Newsletter - Lent Term - 19.03.18

Cottesmore’s Got Talent, the Carson Cup, netball tournaments and our joyous chapel service for the admission of choristers characterise recent days at Cottesmore: varied, challenging, engaging and thought-provoking.

Now it’s time to pack trunks, tidy up, let off steam with Set Splash in the swimming pool and enjoy a movie night as another full and fruitful term draws to a close. There’s always the fervent hope of Easter treats too — of the chocolate variety, of course!

Sports News

Boys’ Hockey
Colts A v Dorset House: won 2-1; v Brambletye won 6-0
Man of the Match: Maxime

Colts B v Brambletye: won 4-1
Man of the Match: Sam K

Colts C v Brambletye: drew 0-0
Man of the Match: Henry Z

The Colts ended the season on a high with Colts A remaining unbeaten after impressive victories against Dorset House and Brambletye. The Colts B earned their first win away at Brambletye and the Colts C had a creditable home draw. The highlight of the season was playing on Brambletye’s new Astro turf: what an amazing facility!

Girls’ Netball
U11 fun tournament ‘The Pelican Cup’
Despite rain, wind and mist the girls’ spirits remained high throughout, with results as follows: v Ashdown: won 4-1; v Handcross: won 2-1; v Great Walstead: won 4-1; v St Andrews: drew 2-2. St Christopher’s were the eventual Tournament winners.

Two U10 players, Rosie and Layla played in an assured and enthusiastic manner throughout the day, while Heeta put in a fine performance as Goal Shooter. The star player and Girl of the Game must go to Phoebe as an influential and mature Goal Attack. The entire team deserve praise, giving of their best from start to finish. “There is excellent team spirit in this U11 group”, commented Mrs Watkin.

Copthorne U13 Versatility Tournament

A very successful day for our girls, who finished in 3rd place. The sun shone brightly and all girls played to the very best of their ability. With Lilia still injured and Isobel away on her scholarship, Amour and Millie stepped in to very adequately fill the gap.

The Versatility format suits Cottesmore well, as girls are all trained to cope with all positions at senior level and unexpected shooting prowess is witnessed, with Abigail, Ella, and Amour demonstrating this point. Matches were won against Duke of Kent 5-1; Lancing College Prep 4-1; Great Walstead 3-1; and Copthorne 4-1. Girl of the Game was awarded to Abigail, by all opponents.

Brambletye U13 Versatility Tournament
This was played on another beautiful sunny day and to a slightly different format, with positions changing at half time, as opposed to each match. This tests positional adaptability to an even greater extent.

All girls were on good form, with Lilia and Isobel able to play, though Poppy was missing this time. We drew against Cumnor 2-2 in a game where we had possession advantage throughout and won 4-2 v Ardingly. We lost to Ashdown, the eventual Tournament Winners, 2-7.

Our results placed us in the Plate Tournament rounds, where we beat Handcross Park 5-1 in the semi-final, putting us through to the final against Ardingly who we had beaten earlier in the afternoon.

Confidence was high as the match began, but strong winds made shooting a lottery, and despite all the girls’ best efforts, we finished as Plate runners up. All players worked tirelessly on court throughout the afternoon and Mrs Watkin was very proud of their manner of play — and on which they received many compliments from numerous other coaches. Millie stood in for Poppy, demonstrating great all-round talent and strength at this level and for this, Mrs Watkin nominated her overall Girl of the Game.

The Carson Cup

It would be great to report that our runners enjoyed one of the fine Spring days we have enjoyed intermittently recently, but a murky, yet thankfully dry day dawned for the Carson Cup, our cross-country challenge.

In the senior boy’s event, Barney raced home with a time of 3:20, followed by Jaime and Will P. The senior girls’ winner was Clara, with a time of 3:48 and in 14th place overall, followed by Abigail and Gesi.

In the junior event Humphrey was first home with a time of 2:28, followed by Huw and Thomas. First girl home was Biba in overall 7th position, followed by Rosie and Ju.

Music

A reflective, yet joyous service took place in our chapel last night when our new choristers were admitted to the chapel choir. A new anthem “A Gaelic Blessing” by John Rutter was learned and performed as a special blessing for the new choristers: Katherine, Millie, Sam, Clara, Jessamy, Branton and Lucy.

As we welcomed them to the choir, Poppy and Abigail celebrated the success of their first term as Head Choristers. The congregation traditionally sang “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing”, “How Shall I sing that Majesty” and finally “O God Beyond All Praising”. The choir performed their well-known soaring descant.

We were delighted to welcome the Reverend Michael Maine as our preacher for the service. He is a fine musician and always appreciates the level of musicianship of our choristers at Cottesmore. Afterwards there were drinks and canapés in the drawing room to conclude a memorable evening.

Sunday Fundays

Skiing and archery skills were put to the test yesterday for the final outing of the term. As ever, Cottesmorians gave their all and it was unanimously agreed to be superb fun!

Cottesmore’s Got Talent

The end of the Easter term brings the annual jamboree of talent that is the “Cottesmore’s got Talent” show, where the pupils plan, prepare and perform their own show for each other, with guidance but strictly without direction from the adult creative team. The result this year was an outburst of imagination and creativity that thrilled the onlookers and wowed the judges. “Thank you all for making our job this evening so, so difficult” was the comment from Mr Galvin.

To try and describe a show that went from serious musical performances to dance, comedy, magic and rock and roll is too difficult. Suffice it to say that the standard was never less than amazing and the performers shocked each other with their skills.

In a boarding school, learning about the wonderful range of talent that your peers have is both stimulating and awe inspiring. At the end the judges commented on how high the standards were and then rolled out their final decisions. Third place went to Lucy for some wonderful modern classical piano playing, the rapidity of which had the audience holding their collective breath. Second place went to Zachariah who showed not only remarkable ability in his robotic dance routine but also tremendous courage to stand alone on stage as a nine-year-old in front of the entire school community and do his thing!

The hotly contested first prize went to Branton and Bertie for their version of an acoustic Chinese folk ballad, for which, quite obviously Bertie had to learn to sing in Chinese. Also mentioned were the multi-girl dance sequences, Kitty’s wonderful tap a cup and sing routine — using a plastic cup to support an acappella version of an old blues number — and Christopher’s magic tricks.

The rockers in the audience were brought to their feet by “Stripe Soup”, Dimash’s band with their version of a Green Day song and those liking Spanish dancing were smiling and enjoying the Spanish pupils’ performance of the Macarena, with Jaime taking a female role. Mr Kerr ended the evening by thanking all for their participation, preparation and expertise just after Mr Max had made appoint of thanking the teachers who had enabled so many talented children to thrive. Our roving reporter felt that Kitty was robbed, but that’s another story….

Iceland trip

Our intrepid explorers head from one (currently) snowy landscape to the rugged beauty of Iceland after term ends this week. We wish them all a magical trip and look forward to their news next term.

Wherever travels may lead, everyone is wished a Happy Easter and a wonderful break.