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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.

Medal-winning Paralaympian Amy Marren inspired Year 7 boys when she visited to give a guest assembly – but also stressed the hard work, planning and discipline needed to combine her swimming with a legal career.

Amy, who is 20, was invited to the School because she is close friends with QE Technology Assistant Stephanie Tomlinson.

At London 2012 she made her Paralympics debut as one of the youngest GB athletes. The following year she won four titles at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal, as well as four gold and two silver medals. She won bronze in the Individual Medley at Rio in 2016.

Alongside her swimming training, Amy is a paralegal apprentice. Combining the two activities requires a 5.30am start five days a week in order to squeeze in 24 hours a week in the pool and gym and 40 hours of work and studying.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This was a very positive and inspiring assembly, promoting pride in difference and emphasising what can be achieved with character, dedication and ambition.”

Amy, who was born with disability (a missing hand), not only competed at Rio but has won a World Championships and met the Queen. She feels “lucky and privileged to compete” and undertakes work to support others, such as being patron of a charity that teaches disabled children to swim.

Speaking about the challenges of coping and adapting with one hand, she said: “I used to be shy, but am proud of who I am… You should always be you, that’s very important.

“People do treat you a bit differently, and in some ways you are different – I was 13 before I could tie my own shoe laces – but I am proud to be different now. There are no limits to what you can achieve.”

In the past, she used to “hide” her arm within a prosthetic limb to look “normal”.

Amy stressed the value of turning to family and friends to help – “you are not alone” – and she urged the boys to be kind to one another, treating those who are different in some way just the same as anybody else.

In a question-and-answer session, she spoke further about her sporting and personal achievements, her experience of disability and of any discrimination she had encountered.

Sixty teams from leading schools across the country journeyed to Barnet for the 43rd annual Queen Elizabeth’s School Rugby Sevens Tournament.

Wimbledon College took the U16 Cup and Whitgift School won the U14 Cup, while Eton College achieved a tournament first, winning the Plate at both U14 and U16 level, after seeing off the challenge of Warwick School in both Plate finals.

Players had to contend with a full range of weather conditions, including blustery, gale-force winds, heavy rain, a little sunshine and even some sleet or snow towards the end of the day.

QE’s Head of Rugby, James Clarke, who was the main organiser, thanked all the visitors for a good day’s rugby, adding: “It is a real QE community day, with staff, student helpers from Years 12 and Year 7, Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s and former staff all out in force to ensure that it runs smoothly.

“So far as QE’s players are concerned, we had a tough draw. Our U16A team found themselves in what could in retrospect be considered the ‘group of death’, pitted against both the eventual Cup winners, Wimbledon, and the Plate winners, Eton. They nevertheless managed a 12-5 victory against the other member of the group, Woodbridge School, in their opening game. The U14s also had a tough day, but battled well throughout,” Mr Clarke (OE 1999–2004) said.

The tournament was established in 1976 by Dave Maughan, who was QE’s Head of PE/Games from 1974–2003. He returned to the School once again this year to support the running of competition.

The first tournaments, from 1977–1981, were played at the Old Elizabethans RFC at Gypsy Corner and were mainly for schools from Hertfordshire, featuring A & B teams from both age groups. In 1982, the tournament relocated to the School pitches, and the Byng Road pitches of Barnet RFC (now the Barnet Elizabethans RFC, following a merger between the two clubs in 1997). By then, the event was becoming popular with schools across a wider area. 1983 saw it reach its present size of 32 teams in each age group, with participants from across England and Wales, including QE’s A & B sides at U14 and U16 level.

Eight of the nine pitches used are on clay soils, so conditions can frequently get muddy. The finals are played on pitches 1 and 2 at the front of the School.

In the tournament’s history, notable achievements have included:

• Two occasions on which schools ‘did the double’, winning both the U14 and U16 events – Eltham College in 1986 and Wellington College in 2017
• Consecutive wins – a feat achieved only once, when St Paul’s School took the U14 trophy in both 2003 and 2004
• Victories by schools to take the U14 title and then later the U16 Cup. QE achieved this in 1977 and 1979. Others who have followed suit include Wellington College, who did in twice (2000 & 2002; 2015 & 2017); London Oratory School (1998 & 2000); Wimbledon College (2005 & 2007), and Gowerton School, Wales (2012 & 2014).

Many of QE’s senior players visited Canada on the School’s first-ever rugby tour to the Americas.

During the ten-day visit, the touring party took on several leading youth rugby sides, while also finding the time for some sightseeing.

Head of Rugby James Clarke said: “Canada is a rapidly developing rugby nation and, having twice visited Sri Lanka in recent years, we were keen to see another culture.”

Led by four members of staff, the 19 tourists spent seven days in Toronto and three days in Niagara.

They took on Ontario Provincial A, currently the second-best regional team in Canada, and were defeated 47-7. Against the Ontario Provincial B side, the QE boys came much closer, losing 17-15, while they scored a convincing 46-7 victory over Niagara Rugby Club.

Among the attractions they visited were Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario – the country’s first major theme park, which, at 134 acres, remains its biggest – and Toronto’s 553.3m CN Tower. They enjoyed watching the local professional baseball team, at the Rogers Centre, the club’s home ground. And they made the most of their visit to Niagara, not only visiting Niagara Falls but also jetboating on Niagara River.

Mr Clarke said: “The boys were able to experience a different culture, as well as enjoying the hospitality of the hosting sides and the international camaraderie after each game with opposition players.

“Furthermore, our boys really ‘gelled’ as a squad, which is already having a positive effect on senior rugby here at QE this year.”

The ‘stand-out’ players were Fozy Ahmed, Samuel Burgess and James Loebell, all of Year 12, and Samuel Wong of Year 13, Mr Clarke added.

Stapylton House are the winners of the 2017/18 House Cup – reclaiming the coveted trophy from last year’s champions, Underne.

Stapylton’s victory means this House has now won the trophy – formally the Eric Shearly Memorial Cup – for three of the last four years.

The triumph was announced at the end-of-year House assembly, where the cup was presented to House Captain Oliver Than-Lu and his Deputy, Omar Taymani, both from Year 12 (pictured above).

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to all Stapylton boys: this victory reflects their consistency of achievement in extra-curricular enrichment activities across the academic year, with the older boys’ efforts being boosted by a particularly strong Year 7 cohort. I trust that boys in other Houses will be inspired to redouble their efforts next year to challenge Stapylton for the crown.”

The assembly celebrated outstanding performances over a wide range of fields, including the performing arts, sport and charity work.

For this year’s House Drama competition, participants were challenged to produce original plays on the theme of a dystopian future: Leicester won the competition for the third consecutive year.

The House Music competition was won by Pearce.

In chess, the winners of various competitions were honoured, as were the boys chosen to receive junior, intermediate and senior colours.

Similarly, the assembly highlighted the names of boys who had won colours for music and sports.

There was a review of performances in sport throughout the year, including cricket, rugby, water polo, swimming and athletics. One innovation was the announcement of ‘teams of the year’ for cricket and rugby, which included leading performers from all year groups.

House charity fund-raising events during the year were celebrated, together with the work done to support the Sri Sathya Sai English Medium School in Kerala, India, with which QE has enjoyed a longstanding partnership.

Participation in The Duke of Edinburgh Award at QE remains strong: 100 boys from Year 10 enrolled for the bronze award in October and are due to complete their Qualifying Expedition in August, it was announced, while 34 Year 11 pupils signed up for the silver award and 18 Year 12 boys for the gold.

The assembly also recounted details of:

• The various challenges run on a specially arranged House Afternoon
• The QIQE quiz, which was by Stapylton
• A number of House competitions run by the academic departments: these included, for example, a Languages competition to design a poster about a famous and influential linguist, which was won by Year 8 Stapylton pupil Jashwanth Parimi, and a photography competition for Years 7–9 run by the Geography department.

With nearly 100 separate events across disciplines ranging from tug-of-war and Eton Fives to table-tennis and volleyball, QE’s 2018 Sports Day once again saw hundreds of pupils competing for their Houses.

Harrisons’ emerged as the winning House, retaining its 2017 title, with Second Master Colin Price duly presenting the coveted trophy. The 668 points amassed by Harrisons’ placed it ahead of Leicester, on 622: the other four Houses were quite closely matched, led by Stapylton, which scored 576.

The whole day was supported by large numbers of staff, led this year by PE & Games teacher James Clarke (Head of Rugby).

The day concluded, as is traditional, with the staff participating in the QE Mile – a 16 x 100m relay. The staff team comfortably beat the Sixth-Form team into second place, with notable contributions including a swansong appearance from Mathematics teacher Gregory Lee (he is leaving this summer), who this year once again performed his leg in a suit.

Headmaster Neil Enright: “I congratulate all the boys who achieved success for themselves and their Houses and I thank Mr Clarke and all colleagues involved for their hard work throughout the day.”

One notable quirk of this year’s Sports Day was the unusual attire of some competitors – not only Mr Lee, but also competitors running in their socks: one boy lost a shoe early in his 1500m race and even ran back to retrieve it, before eventually discarding it and then working his way up through the field to achieve a creditable finish!

The day included 53 track events of varying length, from the 75m hurdles for Year 8 through to the 1500m individual races and the 4 x 400m relay open to all year groups.

Also continuing through the day were the field events, which included discus, shot put, javelin, long jump, high jump and triple jump.

Years 7–10 each had their own tournaments for tug-of-war, tennis, Eton Fives and table-tennis (the latter taking place in the gym).

There were competitions for Years 9 & 10 in volleyball. The rowers battled it out in ten-minute sessions, with one machine allocated to each of QE’s six Houses.