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QE’s water polo players are celebrating a successful end to a season which saw both the senior team and U15s storm through to their national finals.

The U18s enjoyed convincing wins over Bedford School, Marlborough College and Harrow on their way to the English Schools Swimming Association (ESSA) National Plate Final, with their U15 counterparts following a similar path. Both finals were held at Northampton School for Boys.

Head of Aquatics Richard Scally said: “All the players in these teams should be congratulated on their outstanding performance this season, as should our talented U13s, who show great potential and enjoyed a long unbeaten run.”

ESSA’s schools’ water polo competitions are run for U18, U15 and U13 age groups. After the first phase of mainly regional competitions, the teams are split into three levels, with QE competing in the Plate competition for intermediate schools.

The School’s U18 team qualified for the National Plate Final by recording semi-final victories of 7-4 against Bedford, 7-1 against Marlborough and a 7-0 whitewash against Harrow.

In the finals, they beat St Peter’s 8-3, but lost 5-3 to Dulwich, 5-4 to Birmingham’s Camp Hill and 3-2 to St Paul’s.

“Unfortunately, therefore, the senior side lost a couple of games by a single goal. Although it is a sign of just how close they were to victory, it only added to the disappointment. Nevertheless, the effort shown was very commendable, and, with many of the senior players still around next year, it augurs well for next season.”

In their final, the U15s played The King’s School Grantham (lost 4-5), Brentwood (won 6-2) and St Bede’s from Bradford (lost 3-4). “The under 15s came second in their group and lost – again by a single goal – to the overall winners, King’s” said Mr Scally.

“The competition in all these games was evenly matched and both our sides performed very well.”

Broughton have been crowned this year’s top House at Queen Elizabeth’s School, following intense competition in fields as diverse as architecture and dodgeball.

A strong performance at Sports Day helped Broughton overtake Pearce to claim overall victory as the leader of QE’s six houses – a victory announced to great excitement at the end-of-year House Assembly.

Broughton’s House Captain, Saifullah Shah, and Deputy House Captain, Jamie Watkin-Rees, both of Year 12, were duly presented with the coveted House Cup by Headmaster Neil Enright.

Mr Enright said afterwards: “It has been another year of outstanding endeavour among the Houses, which play such an important role in fostering teamwork and friendship. My sincere congratulations go to all Broughton boys on their hard-won victory.”

During the assembly, Year 12’s Kieran Dhrona and Rishi Shah gave a presentation on the extensive fund-raising that takes place during the year in support of various charities as well as QE’s long-running Sai School Appeal, which aims to help the Sri Sathya Sai English Medium School in Kerala, India.

QE’s overall charity this year was the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, while there were also Christmas collections of food for the Chipping Barnet Foodbank and of clothing for a charity helping some of the 168,000 people homeless people in London.

Among the charity events staged were an inter-House dodgeball tournament run by Broughton and Harrisons’ for Years 7–9, which raised £280. Leicester and Pearce ran an interactive quiz for Years 7–10, raising £168. And Stapylton and Underne organised a guess-the-teacher baby photo competition, raising £87.70.

For the Sai School Appeal, a FIFA Tournament saw staff and pupils battle it out, games controllers in hand, in what was perhaps the most popular charity event of the year. One notable match included that between the Headmaster and the 2019 School Captain, Bhiramah Rammanohar.

The tournament raised £120.60, while a swimathon raised £609.65 and a guess-the-number-of-sweets-in-the-jar challenge at the Founder’s Day Fete brought in £62.

The House competitions reported on during the assembly included the:

• Year 7 House afternoon won by Stapylton
• In the Scoop news contest for Year 8 won by Pearce
• Languages competition, in which boys were challenged to design a poster about an influential linguist or speaker of German. French or Latin
• Architectural Enrichment Competition, won by Harrisons’
• QIQE quiz, won by Broughton in a tough final against Stapylton.

The assembly also reviewed other activities of the year.

For drama, as well as looking back at the performances at the Shakespeare Schools Festival and at the School Play, Lord of the Flies, the presentation revealed the names of boys who have successfully auditioned for roles in next term’s Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.

Hundreds of boys have taken part in musical extra-curricular activities during the year. There are currently more than 20 ensembles, many of them pupil-led, involving 150 singers and nearly 200 instrumentalists. The 35 winners of Music colours from across the year groups were announced.

The assembly celebrated the winners of the separate QE chess championships for Year 7 and for Years 8-11, as well as those who performed strongly in the UK Chess Challenge. Junior, intermediate and senior chess colours were presented.

A report on the Duke of Edinburgh Award revealed that 87 Year 11 boys completed their bronze awards. Twenty-six Year 12s finished their silver awards, while 11 Year 13s completed D of E at gold level.

In sport, the assembly covered the following highlights:

• Cricket: The Year 8 team reached the quarter-finals of the National Cup, where they lost on the last ball
• Rugby: The U16s won the Hertfordshire plate; several boys gained county honours and a successful tour to Holland took place
• Eton fives: Record levels of participation at QE brought encouraging successes at the sport’s national finals
• Athletics: Combined Year 7 & 8 and 9 & 10 teams reached regional finals, and stand-out individual performances were listed
• Water polo: Both the seniors and Year 10 reached their respective national cup plate finals.

‘Teams of the year’, comprising selections from across the year groups, were announced for cricket and rugby.

Sports Day 2019 saw boys competing and having fun together, while producing impressive performances in disciplines ranging from hurdles and javelin to rowing and Eton fives.

More than 730 boys from Years 7–10 took part during the day and, with athletics alone accounting for 53 separate events, some 70 staff were drafted in from all departments to help meet one of the most complex organisational challenges of the School year.

At the conclusion of a day of intense but friendly inter-House competition in good weather, Headmaster Neil Enright presented the much-coveted Sports Day cup to Broughton, narrow winners on 600 points ahead of Underne on 590.

QE’s Head of Rugby James Clarke (OE 1999–2004), who organised the day, said: “It was great to have so many pupils competing and I am grateful to my colleagues for making it all possible. My congratulations go both to Broughton House on their overall victory and to the very many boys from all Houses who performed strongly and, in many cases, achieved personal bests.”

The day’s events began at 10.30am sharp, with: Year 7 & 8 triathlon; Year 7 tug of war; Year 9 table tennis; Year 7 tennis, and with discus, long jump, shot put and high jump for the first three years.

Competitions continued through the morning, with the action varying from the short intensity of 80m hurdles and 100m sprints to the endurance required for the rowing, in which the Houses were allocated two-hour sessions comprising 10-minute stints for each boy.

The afternoon brought the Eton fives and volleyball competitions, as well as the conclusion of the rowing, while the track events continued, culminating in the four 4 x 100m relays for Years 7–10, the all-years 4 x 400m relay and, last of all, the traditional QE Mile.
This event, a 16 x 100m relay pitting boys against staff, was won this year by the staff: “A great win!” added Mr Clarke.

Throughout the day, staff fulfilled roles including timekeeping, race-starting, judging, commentary and photography, as well as general supervision.

The final presentations revealed the six Houses’ overall points tally for the day, as follows:

• Broughton: 600
• Underne: 590
• Harrisons’: 576
• Pearce: 552
• Leicester: 549
• Stapylton: 514.

Year 8’s cricketers topped a highly successful season with a strong run in the Schools’ National Cup – and lost out on a semi-final place by only the narrowest of margins.

Having won the County Cup last year as Year 7s, they qualified to participate in the National Cup this year. Captained by Prayag Gandhi, the team comprehensively beat Bede’s in Sussex, needing only 13 overs to chase down their opponents’ 20-over total of 87. In the next round, having restricted Dartford Grammar School to just 38, the boys, playing at home, scored 42 runs in just 14 overs, securing their place in the quarter-finals.

Their opponents and hosts for that match – which was also the South East regional final – were the Royal Hospital School in Ipswich.

The spectators watching in the East Anglian boarding school’s historic grounds found themselves with a match to savour. The QE U13 team coach, PE and Games teacher Oliver O’Gorman, said: “It was the best and closest game of schoolboy cricket I, and many others who were present, have ever seen.”

“It went down to the last ball, with Royal Hospital needing one run off it. Unfortunately for us, they were successful,” said Mr O’Gorman. “Our boys were understandably gutted about losing in such a fashion, but they should be proud of what they have achieved in reaching the last eight in the country and coming so close to reaching the top four.” The final scores in the 30-over match were: QE 178-6; Royal Hospital 179-6.

Mr O’Gorman said the QE boys had also won praise from their hosts, Royal Hospital’s Director of Sport, Paul Hardman, and Head of Cricket, Paul Cohen: “They were very complimentary of both the standard of our boys’ cricket, but also the way in which they represented the School throughout the day.”

The boys have enjoyed a 100 per cent success rate in their regular, competitive fixture list. They beat:

• Berkhamsted School, by 9 wickets
• St Albans School, by 10 wickets
• The John Lyon School, by 10 wickets
• Watford Grammar School, by 7 wickets
• Highgate School, by 118 runs
• St Benedict’s School, by 129 runs.

They also had a strong run in this year’s County Cup, beating Greenford High School and Mill Hill & Belmont Schools, before losing to Avanti House in the semi-final.

The squad for the South-East Final was:

1. Prayag Gandhi (captain)
2. Ranvir Sinha
3. Bilal Hassan
4. Rishab Banerjee
5. Karan Chauhan (Year 7)
6. Kush Tailor (wicketkeeper)
7. Ugan Pretheshan
8. Krish Agarwal
9. Rohan Belavadi
10. Girish Radhakrishnan (Year 7)
11. Vishnu Anil
12. Aaryan Patel
13. Madhav Menon

Year 9 boys enjoyed a successful trip to Amsterdam for one of Europe’s largest youth rugby tournaments, where they took on club sides from the UK and the Netherlands alike.

The 24-strong QE squad won three of their four matches in the U14 category of the 20th annual Hilversum International Youth Rugby Festival.

QE’s Director of Sport Jonathan Hart said: “It is great to support this ever-growing tournament; the boys played extremely well and should be proud of what they achieved in Amsterdam.”

Some 85 teams, with players aged from 7 to 18, played approximately 175 matches during the festival. Hosted by RC Hilversum, it attracts entries from England, South Africa, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Belgium, as well as the Netherlands. Ten teams competed in the U14 competition in which the QE boys were involved.

The QE contingent’s annual tour began this year with a warm-up game against Amstelveense RC, a club from the town of Amstelveen, near Amsterdam, which they won by one try.

“The squad were feeling extremely positive going into the tournament the next day,” said Mr Hart. They played group matches again RC’t Gooi (a club from the Dutch town of Naarden), Beaconsfield RFC, Basingstoke RFC and RC The Dukes (from the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch).

“On a glorious day with blazing sunshine (a stark contrast to the previous year), the boys played extremely well and worked hard to secure their three wins out of four,” said Mr Hart.

He praised “notable performances” from Danny Adey, Victor Angelov, Muhammad Nayel Huda and Akhil Walia, but added: “The whole squad should be congratulating themselves for the way they conducted themselves on and off the field; it was a pleasure to take them, as they all created a great tour atmosphere.”

QE boys won three Plate competitions at the National Schools’ Eton Fives Championships, as the sport flourishes at Queen Elizabeth’s School.

More than 40 boys have represented QE competitively this year, with 28 pupils travelling to Shrewsbury School for the national finals, where more than 650 players from schools across the country gathered.

Oliver O’Gorman, Master in charge of Eton Fives, said: “We have more boys playing than ever before and this is starting to show when we play fixtures against other schools, with more competition for places driving up standards.”

Organisers from the Eton Fives Association commented that the Plate competitions at the national finals are becoming increasingly competitive.

QE Year 9 pair Abhijay Singh and Jamie Hoang “enjoyed a really good day in the sunshine” at Shrewsbury, winning the Plate B competition for their age group, said Mr O’Gorman.

The senior boys “also had a fantastic day”, with Razvan Rusu and Jay Nafade, both of Year 13, taking Plate A, while Year 12 partners Abilash Sivathasan and Thushan Mohan won Plate B.

“In our regular season we’ve had really competitive fixtures against Aldenham, Mill Hill, St Olave’s and Berkhamsted, which have all benefited our boys greatly,” said Mr O’Gorman.

He added that this year’s introduction of a new coach – Mr Jamie Shamash – had helped raise the QE players’ skill levels.

• Eton Fives is a hand-ball game played in a three-sided court by teams of two. The National Schools’ Eton Fives Championships are held in rotation at Shrewsbury, Highgate School and Eton College, where the game was invented.