Host of successes at Monkton school
Monkton School pupils continue to punch above their weight with no end of successes on local, regional and national stages. In equestrian Tom Griffiths and his horse Kenny, along with their Pony club team-mates, enjoyed success at the National Pony Club Championships in Intermediate Eventing at Cheshire’s Cholmondeley Castle. They all had double clears on the day and went on to win as a team overall and are now national champions. Griffiths and Kenny were placed fifth in their section and won a special commendation for horsemanship at cross country; only one of five under-18s to be awarded this on the day. Griffiths also qualified for the National Schools (NSEA) Championships, where he represented Monkton and had a double clear and dressage score of 30.0, the best in his section. British skeleton slider Ashleigh Pittaway, from Year 12, made a strong start to the season. Firstly she was in Austria where she competed in a double race of the highest quality with five competitors from this year’s Olympic Games, including British bronze medalist Laura Deas. From 20 finalists, Pittaway finished in seventh and continued her fine form the next day, as she finished 0.15secs behind Olympians Anna Ferstaedt and Marina Gilardoni. She then travelled to Winterberg, Germany where she won a GB selection race and became the current second fastest slider in Britain. She is now hoping to qualify to compete at the World Cup. Pittaway has since been competing on the intercontinental race series, where she currently sits fourth thanks to fourth- and fifthplaced finishes. At the Bushido Junior National Championships, Prep School Year 7 Eliza Davies represented the Bath club on her first ever competitive outing and showed great courage to win two of her contests to take the bronze medal in the girls’ under-52kg category. In tennis, Year 10 pupil and Team Bath tennis player Zara Burney won the G3 18U Junior Open at Oxstalls. 0-6,1-5 down with a match point against her in her semi-final, Burney turned in an awe-inspiring comeback to eventually win 0-6 7-6 (7-3) 10-8. She then beat the No1 seed in the final 7-5 6-0 having been 2-5 down in the first set and moved to 39th in the UK junior rankings. Jack Webb, Year 9, won the B&NES cross country Years 8 and 9 Junior Boys event for the second year running and will go on to Avon County trials in January. He was part of a team of Y8&9 boys from Prep and Senior who, courtesy of six finishers inside the top 23, won the team competition. Monkton’s proud rowing tradition continued with a strong start to the year. In the Bluefriars Head Race at Saltford they had good results with our two pairs winning J18 and J17 events. The top J18 pair recorded the fourth fastest time of the day, including 4s and quads. George Shaw and Victoria Brown both sculled as well, with Shaw winning J18 and Brown both J16 and J18. Shaw was also invited to attend a four-day British Roing camp in Nottingham and came an excellent seventh in a time trial on the final day. He, Sam Ford and Nick Pritchard also competed at the GB trials in Boston where Shaw came 39th, Pritchard 100th and Ford 138th. In their most successful season since 1989, Monkton’s 1st XV rugby team recently completed their home fixtures with a 100 per cent record and have so far won six of their seven games, with two away games and a tour to the Netherlands to come. Their success has come playing the free-flowing and exciting brand of rugby developed at Monkton in recent years and their victories include matches against Kingswood (31-12) and Prior Park (1810). Their only loss came against a strong Downside team, 42-12. In the Hockey West UK Avon U13 competition, the school’s girls were unbeaten in six matches and didn’t concede a single goal, narrowly missing qualification for the West Finals by one goal and finishing third overall. They had even beaten the eventual winners during the rounds. Meanwhile, the U16 girls finished runners-up in the Avon County Hockey Competition and qualified for the West Finals.