ISACK U13 Girls Basketball

TES   34  -  12  KES

Last week, the girls featured in two back to back fixtures. Wednesday, they faced KES away at KES. The KES squad were physically taller and bigger than our girls, so we knew we were in for a tough fixture.

Both teams started off well, forcing lots of turnovers with early fouls flying in. The intensity at which this match started, was the quality of a final, with both teams going for it. The first basket was a TES one, followed by a second, before KES managed to bring the score back to 4-2. The first quarter was unfortunately a scrappy affair, with both teams - particularly our girls - picking up individual fouls. The final score at the end of the first quarter was 10-4 to TES. One change was made going into the second quarter, which was once again, an extremely intense quarter with both teams making plenty of interceptions and turnovers. TES became the more dominant towards the end of the quarter, picking up lots of rebounds and driving for the basket. But the baskets just wouldn’t come. So the second quarter, was a non-scoring affair, despite numerous chances created. Into quarter 3 we went, and by now, our girls looked that little bit sharper and fitter than their opposition. It was another tight affair, with TES remaining the slightly more dominant and confident in defense. Plenty of rebounds being picked up, but again, we just couldn’t capitalise on our hard work in stopping the KES attack. 10-4 was still the score after the third quarter! Surely we could find the basket we so deserved after defending so well?

Quarter 4; well, it wasn’t just one basket, you couldn’t keep our girls away from the hoop this time round. With a full court press allowed, we found the first early on. For the next 3 or 4 minutes, our girls pressed KES into their own half and picked up basket after basket, giving no leeway to a tired KES team who had fought so hard up until now. KES did manage to make a couple of breaks and scored from some free throws after more TES fouls. Their final score was 12 in the end, and was deserved after their efforts in stopping a formidable TES defense in the final quarter. But our girls were relentless in the final ten minutes, picking up multiple rebounds and making great interceptions. The final score was 34-12 to TES. Well done girls - you were made to work hard for that win and it was deserved. Great defense and full court press - and resilience won out in the end!

TES  16  -  52  BSK

Up until this fixture, the girls were undefeated and had made an excellent start to their basketball season, with 3 convincing wins. But today’s match highlighted where we still needed some work. Credit to BSK, they were a truly excellent team, with 2 of their players also featuring in their open age squad - the calibre of their girls was extremely high.

Nonetheless, the first quarter was a very balanced affair, with both teams scoring baskets early on. Our girls started well and showed promise against such tough opposition. They defended well most of the time and were picking up the rebounds from missed BSK shots. But on offense, we couldn’t find the gap or tenacity to make the drive for the basket and pick up the points we needed. In the second and third quarter, BSK came alive and began to open up an impressive lead. But, credit must be given to our girls, who, despite knowing this game wasn’t a winner today, who didn’t give up and did try to thwart an impressive and relentless BSK charge. We picked up baskets here and there thanks to moments of aggression and a desire to score, but it wasn’t enough today against a very well drilled and disciplined squad.

A good effort girls. Next week, we face NES at home in our final group game. A place in the semi-final has been guaranteed- fantastic effort!

ISACK U13 Boys Volleyball

TES continued their fine form with a 2-0 win versus BSK in the ISACK volleyball league, making it 4 wins in a row. BSK started well and took a 2-0 lead in set 1 but from then on the set was dominated by TES. Each TES player won a number of points on their service and BSK only really won points on errors, resulting in a very quick 25-8 victory for TES. Set 2 was very similar to set 1 with the boys proving too strong for the visitors and winning the second set and match 25-9 for a 2-0 set win. The friendly set played was much more competitive, with the TES reserve players getting some much deserved playing time after watching the first two sets. The final set was very close with momentum swinging from one team to the other, but the quality of the TES serving ultimately decided the set with a score of 25-20 to our boys. Well done to all of the players involved- a fantastic effort today.

ISACK U13 Boys Table Tennis

Thursday, 16th March was the date for the boys’ ISACK table tennis tournament, again at NES.  The Year 7 and 8 boys had prepared for the competition by playing an inter-house tournament in school and the 6 players had fought off strong competition to be chosen for the squad.  TES were again the defending champions and needed to play well to have a chance of retaining the trophy.  Some of the team had played in the tournament last year and were aware of the conditions and this helped them to relax a little as the start approached.

BSK, NES, KES and TEA had all brought strong teams and the level of table tennis was high from seed 1 down to seed 6.  The atmosphere was electric and the noise from the U15 and U19 tournaments (running alongside our U13 one) was at times deafening.  We managed to maintain our focus and with personal pride at stake, as well as TES pride, we took to the tables.  Great serves, strong rallies, fantastic movement and powerful smashes ensued as we got off to a brilliant start.  After 12 of our 24 matches we had won 10 and lost only 2.  Truly fantastic results, given the class of the opposition! As the tournament entered the latter stages, the games got tighter and the boys had to fight for every point.  Trying to find weaknesses was key and some deliberate shot-making, angled in at the body of our opponents, limited their scoring chances – leading to TES wins. After 24 difficult matches, we had secured 19 wins and lost only 5.  We were confident that this was enough to take our trophy home – but we had to wait for the official announcement.

After what seemed like an eternity, the results were announced and TES were acrowned as the CHAMPIONS.  TEA were the runners-up with 15 wins – good, but not good enough to beat our triumphant team.  Owain, Max, Danny, Shaan, Shareef and Jack played their hearts out and again showed great sportsmanship during the course of the event. Another TES team triumphant and a credit to the school, as always.

KFSAC Athletics 3/4/5/6

The annual Athletics tournament was once again held here at TES. 20 of our Year 3-6 students participated in this event, hoping to retain a title long held by TES. The team consisted of 5 girls and 5 boys from Years 3-4, and 5 girls and 5 boys from years 5-6. We started off the afternoon extremely well, scoring almost maximum points on the High Jump. This was followed up by a flawless run on the shuttle sprint, courtesy of our speedy relay teams. We had well and truly got off to the flying start we wanted, with the shot putt up next. Up until now, no school had scored maximum points on this event - we decided to change that by having 9 of our 16 athletes break the 5 point line- amazing! We moved onto Javelin next, where after a controversial rule cost us a few points to begin with, our boys and girls rose to the challenge and obliterated the field here as well - winning this event alone by a clear 20 points! With 3 events to go, we were looking strong in contention for the number one spot. Long Jump and Triple Jump came next - 2 of the harder events to score maximum points on. Our athletes put it fantastic performances here and built on an already strong points tally, to take us into our final event of the day - the hurdles. Knowing that a clean run here, would almost guarantee us the title and, as usual, our children did us proud. With only 3 hurdles knocked, we scored the second highest score of the day here - closely behind NES - meaning we were well and truly in contention for first place. We waited with bated breath for the results to be announced and much to the enjoyment of the TES home crowd, we won the Year 3 and 4 and Year 5 and 6 age categories, meaning once again, TES were crowned Athletics champions! An amazing sixth year in a row. A fantastic team effort by all 20 children involved, they were fantastic ambassadors for the school and thoroughly deserved today’s victory after weeks of break time practices given up.

KFSAC 3 /4 Boys Football

TES started the day with a 2-0 defeat to the eventual winners of the competition TEPS. Our boys found the game difficult with a very good TEPS team dominating for the majority of the game. TES were battling against TEPS but never really got a foothold in the game and it was an unfortunate goal that was the breakthrough TEPS needed. The second goal was a combination of good play by TEPS and poor defending by TES. After going 2-0 down, we then fought our way back into the game but were unable to score. Immediately after the TEPS game, TES took on BSK in the final group game for the boys. TES started the game slowly and were not doing the things that made them successful in practice. BSK were on top for the early stages but Joseph in goal made a couple of good saves and Sam, Arthur and Andrew defended well. BSK managed to go a goal up after TES gave the ball away in the middle of the pitch and the pressure was really on the boys to make sure they did not lose both of their group games. Rory, Harry, Mohammad and Ali pressed TES forward for the equalizer, which came when Harry cut inside and smashed the ball into the net. TES kept going for the goal that would see them through to the second tier of the competition but it did not come, so TES ended in tier 3 and BSK went on to win tier 2 of the overall competition. The TES boys were struggling for confidence going into the knockout stages of the competition but put in a solid performance against TEA and were unlucky not to advance to the tier 3 final. TEA scored from a free kick that was hit into the top corner of the net which Joseph in goal had no chance of saving. TES then controlled the game but missed a number of chances with Ali striking over the crossbar from close range and Rory’s shot rebounding off the post. It was an unfortunate defeat for the boys. In the final game for TES they played against NIS and their opponents did not really pose much of a threat, TES completely dominated the game in a 2-0 win with goals from Ali and Harry. Not really the result we were looking for on the day, but 11th place was what we had to settle for. Unlucky boys, you were still fantastic ambassadors of the school.

KFSAC 5 /6 Boys Unihoc

The TES team put in a fantastic performance in the Unihoc competition on Wednesday evening. The first game of the day was against NES who regularly win the Unihoc competitions. Our boys got off to a great start in the game scoring in the opening seconds via Maxwell's interception and slick finish. TES dominated the entire game from that point on going close with shots from Lewis and Maxwell. NES barely got out of their half but when they did, Omar in defence and Christian in goal dealt with every attack comfortably. William made an immediate impact when entering the game and doubled TES's lead, to win 2-0. The second match was against KES and this time we went behind early after some sloppy play at the back. After going behind a goal early on, the boys responded brilliantly by pushing their opponents back and having numerous shots on goal. The TES team went close to scoring on many occasions but the KES goalkeeper made some great saves, but with Maxwell scoring 2 and William adding another we won the game 3-1. After beating KES we had to play ATIS straight away and the TES boys started fast, forcing their opponents back and pressuring ATIS into scoring an own goal. TES kept their opponents pinned back and managed to secure a 6-0 win, with William scoring and Lewis adding another 4. The last 2 games of the day were versus ESF and TEA and TES continued their fine form with two more comfortable wins. Maxwell (3), William, Lewis and Omar all scored in a 6-1 win against ESF. In the final game versus TEA the boys continued their fine form and completely dominated the match with a 6-0 win with Maxwell scoring 3, Lewis  2 and Christian switched from goalkeeper to attacker in the final few minutes and managed to steal a goal from Omar by tapping the ball against the bench from inches away. The boys were fantastic on the day and played some brilliant team Unihoc and were well deserved winners, what a great performance boys!