Sport Round Up - March 2024

In Basketball, Millfield hosted their first girls’ fixture in 16 years, where they played against Taunton School. 

In Clay Shooting, six teams and one individual represented Millfield in the Harrow School Fido May, where they competed against 38 teams from 12 different schools. The Boys’ First team of Upper Sixth Dominic Simmons, George Counsell, Louis Watson and Year 11 Oliver Austin claimed first place, while the Boys’ Second team of Upper Sixth Harry Black, Teddy Hutchison, Nick Whittingham and Year 10 Jovie Crozier were second. The Millfield Ladies’ team of Upper Sixth Tallula Taylor, Indie Barker, India Dusanjh Auty and Year 11 Matilda Wilkes finished in first place, with India Dusanjh Auty winning the Ladies’ Overall High Gun. 

At the Cheltenham Challenge on Thursday 7 March, Millfield competed against 12 teams from five schools. The Boys’ First team finished in first place, with Upper Sixth George Counsell winning the Overall Competition High Gun. The Ladies’ First team won their event, with Upper Sixth Tallula Taylor winning the Overall Ladies’ High Gun.  

At the Schools Challenge Oxford Wednesday 13 March, the Ladies’ team of Upper Sixth Tallula Taylor, Indie Barker, India Dusanjh Auty, Year 11 Matilda Wilkes and Year 9 Mikaela Pearson finished in first place, with India Dusanjh Auty finishing as second overall in the ladies. The Boys’ team of Upper Sixth George Counsell, Dominic Simmons, Louis Watson, Harry Black and Nick Whittingham finished in second place. 

Many younger students are taking part in Clay Shooting at Millfield, and are showing great promise. Those include Year 10 Jovie Crozier and Archie Monk, Year 9 Mikaela Pearson, Peggy Swankie, Charles Eyre, Freddie Goldby, Theo Taylor and Toby Wellspring. 

In Cricket, 10 Year 10/11 students participated in a trip to Sri Lanka as part of the Somerset Pathway. On that trip, Year 11 Laila Moledina won the batting award for the U18 Girls and Helena Carter won the bowling award for the same age group. Year 10 Mila Brooke won the batting award for the U15 Girls and Noah Lewis-Jones won the Bowling award for the U15 Boys. 

Year 10 Louie Lawrence travelled to Sri Lanka, representing Sussex Academy. 

The U15 Girls’ team came runners up in the County Indoor Finals at Somerset County Cricket Ground. 

Upper Sixth Scarlett Hale has been selected onto the Women’s National Panel for umpiring and will be umpiring her first professional game in April. 

Upper Sixth Archie Vaughan travelled to Abu Dubai with the Somerset First Team and played his first professional game, scoring 37 when opening the batting in a T20 game against Yorkshire. 

Upper Sixth students Sidney Thomson, Will Mew and Osian Catlin all completed their Level 2 cricket coaching qualifications. 

In Equestrian, Year 10 Bella Steer-Love won the 1.10m class in the British Showjumping at Prestige Equestrian. 

At the National Schools Equestrian Association Show Jumping qualifier at Pontispool, the combined Millfield and Millfield Prep team of Year 10 Agatha Stamper, Year 9 Isabel Vergara, Year 7 Tilly Barber and Ari Fuertes Gimenez won the 90cm class, while Agatha Stamper was fifth individually. Year 10 Mimi Woodliffe finished second in the 1m and won the 1.10m class, while Bella Steer-Love was third in the 1.10m. All have qualified for the National Championships in October. 

Lower Sixth Olivia O’Brien was fifth in the BE100 section at the British Eventing Horse Trials at Munstead. 

Year 10 Isla Sully achieved a European qualifying score at the Addington International. 

In Fencing, Millfield students became the 2024 Overall Public School Champions for the 11th year in a row. 44 students from Years 8-13 competed in the event across three days at Lee Valley Athletics Centre in London. Millfield students also won the following collective titles: Best Overall Girls School, Best Girls Sabre School, Best Girls Foil School, Best Girls Epee School, Third Best Overall Boys School, Best Year 8 and 9 Girls School, Best Epee School, Best Senior Girls School, Best Junior Girls School and Junior Champions at Arms. A special congratulations to Year 10 Dora Ji who won Girls’ Junior Master at Arms. 

Millfield hosted the British School Team Championships. In the U18 Mixed Epee, the boys’ team was third, while the girls’ team was fourth. Millfield teams finished in first and second place in the U16 girls’ Epee. In the U15 Boy’s Epee, the Millfield team finished second. The Millfield team finished second in the U18 Mixed Foil. In the U15 Boys’ Foil, the Millfield team finished in third. In the U18 Boys Sabre, the Millfield team finished third. Millfield teams finished second and third respectively in the U18 Girls’ Sabre. The U15 Boys’ Sabre team finished second. 

In Football, the Boys’ First team reached the ISFA semi final. 

The Boys’ Second team have reached the National ESFA B Final, which is to be held at Stoke City FC in May. 

Lower Sixth Kayo Adeniji was selected to represent British Virgin Island’s national team in the North and Central America U20 CONCACAF Championships qualification. 

The Boys’ U15 and U14 teams qualified for the Regional and County Cup finals. 

The Girls’ First team reached the ISFA semi-final and played Yeovil College in the County Cup semi-final. 

The Girls’ U16 and U14 teams qualified for the County Cup finals, which are to be played on Friday 26 April. 

In Golf, the Somerset Schools Annual Championships were held at Weston Golf Club, with the course being reduced to 10 holes due to poor weather. Upper Sixth Maddy Beeching was the Girls’ Champion with a level par score, while Lower Sixth James Clemens was joint Boys’ Champion with a score of +1. The Gross Team winners were Upper Sixth Maddy Beeching, Dylan John and Lower Sixth William Welsh. The Nett Team winners were Upper Sixth Stefan Swiatopelk-Czetwertynski, Year 10 James Shaw and Year 9 Jamie Millott.

In Hockey, Upper Sixth Monica Watkins was selected to represent England Hockey in the upcoming Four Nations tournament in Germany.

In Karate, Upper Sixth Jamie Mackelden achieved his 1st Dan Black Belt. 

The Girls’ U15 team qualified for the ISFA Final, which will be played on Thursday 2 May against Surbiton High School. 

In Modern Pentathlon, the Millfield Modern Pentathlon squad headed to Leweston School with the opportunity to compete in a full Modern Pentathlon, with events including laser run, OCR (obstacle course racing), swimming and fencing. Students had the option of competing in just laser run, triathlon (laser run and swim), tetrathlon (laser run, swim and OCR or laser run, swim and a fence) or a full pentathlon. Lower Sixth Sebastian Forrest was first in the Tetrathlon event. Year 9 Valentina Kemp was second overall in the Pentathlon event, Ruby Bodman was second overall in the Triathlon, Mateo Elliott was third in the Pentathlon, while Hope Lewis was seventh in the Laser Run. 

Millfield students competed in the National Schools Biathlon Finals at the University of Bath. 

In the Years 12 and 13 Boys’ event, Lower Sixth Nate Ground was National Biathlon Champion, Upper Sixth Gerard McGrady was second, Lower Sixth Sebastian Forrest was fourth and Sebastian Williams was 26th. They were also the Overall National Team Champions. 

In the Year 11 Boys’ event, Oliver Tomlinson was sixth. In the Year 10 Girls’, Lexi Taylor was sixth. 

In the Year 9 Boys’ event, Beau Ashman was sixth, Mateo Elliott was 16th, Tim De Pree was 20th, Hugo Escobar Barfoot was 24th and Daniel Aiyewumi was 27th. Together they were Overall Team Third. 

In the Year 9 Girls’ event, Ruby Bodman was ninth and Valentina Kemp was 13th. 

In Netball, the U19 First team finished fifth at Nationals, while the U16 team finished in seventh. 

The U19 First team came second in the Sisters in Sport Cup, while the U16s came fourth in the Sisters in Sport Plate competition.  

The U15 team won the County Cup. 

Pearls won Millfield Netball’s internal school league, known as the ‘Gem League’. 

In Rugby, an incredible week of results at Rosslyn Park Sevens saw the U14 Boys’ win the U14 Cup, the U16 Girls’ reach the final, the Boys’ Second VII win the U18 Bowl, the U18 Girls’ reach the semi finals and the U18 Boys win the U18 Cup. 

Students will be representing their countries in the U18 Six Nations. Upper Sixth Steffan Emanuel will captain Wales, Henry Bonetti has been selected by Italy and Lower Sixth Alex Duncan has been selected by Scotland. 

The U15 Boys’ team won the Terenure School Tournament. 

In Ski Racing, the Millfield Ski Team travelled to the Swiss Alps to compete in the British Interschool Ski Challenge. There was some excellent racing from the students, with Lower Sixth Rufus Lawley coming third in the U18 Giant Slalom and fourth in the U18 Slalom. 

In Squash, Upper Sixth student Amelie Haworth has been crowned as U19 European Champion at the ESF European Individual U19 Squash Championships 2024 in Bucharest, Romania. Lower Sixth Olivia Owens was also selected by England Squash to compete in the event, and won her first round match. 50% of the U19 girls selected to represent England in the event were from Millfield. 

Millfield squash teams competed at the 2024 National Schools Championships in Birmingham. The boys’ team, comprised of four boys and two girls, lost out to a strong Wycliffe College side in the KS5 Boys’ event. In the KS5 Mixed event, Millfield finished as runners up to Epsom College, losing only on countback by a score of 128-124. 

In Swimming, Year 10 Mikalya Makwabarara travelled to Accra, Ghana as one of the three youngest members of Team Zimbabwe at the African Games.