Cross Country

All three girls' teams brought home silverware from the Dorset County Cross-country Championships at King's Park, Bournemouth in January.

In the first race of the day the Inter Girls pulled off the most pleasing surprise of the day by being crowned county champions.  Lucy Ackerman was first home in an impressive 13^th position with Annie Macdonald 17^th and Sarah Fullegar in 19^th position. With Lucy Haley 24^th and Abby Legg 38^th they beat Bryanston into second place by ten points.

The Year 7 Girls also performed excellently and were just edged out of the title by Leweston.  Lottie Willmore was prominent early on and held third place until the last quarter of the race before finishing 18^th, whilst Honor Slade showed great strength to pull back several places in the closing stages to be first home for the team in 8^th position.  Steph Cole 23^rd, Annie Armstrong 33^rd and Alice Noonan 34^th made up the winning team. 

The Junior Girls who were crowned U13 county champions the week before, were always going to find it hard in a very competitive field which included Leweston who had won the national title at this age in December.  All of the Sir John Colfox team were Year 8 students competing against runners in Year 9 and they did extremely well to finish third, with Talbot Heath springing a surprise to take the title from Leweston.  Three of the team finished in the top twelve with U13 county champion Beth Letherby leading them home in 9^th, followed by Wendy Robertshaw 10^th and Anna Roberts Wray 12^th.  Holly Butt 32^nd and Sophie Hall 36^th completed the team.

Two senior girls competed with Emily Martin finishing 5^th, and Lucy Tweed, running her sixth county championship, just behind her in 6^th place.

The Year 7 Boys finished a very respectable 7^th overall with Rhys Kirkpatrick finishing a superb third to take the bronze medal.

Six students were subsequently selected to represent the County in the South West England Championships at Taunton.  Rhys Kirkpatrick was the highest placed Colfox athlete finishing 9^th in the Minor Boys race.  Lucy Tweed was 32^nd in the Senior Girls race, Beth Letherby was 34^th in the Junior Girls race, Oscar Tweed was 41^st in the Inter Boys race, Honor Slade was 58^th in the Minor Girls race and Lucy Ackerman was 61^st in the Inter Girls.

Beth Letherby has been crowned Wessex league x-country Champion.  Each runner completes five races over the course of the year and their average finishing place is added together after the fifth race to get an overall score.  Beth won overall and was part of the winning team as well.  Matt Fry finished fifth overall.  This is a fantastic achievement for both of them as the races are highly competitive, taking in the best runners across two counties.

Six of our students represented the County at the National x-country Championships in Nottingham.  This is one of the toughest races in the x-country calendar as there are over 300 runners in each race making the start almost impossible and if that was not tough enough the first part of the course is on a hill.  Beth Letherby,  Maddy Gape, Anna Roberts Wray and Wendy Robertshaw made up almost the entire County team.  Matt Fry and Rhys Kirkpatrick represented the County in the junior boys category.  The race is always covered by Sky TV adding to the excitement of the day.

Primary Cross Country

The school hosted a very popular Pyramid Cross Country Championship in January. The event was well supported with 59 runners from ten schools competing in the girl's race, and 67 boys representing ten schools in the boy's race.  Cheered on by enthusiastic teachers and parents, they ignored the freezing weather and heavy ground to produce races of outstanding quality. St Mary's Primary School, Thorncombe won the girls event whilst Marshwood Primary won the boys event.

Netball

The year 8 girls played excellently in the area tournament to finish runners up after losing 1-0 to Beaminster in a close fought final. They were then selected to represent the area in the County tournament in Bournemouth, but were unable to field a team as half the squad were representing the County at the National Schools Cross Country Championship.

Hockey

Jacqueline Gape experienced a hugely successful weekend representing Dorset at the West of England Under 18 Hockey Tournament in Clifton, Bristol. The team played six other counties from the West of England in the round robin tournament and won all of their games. Jackie's outstanding performance was recognised  by West of England selectors who have invited her to trial for the West of England Team at Millfield in April. This is an excellent achievement and the first time anyone from the school has ever been invited for trials.

The County team will now represent the West in the National Finals at Cannock on 18^th and 19^th April.

Under 18 County Hockey Champions

The under 18 girls hockey team played superbly in the Betty Hammond Hockey Tournament to become County Champions after finishing runners up for the last 3 years. The tournament took on a round robin format this year with the overall result depending on the number of games won. Colfox started excellently with a 2-1 win over Parkstone Grammar School. They followed this with 2 consecutive 3-0 victories over Corfe Hills and then Queen Elizabeth School. The scorelines reflected their high level of play as each game was only 16 minutes in total.

This set up a tantalising final game against hosts Gillingham School, who have won the title for the last 7 years. With Gillingham having drawn their first game, Colfox needed to achieve a minimum draw to ensure the title. Colfox started well and had the majority of play before Jackie Gape made the game 1-0 with 4 minutes gone. After continued pressure the ball squirmed free from a Colfox short corner only to reach Gillingham's best player who made a fine solo run to equalize the game before Half Time. This produced an extremely exciting second half, but despite some shaky moments from both teams, the scoreline remained 1-1. At the final whistle the girls celebrated a well deserved victory and subsequently received the trophy from Betty Hammond, a stalwart of County Hockey who has chaired the Dorset Hockey Association for the last 50 years. With many players younger than the 6^th form guideline this squad has a lot of potential to retain the title in coming years.

Team: Rachel Andrews, Daisy Guy, Daisy Crisp, Laura Broad, Toni Aplin, Lucy Timbrell, Megan Tuck, Emily Beaton, Jackie Gape, Felicity Leins, Rachel Trump and Danielle Donovan.

Basketball

Our Year 11 boys were runners up in the Area Tournament held at Budmouth. They beat Thomas Hardyes and All Saints, but lost out to a marginally superior Wey Valley team on the night.

Biathlon

Five students from Colfox travelled to Bath to take part in the British Schools Biathlon Championships.  Laura Bowen-Ashwin, Lauren Podger and Abbie Letherby qualified first from the regional round in the 6^th form age group.  Beth Letherby and Rhys Kirkpatrick qualified as individuals.  The 6^th form girls finished fifth overall in a very competitive group.  This was their sixth consecutive National Final - a tremendous achievement in itself.  Beth finished 23^rd and Rhys 8^th overall capping a great few weeks for these individuals who represented the county in x-country the previous week.

Sports Leaders

A number of our Sports Leaders have been successfully supporting primary sport in the local pyramid. Our BTEC sports leaders have been visiting St Catherine's school every Wednesday to run a range of activity sessions. Our BTEC dance leaders also ran the Primary Dance Festival at Freshwater which was hugely popular and well organised.