Sport and Activities
The major competitive sports are rugby, cricket and particularly hockey, supplemented by tennis, netball and swimming. Regional honours are achieved whilst European and England players and champions in hockey, tennis, horse riding, karate, polo and rugby are on the school roll. Pupils compete in events such as the National Schools Rugby Sevens, and the Inter-Schools Hunter Trials.
Numbered amongst current Old Culfordians are an Olympic horserider, a British modern pentathlon champion, a Welsh hockey international, and club rugby and cricket players for Richmond and Middlesex respectively. Previous generations of Old Culfordians have included several hockey players for England and one for Scotland, a captain of the Welsh team, and a Great British hockey Olympian; as well as an England badminton player. The school has also produced numerous Oxford and Cambridge Blues.
In addition to the major sports, Culford offers a wide range of other sports and activities utilising its 480 acres (1.9 km2) of parkland and extensive facilities.
- List of facilities
| *A sports centre (built in the 1990s) with 25m indoor swimming pool, sports hall with 4-lane cricket nets, bowling machine, squash courts, fitness suite, aerobics and dance studio, video assessment suite, and a climbing wall | ||
| *Floodlit astroturf | ||
| *Six rugby and five grass hockey pitches | ||
| *A 4-court indoor tennis centre | ||
| *Six grass, six hard and six astroturf tennis courts | ||
| *Three cricket pitches including cricket square with thatched pavilion, views of the Hall and Park, and grass nets | ||
| *A lake, used for fishing, canoeing and punting, bordering Repton's gardens and crossed by a cast-iron bridge by Samuel Wyatt (the fifth-oldest in the world, listed Grade I) | ||
| *A 9-hole pitch and putt golf course | ||
A further lake in Lackford is used for Sailing, and nearby Thetford Forest is used for outdoor pursuits. Golf is played at a course in neighbouring Flempton. 1962 saw the school become one of the 16 founder members of The Public Schools Old Boys Golf Association, and it competes regularly in the Grafton Morrish Trophy.
The school is linked to the LTA High Performance Centre in Cambridge, and six coaches offer a tennis scheme encompassing a junior Academy programme. The school also provides elite cricket tuition from coaches Ian Pont and Darren Cousins and Culford play an MCC side annually. The performance hockey programme is led by coach Stephen Dick. An Activities Programme offers over sixty pursuits including climbing, clay pigeon shooting, chess, critical thinking, Cub Scouts, debating, Duke of Edinburgh's Award, expeditions, fencing, horse riding, Portuguese, sub aqua and Young Enterprise. In addition, external organisations using Culford's facilities contribute to provision for pupils:
- Northampton Saints Rugby Academy train weekly, as part of their Elite Player Development scheme
- The Eastern Junior Regional Performance Centre for England Hockey is based at Culford, as is a satellite of the Eastern Counties Rugby Union “Schools of Rugby” initiative
- Suffolk County Cricket Youth Squad train regularly, run courses and play matches
- Norwich City F.C. run a Player Development Centre at Culford
- West Suffolk Swimming Team train daily
- The School hosts events such as the European Karate Championships, International Horse Riding Championships, O2 Premiership Rugby Training Camps, International Archery Championships, Suffolk Schools County Cricket tournaments and drama camps
| Sports and Activities – Image Gallery | ||||||||||
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