GS-Ava), who stood up to the game. With a bit of my help those 3 girls led the team to victory with a 7-1 result and this continued throughout the tournament when we won another 2 games as we thrashed the opposition. Not to forget our brilliant defence who, ceaselessly, intercepted the ball and made it really hard for the opposition to score, which could be why we only lost 2 of our 7 games! Last, but certainly not least, I must shout out to our subs who were able to jump into any position really confidently. For me though, I do think that Norfolk House’s very own attack players made it possible for the brilliant scores we had. I’m also glad that 2 of these brilliant players are in Y5 so it is possible our run continues into next year. Well done to everyone, who in the freezing cold wet day of March played, however numb their hands may have been.

I couldn’t have been more pleased with the outcome, receiving 3 wins, 2 tight draws and 2 losses we came 4th in our pool. If we would have won one more game we would have made it through to the finals.

By Jessica Yam

Head of Netball