Over 400 Pupils Compete in Sports Festival

Saturday 17 October saw over 400 Churcher’s pupils aged between 11 and 18 taking part in the Churcher’s Champions festival featuring internal year group tournaments playing hockey and touch rugby. 

All students represented a team inspired by Old Churcherian (OC) sporting heroes:  Calum Chambers, Fiona Pocock, Joe Atkinson, Georgina Tuffin, Margie Pedder and George and Will Cairns. 

There were individual medals for outstanding performers and team awards for matches and overall year group achievement. Most importantly there were endless smiles and happy faces as the pupils enjoyed competitive sport in a Covid-safe style. 

Louisa Taylor, Director of Sport, said: “It is fantastic to see so many pupils taking part in the Churcher’s Champions festival. We’ve been continuing with intra-school sport throughout the autumn term and the festival gave the students a great platform to experience a competitive sporting atmosphere of both performance and sporting spirit to play to win and show off their abilities. Most importantly, they were playing team sport and having a great time. It’s a pleasure to work with such passionate pupils, who despite all the restrictions we have faced this half term, are still enjoying competitive sport every week with great numbers attending Saturdays and after school training, seeing these pupils' responses to these sporting experiences really does highlight the positive impact it is having on their wellbeing - Go Team Churcher’s!" 

Flickr album: Churcher's Champions October 2020 | Height: auto | Theme: Default

More about the Old Churcherian sporting champions

Calum Chambers 

Calum Chambers is an English professional footballer who plays as a right back or centre back for Premier League Club Arsenal and the England national team. Originally a member of Southampton's academy system, Chambers was promoted to the first team at the beginning of the 2012–13 campaign.  Chambers made his senior international debut for the England national team in 2014. 

Fiona Pocock 

Fiona Pocock is an English female rugby union player.  She represented England at the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup.  She has made 32 appearances for England.  Fiona visited Churcher’s College in 2019 to run a rugby workshop and we look forward to welcoming her back again in the future. 

Joe Atkinson 

Joe has had a successful rugby career playing for London Scottish, Wasps and most recently Bedford Blues.  He is an all action flanker, who has an eye for the try line.  He continues to build his reputation as one the Championship’s best back row forwards.  Atkinson has also been capped by England at age grade and student level. 

Georgina Tuffin 

In 2011 Georgina completed a solo swim of the English  Channel in an impressive 11 hours and 54 minutes. She also won three different awards for 2011; Earliest / Latest Swim, Fastest Swim on the Highest Tide; Youngest Successful Swimmer  

Margie Pedder 

Margie is the former British record holder in both the 100m butterfly the 200m butterfly and became a 200m butterfly at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Later she captured a bronze medal when her nation hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games.  During her sporting career, Pedder trained with the Portsmouth Northsea Swim Club. 

George Cairns 

George attended Churcher’s College from 2005-2012 and in his final year he was Captain of College. George received his first England cap for hockey in 2016 in the U16 squad and progressed through to also play for the England U18’s.  George went onto study at Bristol University and became the university 1st XI Captain in 2014.  He is now working as a Junior Doctor at The Royal London Hospital. 

Will Cairns 

Will attended Churcher’s college from 2003-2010 and went on to represent England Hockey at U18. Will continued his studies and hockey at Cambridge University where he played each year in the Varsity match against Oxford University. He was awarded man of the match in this game in 2014.