Football
There was cup success for both the 1st and 2nd XI on Wednesday as they travelled to north London to take on their counterparts from University College School in the London Independent Schools Cup. The 1st XI fell behind as they failed to clear a corner, but Ben drew Westminster level with a superb strike as he turned on the edge of the box and curled the equaliser into the top corner. There were no further goals as the game went to kicks from the penalty mark, whereupon a heart-stopping shootout was won 10-9 by Westminster!
The 2nd XI match also saw the teams unable to be separated as they drew 2-2, meaning that the tie was also decided by kicks from the penalty mark. Again, it was the Westminster side who came out on top as they won by 4-2 to see both XIs through to the quarter-finals.
Hockey
Wednesday saw the first match of 2020 for the Hockey 1st XI as they entertained Highgate School at Kennington Park AstroTurf. What first appeared to be ‘a walk in the park’ turned out to be a thriller as Westminster raced into a 3-0 lead, only to switch off and be pegged back to 3-3 in the second half. Devan completed a fine hat-trick to put Westminster ahead again 4-3. Undeterred, back came Highgate once more, showing great resilience to equalise and it looked like they had earned a meritorious 4-4 draw. However, Rupert had other ideas; with the clock ticking down, he received the ball, beat two defenders and dinked the ball over an onrushing goalkeeper to score a fine solo goal and clinch a thrilling 5-4 win for the Westminster side.
The U15 XI didn’t enjoy quite the same success though, as the very next day as they were overpowered away to John Lyon School.
Water
Saturday saw the first Head race of the year for the Boat Club with the ‘Quintin Head’. Solid Westminster performances saw them come 3rd and 14th in J18 Eights and 4th in J15 Eights.
On Sunday, the first Eight raced a series of match race pieces over the Boat Race course with the Oxford University Boat Club Isis crew who proved too strong for the School crew at this time of the year.
Fencing
Westminster’s fencing team registered their second victory of 2020 as they made the long trip to Winchester College on Thursday and came away with an excellent 2-1 success, courtesy of wins in both of the Epee sections.
