Soham Grammar School Summer 1972
U12 Football XI
The U12 football side has had a very promising season for Soham Grammar School and had built up an excellent team spirit which should serve them well next year. The season's record is encouraging and of the seven matches played, three have been won, three lost and one drawn. The main successes have been the convincing victories against Swavesey VC (13-1), Hinchingbrooke (8-2) and Culford (4-1).
Narrow defeats were suffered against the Manor School at home (2-1) and Impington VC (5-4). In the away match against the Manor School the side played well below its normal standard and went down 8-0. The side has been picked from the following players: Howe, Jefferys, Offley, Humphry (Captain), Bridge, Wareham, Donaldson, Scoble, Day, Saunders, Price, Chapman, Walker, Jones and Bucknell.
M Humphry
U13 XI
The U13 XI started off well, drawing three games out of four, but then lost G Seymour with a leg injury and had to change the team round. We did not settle down again after this and lost four consecutive games, but on his return played well for the remainder of the season.
The best game of the season was against King's Lynn, when we drew 7-7. With only a minute left G Reeve gathered the ball, went past two defenders and crashed the ball into the net from 30 yards. This was our best team performance of the season.
The regular team was: B Dunling, D Warren, I Brown, G Reeve, G Seymour, T Youngman, M Hilton, R Wiseman, S Norman, K Cook, G Crisp, C Whitwood.
S Norman
U14 XI
This season the U14 team played very well, winning eight of their fourteen matches and drawing three. The high spot was winning the first two matches 7-1, 5-0 respectively. The low spot was losing 5-1, 13-1 to King Edward School, Bury, on consecutive Saturdays.
The top scorer was A Peacock with 14 goals. Altogether the team scored 49 goals and conceded 38.
The team was: Murfitt, Grant, Blunt, Taylor, Knights, Dewey, Peacock, Oglesby, Norman, Francis, Bethell and Ashdown.
N Oglesby
U15 XI
This has not been a brilliant season but the team has never lacked spirit and cannot be criticised. It is hard to pick out names but Pott and Sizer dominated the defence, while Brown was aggressively banging them in up front and was leading scorer with 16 goals. Next season the team will undoubtedly miss Gary Edwards, who has left the school. No less than twenty-two players have been used this season.
The team has played thirteen, won four, drawn two and lost seven, but everybody enjoyed the games and would, I am sure, like to thank Mr Russ and Mr Freestone for the time that both masters have spent with the team.
Regular team: Coxon, Double, Berney, Sizer, Pott, Hills, Mapstone, Grainger, Brown, Edwards, East.
C Hills
2nd XI
The 2nd XI have won six, drawn four and lost seventeen matches this season. There was the abandoned match at March due to the blizzard, the heavy defeats over Newmarket and Spalding's hat trick in a memorable win over Cambridge GS. The team has been experimental which is the main reason for the number of defeats. The loss of Gardner who ascended to the realms of the 1st XI and the call up of other 2nd XI players brought an inconsistency to the side. Downing, top scorer with thirteen goals, and Jones at right back were the most consistent players in the team.
Thanks must be extended to all concerned with the 2nd XI, especially the substitute, and also Mr Wood who sometimes inspired us to great heights and at other times ... well!
R Heavens
1st XI
This was a highly successful season for the first eleven, losing only five matches out of nearly thirty played. This impressive record is due mainly to the steadiness of our defence who made very few mistakes during the season, and the fact that our forwards missed few chances. We would have liked to have scored more goals but we often seemed to have more than our fair share of 'unlucky misses'.
Much of the credit for this season must go to Bruce King, who marshalled his men magnificently and personally maintained immaculate form for most of the season, thus leading his side as any side should be led - by example. Steve Yeomans lent his invaluable support and himself played a large part in the success of the team. Snell was usually safe in goal while Simpson and Murfitt in the defence played with an assurance that always gave us a sense of security. Martin Brunt filled several positions for us and made a success of all of them while Gardner added a little 'steel' to the defence when he came into the side.
In mid-field Neil Munro had an excellent first season in the side. His tackling was always terrier-like and his ability to find the open space was a great asset to him. When his distribution matches this standard he will be more than the good player he already is.
Up front David Scott was our best player, not only making goals but scoring sixteen himself to be joint top scorer with Mark Curtis, who with Stephen Brown formed our spearhead. Michael Bayes gave a touch of speed to our attack and also scored two wonderful goals with centres from the right wing.
The high spot of the season was the 1-1 draw away at Downing College. The lowest points were the 3-0 home defeat by Newport in front of the whole school and the 8-0 defeat by the Old Boys where we made the tactical mistake of trying to match them in goal-scoring ability**. The most disappointing game was our 1-0 home defeat by Cambs GS for the Lawrance Trophy after we had controlled 90 per cent of the game.
Finally thank you to all the team who have trained and played very hard to make this season a success and especially to the reserves, Martin Allen notable amongst them, who so often stepped into the breach. These reserves were by no means outplayed.
The regular team was picked from:
S Snell, R Simpson*, S Murfitt§, M Brunt*, M Gardner, B King
(Captain)§, S Yeomans (Vice-Captain)§, N Munro*, M Bayes, M
Curtis*, S Brown§, D Scott*, M Allen
*New colours, §Old colours
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| THE NEW: Under 12 X1, 1971-72 D Saunders, S Day,
N Bridge, N Howe, M Jefferys, N Donaldson, P Walker, J Chapman, J Wareham, M Humphry (Capt), N Offley, B Scoble |