Years 1 & 2 certainly showed a sense of responsibility on their outing this week to The Story Museum. They had a super time and I understand their creativity and imagination were widely admired. Well done to them!

Well done, too, to all those Year 7 boys who sat the Abingdon School pre-test before half-term, all of whom obtained interviews, for which we wish them good luck over the coming week.

Sport. Just before half term, all the NCS rugby teams were in action against a variety of local schools and, after a week or so of rather intensive training, the boys were really excited for their first matches. First it was the turn of the U11 boys playing in a fixture vs Cokethorpe School and, despite some good work on the training pitches, the boys were a little nervous as this has always been a tough encounter in the past. In the ‘B’ team game, things were very close in the first half with both teams scoring, but NCS just had the edge at 2-1 at half-time thanks to the determined runs and brilliant scores of Reuben McLusky and Nathan Sparks. In the second half, some good team work and the boys passing the ball well opened up the Cokethorpe defence and thus gained us a 5-2 victory.In the ‘A’ team game, we quickly established ourselves as the dominant team and scored two very quick tries to take an early lead. In the second half, Cokethorpe came out very strongly and scored two tries themselves to take the score to 4-2 in our favour. Fraser Mackenzie and Raoul Patel proved very difficult to tackle with their dynamic running and very incisive passing: brilliant work! A special mention must also go to Joseph Conway, the captain, who constantly talked to his team and guided them to steady the ship and then launch wave after wave of ruthless attacks to make sure the game was safe, showing a real understanding of tactics. A final score of 7-3 was a good reflection of how far this NCS team has come!

After such highs, there are I’m afraid some lows and this time unfortunately the U13 ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams had a rather hard time when we visited our local rivals Christ Church. On paper the two teams were evenly matched, but on the day we simply did not execute the basics well enough to stay in the game. With the ball in hand we looked dangerous but too many lost balls and forward passes meant we turned over possession to often and this handed the advantage to our hosts. In defence, we tackled hard but poor technique meant they escaped our clutches and scored freely to take both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ team games by 40-0 and 35-0 respectively. A lesson here about getting the basic skills right has to be learnt, but I’m sure the boys can rise to the challenge next time out.

The final set of matches were the U9 ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams playing Windmill Primary just before half term and this was a very fine afternoon of rugby. The ‘B’ team were playing a game of TAG rugby and they entertained the crowd with some thrilling running rugby and some super try scoring. The final score was 11-10 to Windmill but even more important were the chocolate cakes after the match! On the ‘A’ team pitch the NCS boys had an excellent afternoon with Jack Rothery once again in sparkling form scoring yet another brace of tries. Ethan McMillan scored his third hat trick of the season. With a final score of 8-3, the team certainly showed determination and great skill to secure this creditable result. Our man of the match on this occasion though has to be William Kelsey as his tackling is simply breathtaking to watch: he will never allow an opponent to pass unscathed if he can help it!

Finally I should mention the U9 and U11 cross country teams who competed so successfully in the Oxford City Games cross country event. There were 14 schools in attendance: with over 70 athletes in each race we knew the competition would be stiff this year. In the U9 race, we only had five athletes competing thanks to illness and other factors so each of the boys had to perform! We were not disappointed and need not to have worried: all five of the NCS boys were inside the top 18 places with 3rd and 4th going to Ethan McMillan and Ben Harkness who both ran brilliant races. With such good finishes from all the boys it meant NCS took the overall win and qualified for the Oxfordshire County Race at the end of March. In the U11 race there were even more boys lined up on the start and this time some very competitive athletes were recognised from the club scene! Freddie Jones ran an impeccable race to finish 2nd, only half a metre behind the winner; and during the 200 metre finish straight, the lead changed hands twice between Freddie and his rival. A hard race and a hand shake at the end was great to see. The other NCS athletes all did a brilliant job and pushed themselves extremely hard to secure 2nd place overall and also a place in the County Finals. A huge well done to all 13 boys who ran: we greatly look forward to the next race.