www.abingdon.org.uk 17 Abingdon Sport Due to unseasonably heavy rainfall and river flooding, the 1st chance our rowing crews had to be on the water was 21 January when they travelled to the Olympic course at Dorney. With all the age groups in mixed squad boats, and with little rowing under their belts, the emphasis was on rating low and rowing strong (rather than racing flat out) which saw some good early season performances. Later in the term, 7 Crews travelled to West London for the annual Hampton Junior Head. Having just had 2 weeks back on the water, all the crews attacked the racing with full commitment. A particular highlight was a win for the J16 A VIII in a tight race over Eton, King’s London and Hampton; but the 1st and 2nd VIII and the J16B also performed well finishing 2nd in their events. In the final week of term, the Boat Club had a very successful couple of days bringing the winter head racing season to a climax. Not only did 70 students make the trip to London for the Schools’ Head of the River in which they raced well in challenging conditions on the Championship course; but our J14 had a strong showing at The National Sculling head, held at Dorney Lake. All our students can be really proud of the way they raced and have shown exceptional commitment to their training this term. It’s been a fantastic season for Abingdon Rugby. Having won their quarter-final against Brighton College 50-24; and semi-final against Exeter School 25-12, Abingdon’s U15 team played in their 1st final in the National Schools Plate competition. The competition is the largest schools rugby competition in the world with over 450 schools entering from around the UK. The final, held at the Saracens home ground StoneX Stadium took place on 14 March against King’s Worcester - it was a valiant effort by the Abingdon team but in the end, the victory went to their opponents with a final score of 36-12. Our congratulations also to Oscar I’Anson who has been selected for the Lambs Rugby U18 squad, where he will be able to showcase his rugby skills at representative level. Finally, our sports scholars were lucky enough to meet OA Charlie Atkinson on 1 February when he came into school to talk to them about his experiences of moving from school sport at Abingdon to professional sport at Wasps and Leicester Tigers. Rugby Row, Row, Row
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