It was a glorious sunny and crisp Spring Day for the Spring Matches against the college this year. Sadly, due to the ISFA Cup Final a few days later the annual friendly OB match against the boys First IX was cancelled as the college boys prepare for their match against Shrewsbury School.

The OB Women’s Football team were however back at Bradfield and ready for action. They had not formed a team together at college since 2022. Sarah Thompson (M 12-14) had done a great job rallying the girls to come back again and they had a friendly game on Rectory 2 which finished with a 2-2 draw and the college won at the end on penalties.

The team for the OB Women were Phoebe Kime, Emily Armstrong, Ruby Paish, Freya Taylor, Olivia Lines, Georgia Lines, Annie Berry, Merle Gibson with Emily Stannard and Sarah Thompson from the College SCR. Poppy Tulloch was also on the sidelines, however now playing professional cricket, she is did not play.

The OB Runners were also back in force with a team running the 5.46 miles Bostelmann Trophy cross country course. Sadly, as the college could not muster a team this year the OBs ran it as a ‘Club Run’ and claimed the trophy at the end!

The OB Runners were Simon Smedley, Blake Scaddan, Adam Robinson, Tony Henderson, Jeremy Winter, Dean Makar and Tom Fortune who also brought along his son Ned. The first runner round the course was 2024 Bradfield leaver Blake Scaddan closely followed by Simon Smedley who ran the route in just under 45 minutes.

Thank you to everyone for coming back and for making the afternoon such a great success. A gallery of pictures can be seen below.

A full match report of the Women's football as follows...

On Saturday 15th March our Old Bradfieldian Women's football team returned for our annual match against the Girls' 1st XI. The OBs opened the scoring first, with a very early goal from Phoebe Kime (K 14-19). Despite the Girls' 1st XI best attempts at getting a goal over the line, the half-time score was 1-0 to the alumni guests. Into the second half, this time it was the pupils who started the half well, as Ava (K) took a well-placed goal from the edge of the box. The girls' kept pushing on and managed to go a goal ahead thanks to top goal scorer Ava (K). Despite a couple of injuries, the OB women kept pushing for a leveller and managed to get one back through Georgia Lines (M 13-15). This meant the final score was 2-2 and would be ended on penalties.

In the end the Girls' 1st XI took the win with a gruelling 6-7 shoot out. Special shout-out should go to Flo (J) who stepped up to play in goal for the 1st XI, and also Emma (M) and Lila (M), the only Upper Sixth playing who will sadly be leaving at the end of the year. Many thanks to all the OBs who travelled far and wide to be a part of the day and we hope to see them join us again next time.