The Hallifordian - 2016-2017

73 team had never played rugby but they have taken to it really well. There are a number of this B team who, next year will represent the As. The ability and willingness of the C team demonstrates the strength in depth of this age group. With over 78% of the first years representing Hal- liford in competitive rugby, the boys should be very proud of their progress and achievements. I look forward to watching them develop further as a year group. Inter House Rugby Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Senior 1st W/R D G G D 2nd R W R R 3rd G G R D G 4th D W D W W Junior Champions SNR Champions Overall Russell – 6pts Greville – 4pts Desborough – 4pts Russell – 4pts Basketball: Mr Arriandiaga Our first term has seen a great influx of Year 7 & 8 players in basketball. Their commitment and passion has been clear since the very start, and both teams are now playing at a good standard, trying to master the rules of the game and learning the skills needed and how to play as a team of 5 on the court. Year 9 accompanied Year 8 in the first fixture of the season, a draw in our visit to Claremont Fan, to be paid back in the second term. The physicality of the Year 9 players kept them in the game, domi- nating the rebound and creating turnovers. Mean- while, Year 8 showed their ability to work as a team and play intelligent basketball, in what was an im- pressive display. Any of their fixtures in the second term will be brilliant. Moving Year 10 towards the Senior section has left them in charge at the top end of the school. Their captain, Oscar Leigh-Hales, has helped with the younger sections and provided inspiration for lower school players. We look forward to seeing them in action in the second term. Karting: Oliver York, Year 11 On the Sunday 9th of October I travelled out to Le mans kart circuit for the iame world fi- nals. There was over 130 drivers from 50 different countries around the world who came to compete in this event. Testing for the week started on Mon- day morning and finished on Wednesday lunch time. Qualifying started at 8pm that evening. Throughout testing I was very fast and was looking good for the week ahead. In qualifying I was extremely fast and out of 130 drivers that entered my class I managed to put it on pole! Later that evening I found out that I had been excluded from qualifying for a techni- cal infringement on my engine which then put me 130th. So before the weekend even started it looked like it was going to be near enough impossible to take the world championship title. After finding this out I was extremely upset as there was noth- ing I could have done to stop this from happening. This meant that I would have to start all my 7 heats from 34th as all 130 drivers are split up into different groups so we all eventually race each other. During the heats I had to average 10th in all of my races to even stand a chance of making the World champion- ship final. There were that many competitors there it managed to reach up to a E Final. So during the heats I only had 7 laps to see how far up I could get. The heats were spread out over 3 days and my biggest fear was if I got caught up in any crashes or had a mechanical fault which would probably have meant I would not be making the final and have to go home empty handed! I managed to salvage some astonishing results getting up to 2nd in one of my heats and 4th in another and averaging around the top ten in the other 5 heats. This even surprised me and I managed to start the Pre final in 18th. During