As another week of Tiffin Sport flies by, we have some more excitingly high scoring affairs within our Rugby Sevens and Football programmes to report on, as well as a couple of basketball matches for our more senior students at the school.
The 1st VII Sevens team, after their chance to take learnings from their outing last week at the Middlesex 7s, had another tough draw in the highly competitive Surrey 7s tournament. In the pool games, the boys played extremely well and were unfortunate to come out the wrong side of the result against Coleg Sir Gar (21-33) and RGS Guildford (22-33). They then bounced back against City of Oxford College to win 21-14, booking themselves a place in the plate competition where they were drawn against local rivals St. George’s Weybridge. An enthralling match ensued, with Tiffin taking a slender lead of 12-5 just after half-time after a brilliant try from Chibuikem, who’d been a star on the day. With the match on a knife edge, St. George’s scored two tries to break Tiffin hearts in the quarter-final to win 17-12. Sevens matches are very close and can go either way, but Mr. Blackburn was extremely positive about their performance – further good preparation for the national Rosslyn Park tournament coming soon.
While the 12s, 14s and 16s Sevens tournaments have unfortunately been cancelled, the 13s and 15s both had hugely successful days at their Surrey 7s tournaments. The U13s travelled to Trinity in Croydon, where they won all of their matches, scoring 23 tries and only conceding 3 in the process. This is a year group with lots of potential in the future and we’re sure that we can unlock it here at Tiffin Sport and we’re very excited to do so! The U15s travelled to Caterham School for their sevens tournament, and had a largely successful campaign, beating Glyn and St. James’ Seniors but falling to strong sides Dunottar, Trinity and St. John’s Leatherhead in their pool games. Their two victories were enough to qualify for the Bowl knockout rounds, and were drawn against Riddlesdown Collegiate. Tiffin dominated in the quarter-final, running out 29-0 winners in their best performance of the day. The semi-final of the Bowl loomed and Tiffin were given a difficult draw against St. Paul’s. It was a cagey encounter but after a long day, fatigue set in for the Tiffinians and fell 14-0 just before the final – it was a massively encouraging day though and reaching the semi-final is a huge achievement, well done!
With the football season now in full flow, the seniors have had some encouraging results in the last couple of matches. The 1st XI took on ACS Cobham on their fancy artificial pitch at the weekend and it was a close back and forward first half, with the score at 1-1 at half-time. ACS came out in the second half and unfortunately controlled the match with sustained pressure in the final third, the final score 4-2 to ACS. The 2nd XI also played in a largely competitive match against ACS U18B’s, eventually falling 5-2 – well done to the Year 11’s who played up for senior football!
1st XI playing against ACS Cobham.
2nd XI after their match against ACS Cobham.
“The first game of the season for the seconds team was one of which in cold and rainy weather. With some of the U16’s stepping up for the seconds, Mr Scott believed we had an even better team than usual. The team started off a bit shaky with three goals behind but with Chadi’s early substitution on and screamer of a goal, Tiffin regained ground. With some strong play in the midfield from Oscar, Noah and Chadi, Tiffin managed to win a corner in which Olly placed a bullet header in the back of the net. The first half ended 4-2 and with half of the team suffering from pneumonia, there was a lot more play to be done. The second half commenced and Jasper’s rugby days weren’t over as he tried to tackle one of their players (he missed). Besides from this moment, Seyon continued to manipulate the midfield and balls were being played to Olly and his continuation of bullying their centre backs was much appreciated. Noah went on a solo run with amazing dribbling and commanding skills however unable to execute a shot. For 15 minutes or so it seemed as if we were going to make a comeback, however soon the team clearly became tired and proceeding one funny moment came another as our goalkeeper Saketh two footed them and almost took one of their players out. Overall it was a good performance as the team was able to find some chemistry together, however unable to take the win. The match ended off 5 2 to the opposition and man of the match goes to Chadi with honourable mentions to Oscar, Noah and Gabriel for amazing performances.”
However, after the weekend, the 1st XI looked to bounce back in midweek after making the journey to Trinity School in Croydon. What ensued was goals galore for Tiffin, really making our mark with an emphatic 8-0 victory – really well done to all involved as that should instil a lot of confidence in that group!
“The match started with a game of rock, paper, scissors for kickoff, where the opposition Captain claimed to already be in our heads. They had a couple attempts at offence in the beginning of the game, but they were quickly snuffed out by our midfielders. After a short period, a cleared ball from Tiffin looped over their defence, where Teoman elegantly chipped the keeper. After that, the opposition crumbled, leading to more and more goals. Tiffin played with excellent individual skill and teamwork, moving the ball seamlessly and finishing clinically. By half-time, the score was 6-0, our defence remained untested, and except one brilliant reaction save from our keeper, there hadn’t been a shot on target. In the second half the opposition upped their style of play, controlling the ball for long periods of time and creating chances that should’ve been scored. But some steadfast defending, a couple of brilliant saves, and a goal line clearance kept the clean sheet. The game ended shortly after Tom, Teoman and Alex played some beautiful tiki-taka football to score our 8th and final goal.” – Jack Spicer, Man of the Match
It was really raining goals in both senior football fixtures against Trinity as the 2nd XI also ran out 8-0 winners, probably making this the most prolific Tiffin have ever been in a week of fixtures! Our U15s also headed to Hampton School in midweek with three Tiffin teams, a brilliant showing of participation for the school to get three sides out, and travelled to ACS Cobham at the weekend. The As came up against a couple of very strong Hampton and ACS sides, falling 5-0 and 5-1 respectively, but the boys definitely took some positives from both matches, where time on the pitch is crucial for their progression. The Bs were involved in a much tighter affair against Hampton, unfortunately on the losing side of a 2-1 result – but the mighty Cs were the stars of Year 10 in midweek lifting Tiffin to a brilliant 3-1 victory!
Tiffin basketball has also shown no signs of slowing down, with two fixtures late last week for our senior team and the U16s. The U16s put in a brilliant performance last Thursday against Hollyfield, deservedly winning by a large margin characterised by good ball movement and stout defense, as well as giving some boys more playing time after our competitive season is over. The seniors played against a very strong travelling TASIS side on Friday night. After a relatively competitive first half, TASIS’s pressure on defense was too much for Tiffin resulting in a defeat, but the boys enjoyed the experience of playing against a top side and learnings will be taken into the (hopeful) rematch against Hollyfield soon. A special mention to Alex in Year 10 who led the team in scoring and looking extremely comfortable playing against players three years older than him!
U16’s Basketball listening intently to Coach Gunner during a time out!
That wraps up our roundup for this week – next week we will report on ever more sevens fixtures as we build towards Rosslyn Park, football fixtures against Emmanuel, Hampton, Box Hill and Ewell Castle, as well as the first round of the Tennis National Cup!