The Old Sennockians enjoyed an excellent day of team sports on Sunday 12th September. Hockey was the first game to be played and was a closely contested match between last year’s Leavers and the First Team. The OS team was well organised and ably led by Charlotte Best. At half time they had a 2-1 lead over Firsts, but a strong finish by the Firsts gave them the honours with a well-fought 4-2 win.

This was followed by a football game made up of a team of the Leavers from 1994 and 1995, who took on a School Staff XI on Dukes Meadow. The OS, playing in the colours of Argentina, were quickly into a decisive 4-0 lead and were certainly doing the Argentinean colours justice! Staff reorganised at half time and clawed back 2 goals but in the end the OS ran out comfortable 4-2 winners. The OS captain, Tom Mitchell played with mature authority in leading his team to victory. It was also good to see Damien Donaghue had lost none (perhaps a little) of his pace and incisiveness up front, although some of his team mates would have liked the odd pass now and again.

The final event of the day was a four team 10’s rugby tournament with teams representing different year groups playing in a ‘round robin’ competition. It was great to see Lucian, Alfie and Inni Weston all playing in the same team and it was also good to see Paul Garrard, who was a leading first team player in 1995, getting his boots out once again. The tournament was won by Will Ellis’ Leavers of 2009 team who played some outstanding rugby. This was the first time we have run a rugby competition and we hope to have a similar event next year.

It was great to see nearly 70 OS playing sport again at school, and a pleasure to watch and meet such a fantastic bunch of people whose friendship and generous spirit is so highly valued by the school.

Alex Smith

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The Sevenoaks School Old Boys, the Sennockians, enjoyed a close run victory against the Vine to win the three-way T20 competition between the Vine, Sennockians and Old Tonbridgians (OTs).  A blazingly hot day and a parched Vine cricket ground saw the third annual T20 competition between these local rivals. 

The OTs won the first game against the Vine chasing down the Vine's total of 126.  The second match saw the Sennockians overcome the OT's score with Stuart Seldon scoring a free-flowing fifty and Shami Iqbal's sparkling cameo seeing the Sennockians home.  The final match had the Vine and Sennockians competing in a close run affair which ended with scores tied when the Sennockians failed to get the single run needed off the last over to win the match outright.  The Sennockians won the resulting bowl off with Will Wilkin and Chris Fletcher both hitting the stumps. 

The team, captained by Shami Iqbal were Paul Eversfield, Dave Franklin, Ed Grant, Will Wilkin, Hasim Ramji, Dan Haley, Alex Kirkpatrick, Josh Parker, Chris Fletcher and Stuart Seldon

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In hot and sunny conditions Ben Richardson won the toss and decided to bat, resulting in Nick Tunnell leading the OS onto the field.

The school started well, taking advantage of some slightly wayward bowling by Joe Corneille and Tom Farrant, reaching 50-0 off the first 7 overs.  However, the wily Will Wilkin then asserted the breaks and bowled an excellent 4 over spell, taking the wicket of Tom Nickolls for only 9 runs.  The school managed to accelerate slightly against the bowling of Jamie Dunnett, Sahil Sharma and Ollie Jones, finishing on 124-4 off their 20 overs, with Max Thorpe 49* and Jack Hulston 21*.

There then followed the longest ever tea break at Solefields of 2 hours as the two teams crowded round the TV set to watch the England v Germany world cup match!

The OS then began their innings briskly, with Dan Haley (44) and Dave Franklin (17) hitting 38 off the first 5 overs.  Ben Spokes (26) and Stuart Seldon (20*) then batted sensibly to pass the school's total with 11 balls to spare.

It was excellent to welcome back OS from the past 10 years and the 1st XI will be looking forward to trying to exact some revenge next year.

On Saturday 1 May we held the annual Old Sennockian 5-a-side tournament and it was another excellent day of competitive sport.  Twelve teams entered the competition made up of Sennockians from years ranging from the Leavers' of 1990 through to 2004.

The group stages saw four qualifying teams; James Fraser's class of 1995 were beaten on penalties by Lucian Weston's class of 2004; Andrew Mckay's class of 2001 beat Sam Ladbury's class of 2002. 

The final was a tense affair which went to penalties with Lucian Weston's team winning a nail-biting final.  This is the second time Lucian's Trojans have won the Sennockian Cup.  The Trojan's (below) are made up of: Ben Harris, Peter Croft Baker, Andrew Jack, Ashley Bowman, William Lloyd, James Marshall (goalkeeper) and Lucian Weston.  They are a team whose stylish play is matched by their equally stylish attire.

 To see more photos of the day click here.