Sport
The school has an excellent reputation as one of the country's leading public schools at sport. The main school sports are athletics, cricket, hockey, netball, rowing, rugby and tennis. The school has over 90 acres (360,000 m2) of playing fields in the heart of North Oxford on land.
The school only has two "real" inter-house events, the School Steeplechase and School Sports Day. The Steeplechase is the school's annual cross country race, it is held once a year and the whole school is expected to take part. The Sixth Form race in the Senior Steeplechase which is a 4-mile (6.4 km) race across Port Meadow the floodplain of the River Thames, accessed from the school grounds via the Oxford Canal towpath. The Junior Steeplechase, meanwhile, confines itself to within the school grounds. School Sports Day is held in June, and is a much less significant affair, with many events having been removed from the programme on grounds of 'Health and Safety'. Sports day is usually cancelled due to the track being flooded and so has not run for the last four years.
The school has a regular fixture list against other major UK public schools. Some of the fixtures on the fixture list have been played on the same weekend each year for decades. In boys' sports the schools main rivals are Radley College and Marlborough College.
In rowing the school has won The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta as well as having had a number of rowers row for Great Britain at junior level before going on to compete in the annual Oxbridge boat race or at Ivy League Universities.
Recent successes in hockey have included making the National Finals for both boys' and girls' hockey.
St. Edward's is regarded as a rugby school. The 1st XV of 2007 were only beaten in one game, becoming the first team to do so since 1998 and there are some 6 former or present pupils in their respective age group's England development squads/teams including James Forrester. The school has in recent years had an 82% success rate in Rugby Sevens.
St. Edward's has a strong rivalry with Radley particularly in rugby. The school also has a somewhat informal local rivalry with Cherwell, the local state school, however the school do not play them in sport.
A book about sport at the school, "Come on Teddy's" has recently been published.
- Facilities
Sports facilities include:
- Indoor Sports Hall
- 2 All Weather Astro Turf Pitches
- 9 hole Golf Course
- Boat House located on the River Thames in the nearby village of Wolvercote
- Purpose Built Netball Courts
- Basketball Court
- Indoor Rifle Range
- Clay Pigeon Shooting area
- 15 Rugby Pitches
- 8 Cricket Pitches
- Swimming Pool (within Esporta/St. Edward's Sports Centre)
- Indoor Tennis Courts (within Esporta/St.Edward's Sports Centre)
- Squash Courts
- State of the art gym (within Esporta/St. Edward's Sports Centre)
The school is home to an Esporta Health Club. This was built on the site of the school's former sports centre (The Douglas Bader Sports Centre) and outdoor swimming pool in 1999 and opened in 2000. Within the club the school has its own sports hall, named the Douglas Bader Sports Hall. As part of the agreement between St. Edward's and Esporta, pupils have free access to the club's gym.
- Overseas Tours
The school also go on an overseas tour once a year. Tours have operated since 1996. Recent tours have included:
- 2012- South Africa- Cricket
- 2011- Canada- Rugby and Girls' Hockey
- 2008- USA - Boys Rowing
- 2008- Barcelona - Boys Hockey
- 2008- South Africa - Cricket and Netball
- 2006- South America - Rugby and Girls' Hockey
- 2005- Sri Lanka - Cricket
- 2004- South Africa - Boys' Hockey
- 2003- Australia - Rugby and Girls' Hockey
Teddy's also host touring schools. The most notable of these is The King's School, Sydney who come to St. Edward's to play rugby once every two years when on their UK tour.
Read more about this topic: St Edward's School, Oxford
Famous quotes containing the word sport:
“Every American travelling in England gets his own individual sport out of the toy passenger and freight trains and the tiny locomotives, with their faint, indignant, tiny whistle. Especially in western England one wonders how the business of a nation can possibly be carried on by means so insufficient.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can’t go at dawn and not many places he can’t go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking—one sport you shouldn’t have to reserve a time and a court for.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)
“Americans living in Latin American countries are often more snobbish than the Latins themselves. The typical American has quite a bit of money by Latin American standards, and he rarely sees a countryman who doesn’t. An American businessman who would think nothing of being seen in a sport shirt on the streets of his home town will be shocked and offended at a suggestion that he appear in Rio de Janeiro, for instance, in anything but a coat and tie.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)