Half Term Sports Round-Up

It’s been a positive start to the season for our girls’ hockey teams, although there have also been some poor results. On Wednesday last the senior girls in a dramatic match came back from 1-4 down against Our Lady’s Terenure by scoring 3 goals in 5 minutes to end 4-4. Our squad travels to Glasgow this weekend to compete in a tournament against schools from across the UK and Ireland: you can follow their fortunes on Twitter.

The Senior boys’ hockey team were disappointed with their performance in the All-Ireland qualifiers, hosted in the College earlier this month. They lost to both Newpark and Kilkenny College and failed to advance to the tournament proper. See some photos from those matches here. They have since kicked off their league campaign winning one (against St. Kilian’s), losing one (against Newpark) and drawing against Mount Temple, but still remain in the hunt.

The basketball teams have enjoyed great success over the past month. The senior boys are unbeaten in their league encounters, securing wins over De la Salle, Colaiste Rathlin, Wesley College and Templecarraig. Our senior girls are progressing well in the league and secured a decisive win over Holy Family Rathcoole leaving them 1-2 as we head into the half-term break. The Cadette girls also boast a 3-0 winning streak in the competitive East Region league with wins over Alexandra College, Holy Family Rathcoole and  St. Andrew’s. Ms. Hennessey also led the under-15 East Region Provincial team to success last weekend in the All-Ireland’s, with a 2 point victory over the West Region, the first all-Ireland title in 4 years for the East Region.

The Senior XV have been in excellent form recently and look to be building towards a strong season. With the cup campaign approaching confidence is high after excellent victories over St. Conleth’s, Sandford Park (7’s) and Templeogue.

St. Columba’s ran in six tries against St. Conleth’s on their return to Old Belevedere after their Shield success six months previously. Max Hopkins grabbed a brace while Kosi Anyim, Adam Murphy, Hector Wright and Thady McKeever also dotted down – Thady added two conversions. St. Conleth’s would cross the whitewash just the once and SCC won 34-5 after a commanding performance. They then took on Sandford in a 7’s fixture, fielding two teams and winning both games. The first game was won 19-12, with tries from Max Hopkins (2) and George Guinness. Conversions were added by Alex Russell and Max Hopkins. The second team secured victory by 24-10 with tries from Sean Cooper, Adam Murphy, James Wilkinson and Ivan Moffitt, who also added two conversions. More recently the Senior XV travelled to Templeogue in a league fixture and won impressively. They scored five excellent tries, through Sean Cooper (2), Max Hopkins, George Guinness, Hector Wright, on their way to a 31-7 win. Their cup opponents will be known soon so watch this space.

The Junior XV are going well also but, unlike the seniors, have tasted defeat since exodus. They also took on St. Conleth’s in the league at Old Belevedere at the beginning of October and also recorded an impressive win. Some excellent work by the forwards allowed the backs to shine in open space. Eight tries in total were scored, two from Harry Petch and the elusive Clement Jacquot and one each from powerful No.8 Thomas Somerville, Ollie Townshend, Mikail Sukhachev and substitute Luis Malaga. The J’s trip to Templeogue ended in defeat, sadly, but there is a lot of potential in this group. With a little more focus and intelligence in defence they could have a very successful season and have the potential to cause any team difficulties. They know how to score tries, which is encouraging, but need to prevent their opponents from doing the same. The game ended 28-17 to the hosts with SCC’s scores coming from Ben Sigurvinsson and Matthew Russell (2), who also added one conversion.

The Leps won their first win of the season against Blackrock U14 D’s last week. It was a chance to blood some of the less experienced JCT squad members and these players proved the difference really. Luis Malaga, in his first season of rugby, revealed his potential with four excellent tries (Luis is a powerful and pacy ball carrier and could yet force his way onto the J’s starting 15 ) while Boris Schavlov added another. They won the game 33-22.

The Ducks have been playing a series of 10 a-side fixtures recently, against De la Salle and Newpark. The promising squad were divided in two even teams for the fixtures against rivals Newpark and both teams beat the Blackrock school by 5 tries to 2. Their first 15 a-side game came against Templeogue last Monday (they had to wait was Storm Ophelia caused the original fixture to be postponed) and their winning run has continued. Three excellent tries from Caleb Owen and another (from an interception) from Tom Larke, saw the home team edge the fixture 24-10, after trailing 0-5 at half time.

/by

Sports Round-Up

The first four full weeks of term have zipped by and every member of the school community, teachers and pupils, have been extremely busy, on all matters. On the sports field this has been particularly evident with pupils participating in six days of compulsory sports each week. The College sports programme is second to none, with pupils participating in a wide range of competitive and non-competitive sports. The main College sports for the first two terms are rugby, hockey (boys & girls) and basketball (boys and girls) although pupils are also actively involved in polocrosse, archery, AGC and, more recently, sailing.

Hockey is a very popular sport in the College and we have seen a lot of success, at both Junior and Senior, for the boys’ and girls’ teams. However, the boys Senior XI team have had mixed success this season, with a good win against a Wesley B side (2-0, goals from Marc Philipp Eichhorn and Ivan Moffitt) after a tough loss away to St. Andrew’s A/B side (3-0). However, the most disappointing results so far were on Thursday last, when the boys hosted the All Ireland Qualifiers against Newpark Comprehensive & Kilkenny College. The first game was tight with Newpark winning 1-0, despite a lot of chances from the home side. However, SCC lost their shape in the second game losing to Kilkenny 3-0. Sadly they won’t be travelling to the All Ireland competition this year.

The girls Senior XI have had a solid start to the season, winning one game and losing one game. The win came against Mount Temple, winning on a scoreline of 4-2, with Kitty Morris scoring twice and Abigail O’Brien & Ella Noeldeke adding the others. The loss came against Loreto Bray, on a scoreline of 1-2 (Ella Noeldeke getting the SCC goal). It was a whitewash that day, with the 2nd XI and 3rd XI also losing to Loreto Bray. The girls Junior A side have played two games so far this, winning 2-1 against near neighbours Wesley College (Eile Ni Chianain & Aurora Higgins-Jennings with the goals) but sadly losing 0-5 against Mount Anville.

The rugby season is already in full swing and our teams are showing great promise. The Senior Cup Team (SCT) and Junior Cup Team (JCT) have begun their league campaigns, while the Ducks (1st year boys) have been involved in a round robin tournament with near neighbours De la Salle Churchtown.

The Senior squad got their season off to a promising fashion, although their game against a Wesley Development XV did end in defeat (21-20). Max Hopkins and Hector Wright both scored powerful tries in the first five minutes but both conversions were missed – both relatively straightforward. Their coach, Mr. Mitchell, made a lot of changes to the side, ensuring all members of the squad got a run out. This did mean the team lost a bit of shape and structure and Wesley came back into well. Hector and Max both crossed for late tries but further missed kicks proved the difference. They received a walk-over in their first league fixture, scheduled for last week, but got to stretch their legs in a friendly game against De la Salle Churchtown on Thursday last winning by a scoreline of 26-14, with tries from Max Hopkins, Ferdinand Kuenhe, Tobias Onyeka-Patrick and Hector Wright. Thady McKeever added three conversions. It was a fantastic game, with excellent attacking rugby on show from both teams including a stunning individual try at the death from the De la Salle out-half.

The Junior squad played their first game of the season away to Terenure College, playing their Junior 3 team. It was a comfortable win for the visiting team with six tries in total scored by the Columbans (Scorers: Mikael Sukhachev, Clement Jacquot, Ben Sigurvinsson, Leo Moreau, Harry Petch & Henry Johnson, conversions by Matthew Russell 3 & Ollie Townshend). The game ended 38-0 and it was very encouraging to see the boys keep a clean sheet. Confidence was high heading into their first league fixture, again against near neighbours De la Salle Churchtown. Columba’s started really well and were in full control of the game in the first half. With 20 minutes remaining they led 20-10, after tries from Thomas Somerville and Matthew Russell, both converted by Russell and an additional two penalties (also by Russell). However, the referee handed Columba’s two yellow cards in quick succession, both for high tackles, and the game swung to the visiting side. They scored two tries and won the game 20-27.  A harsh lesson for the boys.

The Ducks also played their first few games of the season, this time away to De la Salle Churchtown.  As there were only 6 training sessions since the start of term, the boys played small sided games on a half pitch as they hadn’t practised the technicalities of rucking and mauling or the set-pieces of scrums and line outs. In the bright warm September sun the boys were divided up into two squads (the Lions and the Barbarians). They both played two matches and won one each. This was a good start to the season with many work-ons noted by the coaches. The Leps will play their first match after exodus – a lot of new pupils skill finding their feet there.

In basketball, it’s been a fairly solid start for our Senior Boys and Cadette girls, with a tight win over Wesley for the boys 49-48 and the girls kicked off their league campaign with a 21-18 win over St. Andrews. As reported last week, the College sailing team did the school proud at the All Ireland Inter-Schools Sailing Event. Click here to find out more.

 

/by
,

St. Columba’s Sailing Team News

Well done to the young sailing crew of Tim Norwood, Denis Cully and Max Goodbody, who took to the water on Sunday for the All Ireland Inter-Schools Sailing Event at Sutton Dinghy Club. This was the first time St. Columba’s had entered a team for the event so there was considerable excitement amongst the crew. Each member of the crew were at the helm of their own sailing dinghy and competing in the mixed fleet event – the main event of the race. The boys did really well – Tim finished second in his class while Max and Denis finished 10th and 11th respectively in theirs. The team scores were an accumulation of their individual place in the event, with the goal of securing as few points as possible, and the boys managed to finish 6th out of 22 teams competing – a great result for such a young team in their first competition for the school and in difficult low-wind conditions.

For more information and a full report from Sutton Dinghy Club, as well as detailed results, click here. See a collection of photos from the event below. Well done again boys.

School Sailing Event 2017
School Sailing Event 2017
12 photos
/by
, , , ,

A Busy Weekend at St. Columba’s

St. Columba’s College, being a seven day boarding school, organises a wide range of Saturday evening and Sunday events for their boarders (and indeed day pupils) and last weekend was no exception. On Saturday the College welcomed Old Columbans who left the College in 1997, for their 20 year reunion. It was great to see so many familiar faces back in the College. On the games field the Senior Boys Development Rugby XV took on Wesley’s equivalent, in their first game of the season. All members of the squad played during the fixture but, alas, the visiting Wesley side took the win 29-20, after two tries apiece from Max Hopkins & Hector Wright. Later that evening classical guitarist Pat Coldrick performed an excellent concert for pupils and staff in the Big School Room (BSR). It was a wonderful event, with the BSR’s excellent acoustics making Pat’s music sound wonderful.

On Sunday morning a small but dedicated group of Transition Year pupils joined Mr. O’Shaughnessy and Mr. Coldrick for an early morning walk to the Hell Fire Club – an infamous ruin at the top of Moutpelier Hill in the Dublin Mountains. Normally walkers are treated to a stunning view of Dublin City but, unfortunately, early morning fog ruined the view but did add to the eery feeling in one of Dublin’s most famous haunted houses. Later that afternoon over twenty Transition Year pupils (pictured above) joined Ms. Hennessy for the annual ‘An Taisce Clean Coasts‘ beach clean, on sunny Seapoint Strand in South Dublin. The pupils picked up and recorded the litter on the beach while enjoying the mid-day sun.

Many thanks to all the pupils and staff who contributed to a great weekend of activities. For some more photographs of the weekend’s activities visit the College’s Facebook page.

/by
,

Sports Dinner and Awards

Due to the pouring rain on Saturday morning and afternoon the sports day was postponed to the following Wednesday. However the Sports Dinner was conducted that evening with Dan van Zyl as the guest of honour. A South-African rugby player and cricketer, he has represented his country at both sports to the highest level. It was very interesting to hear of his sporting career and his inspirational words after he had issued the awards. The following were announced as the captains and secretaries for next season.

Cricket: Captain: Ivan Moffitt Secretary: Thaddy McKeever

Rugby: Captain: Sean Cooper Vice Capt: Joseph Gernon

Secretary: Hector Wright

Girls’ cricket: Captain: Helen Crampton

Boys’ basketball: Captain: Tiernan Mullane Secretary: Franz Truchsess

Girls’ Basketball: Captain: Adaze Mbanefo Secretary:  Helen Crampton

Girl’s Hockey: Captain: Sasha Cole Secretary:  Helen Crampton

Boys’ Hockey: Captain: Marc Philipp Eichhorn   Secretary:  Ivan Moffitt

Tennis: Captain:Tiernan Mullane (boys), Kim Voggel (girls)

Athletics: Captain: Julius Schaefer (boys)

The following were awarded Colours and pictured above with Dan van Zyl.

Rugby: Douglas Boyd Crotty, Freddie Johnson, Michael Kennedy, Igor Petrenko.

Girls’ Basketball: Ciara Murray.

Boys’ Hockey: Eckart Geyer.

 

/by

St. Columba’s Win the Fanagan Cup

Well done to the St. Columba’s College Senior Cricket team who recently won the Fanagan trophy. The trophy is named after and awarded by Mr. John Fanagan (former Head of English at St. Columba’s) to the winner of an annual fixture between SCC and Sandyford Cricket Club. St. Columba’s set a target of 125 runs off their 20 overs (7 wickets taken) – Thomas Meijer with an impressive 63. Sandyford started strongly but some excellent fielding (including an tremendous catch from George Guinness) put pressure on the visitors. In their final over, and with three wickets in hand, Sandyford needed just 5 runs to win but Form III pupil Daniel Swift nervously bowled an excellent final over. He limited the visitors scoring while also claiming one wicket with a great bowl, and seeing Sandyford’s final batsmen being run out going for a second run. The game end with Sandford on 124-9 and St. Columba’s winning with the narrowest of margins.

/by

Polocrosse

 

The SCC polocrosse team scored a fine victory in miserable conditions winning 10:2 against Wesley college. The team comprised: Helena Brauchitsch, Theresa Elverfeldt, Katie Nixon, Ella Noeldeke, Emily Torkington, Ofelia Masango and Lea Horsch.

/by

Senior Rugby XV Win League Final

The Senior Rugby XV won the Leinster League Division 2A final on Wednesday, defeating Tullow Community School 28-10 at Old Belvedere. It was the first rugby trophy won by SCC since 2008. In a pulsating game of rugby, St. Columba’s withstood the early pressure and dominance from Tullow, to kick on in the second half and take the victory.

The opening ten minutes saw Tullow dominate possession and territory. St. Columba’s were defending well but eventually the pressure told and Tullow scored the opening try, which they duly converted  and they lead 0-7. The restarted afforded SCC the chance to take the ball out of their half. A well struck restart was won back by SCC and they started to string some phases together. The pressure led to a series of penalties being awarded to St. Columba’s, with Henry Carroll slotting his second chance to bring the score to 3-7.

Tullow came back at SCC but some great work by the forwards and excellent drift defence meant they couldn’t make any further inroads. St. Columba’s came back though and team captain Douglas Boyd Crotty bamboozled the Tullow defence to race from his own half and touch down for a try. Henry Carroll failed to land the difficult conversion but SCC led 8-7. It soon became 11-7 as Henry slotted over a good penalty after Tullow failed to roll away. However, just before half time, Tullow also scored a penalty after some more good pressure – they were playing really well but the final pass wasn’t clicking for them at times or the scrambling defence of SCC were closing them down. At half time it was on a knife edge at 11-10 – SCC with the slimmest of leads.

img_7502_1490948961.jpg
There was a lot of nervousness amongst the huge Columban support – teachers, pupils, parents and past pupils – with many feeling Tullow had had the better chances and our boys were simply hanging on. But the more confident amongst the crowd expected a thrilling second 35 minutes from St. Columba’s – and so proved the case.

Another excellent (unconverted) individual try from Aifo Ebeleghe – who had a fantastic game overall – pushed St. Columba’s out to 16 – 10. A six point lead makes coaches very nervous – the crowd weren’t too comfortable either. It seemed that St. Columba’s were lucky to be ahead – their line-out was having a bad day and a number of scrums were turned over – but in truth their defence was putting enormous pressure on Tullow and they continued to make mistakes inside the SCC 22. St. Columba’s made no such mistakes when the opportunities presented themselves and when Douglas Boyd Crotty cleaned up some loose ball, offloaded excellently to Ivan Moffitt, they made great progress up the right hand side. Max Hopkins then carried strongly, aided by his team mates behind him, then Seán Cooper fed Hector Wright. He brushed off a few weak tackles and went over for another excellent try – the nervousness fizzled out and was replaced by belief. Another missed conversion left the gap at 11 points but Tullow were a little rattled now and St. Columba’s couldn’t do any wrong. (See Hector’s Try by clicking on the link on the top right)

Tullow were reduced to 14 men after a late hit on Seán Cooper at the ruck and then Douglas Boyd Crotty put the game beyond all doubt with another brilliant individual try. A fantastic step off his left foot created the space in midfield to race over and dot down under the posts. Callum Pery Knox Gore added the easy conversion and now the sizeable Columban support could rest easy – the score 28-10. In the semi final Tullow had to overcome a 17 deficient to reach the final but in this game they were scoreless in the second half – a true testament to the defensive efforts of St. Columba’s.

The final whistle blew and the Old Belevedere pitch was covered in a sea of green and white. Well done to all involved, including the coaching team of Mr. Andrew Mitchel (Head Coach), Mike Elliot Murray, Graham Dean (Strength & Conditioning) and Paul Cron (Head of Rugby).

 

/by

Senior Rugby XV Reach League Final

Congratulations to the Senior First XV who have reached the Leinster League Division 2 Final. They defeated Drogheda Grammar in the semi-final yesterday, in appalling conditions, by a scoreline of 12-3. Early tries from Max Hopkins and Michael Kennedy, with a conversion from Henry Carroll, were enough to secure the final place – which will likely be played next week. Well done also to their Head Coach Mr Mitchel and his team.

Meanwhile, the Leps played a series of friendly games over the past two weeks. First up were near neighbours De la Salle Churchtown, who proved too strong and we lost 12-7 – our try coming from try machine Jose Fominaya and converted by Matthew Russell. They had better luck the following week again a St. Mary’s D side, winning with an impressive scoreline of 45-24.  Tries from Matthew Russell, Ollie Townsend, Thomas Somerville, Harry Petch, Mikhail Sukhachev, Jose Fominaya (yes, him again) and Matthew Keaveney (a try that will love long in the memory of those in attendance) secured a good win. Matthew Russell converted three, Fintan Walsh one and Jose even slotted a kick over (not bad for a hooker).

/by

Rugby Squads Welcome Christmas Break

Since returning from exodus all the College’s rugby teams have been busy. Our Senior 1st XV travelled to Gorey last week to take on Coláiste Bríd Carnew – for the second time in as many weeks. Having beaten SCC recently in the first round of the cup – before being beaten themselves by Tullow the following week – Carnew found themselves drawn against St. Columba’s in the shield competition. Unfortunately, the game was an ill-tempered affair and Carnew proved just too strong for our boys yet again. Disappointingly for St. Columba’s, the game ended 10-0 to the Wicklow school.

Our Senior Development XV (comprising boys from Form IV and V only) were involved in two really competitive games over the past week. On Friday last, on the wonderful 4G pitch in Donnybrook (and under lights), our boys took on club-side Bective Rovers U17’s. It was a great open game of rugby in which Bective eventually left as winners, despite being down by 7 points with a few minutes to go. But two late tries from the home side saw the game swing in what seemed like an instant – it ended 29-22 to Bective. They will need to learn to close out these tight games in the future. Yesterday the Development XV took on a High School Transition Year side. It was a cracking game with a brilliant try from the ever improving Moritz Boyen the highlight. It was to be our only score though and the game ended 10-5 to High School.

Our Junior boys have also played two games since the exodus. First up was a friendly against near neighbours De la Salle Churchtown at home on Kilmashogue Lane. In a scrappy game, Thady McKeever again stood tall as a strong leader nabbing a try himself and converting one from Philip Shekelton. But it was their defence which really stood tall and the game ended in victory for our boys, 12-5 to the home team. Their second game of the week was against Gorey Community School in the Junior Shield match. Ireland’s largest school were simply too strong for them and they ran out comfortable winners 48-12. Again, Thady scored one try and converted another, scored by Julio Perez Cervera. They now look forward to a well earned break and a new league campaign in the new year.

Our youngest boys were also in action. The Leps had it tough against St. Michaels 2nd Year C’s, losing 38-0. The Ducks played in a ’round robin’ series of games against Terenure College and Belvedere College (both their 1st Year C’s). They lost their first game against Terenure by just two points. Tries from Jack Hayes, Marcus O’Connor and Tom Larke (also with one conversion) weren’t enough and they lost 19-17. However, they picked themselves up and defeated the Belvedere side, on a scoreline of 12-5, with Tom Larke again touching down (and converting) and Dennis Cullen getting the winning score.

It’s been a really busy term for our boys. Luckily, despite some of the results, the atmosphere has remained positive and there is a tremendous willingness to learn. Perhaps the relatively mild and dry weather also played a part, as well as trips to the Aviva to see Ireland play Canada, New Zealand and Australia. A huge thank you to all the rugby coaches for their dedication and commitment this term but, in particular, to Head of Rugby (and Boy’s Sport) Paul Cron for the huge amount of (often unseen) work done to ensure all teams train and play regularly in a safe, fun and enriching learning environment.

Merry Christmas!

/by