Basketball

The Senior Basketball team had a great start to the league season this week with a big win against Aberdeen Grammar School. The final score was 42-38 in a back and forth battle. Abdul O led the team in scoring, backed by excellent defence from the entire squad.

Netball

The 1st VII started their Scottish Cup campaign in fine form with their first match against Albyn on Monday. Here’s team member Ava B’s report on the win. 

“It was a very close match but with amazing work in all parts of the court we managed to achieve a 20-13 win. Everyone worked their hardest till the end of the match with our defence making lots of impressive turnovers and our shooters working very hard in the circle. However, it was our centre court players who kept us ahead with their fast and dynamic play and a well deserved player of the match went to Francesca D! And overall great game and we look forward to facing Cults in our next Scottish Cup Match.”

The 2nd VII met Mackie Academy 1st VII in their League match on Monday. The girls worked very hard against their physical opposition who proved to be the stronger team on the day. Player of the Match went to Claire J for her strong defensive skills. 

On Tuesday it was the turn of the 3rd VII who won against Bridge of Don Academy 1st VII in the League. Player of the match went to Cissy G who challenged herself to play GA. Coach Mrs Axten placed a condition on quarter 3 and 4 for her to make 3 successful passes in her goal third before shooting. This challenged her fitness and forced her to make different drives to gain possession. There was also a win for the S2/3B team against Bridge of Don Academy. This was the team’s first match and they went out strong. Lots of communicating with each other ensured there were several passing options. Miss Stephen played some girls in positions they were not used to, but they were undaunted and stepped up and gave it a good go. Player of the Match went to Gracie J for playing really well in attack and discovering that GA is something not to be scared of!

There was some fun on the Netball court during S1 training on Thursday after school as they took part in a Halloween tournament with Westhill Academy. The girls really enjoyed their match play with different opposition. Our S3 helpers were fantastic and each looked after a team.

On Friday Miss Stephen and Miss Duddy took a group of S1-S3 Netballers to the Emirates Arena in Glasgow to watch the European Netball World Cup Qualifiers. Several teams, including Scotland, played their qualifiers on this date for a chance to compete for a place in the Netball World Cup 2023 to be held in Cape Town, South Africa. The girls had a fantastic afternoon watching Isle of Man v Gibraltar and then cheering on Scotland v Northern Ireland. At the end of the evening they had a chance to meet some of the NI players as well as Scottish Thistles captain, Claire Maxwell.

Football

The success for our Football team continued this week with another strong win. This time it was against Alford Academy in the Scottish Schools Cup 2nd round. The boys performed well throughout and thoroughly deserved their victory. Super striker Charlie bagged all four goals and goalkeeper Hamish kept a well deserved clean sheet after some excellent saves. Three players made their senior debuts for the team, demonstrating the great strength in depth we have in the squad this year.

Rugby

Rugby had a full set of fixtures against George Heriot’s this week. On Tuesday we welcomed their teams to Countesswells to play our S2-S4s. S2A lost to a strong tackling Heriot’s team in what was a really good game for both teams. RGC showed some good improvements in defence and shape although we were a bit flat in attack which cost us. An enjoyable afternoon of rugby all round. S2B also lost in a game mostly dominated by the visitors. Nevertheless this was a good, fun experience for all 22 boys involved.

U15 played a really evenly matched game where both sides had some big ball carriers. There were quite a lot of handling errors on both sides but each team managed to score 3 excellent tries with RGC securing a narrow win. The boys worked hard for this in the last 10 minutes as Heriot’s ratcheted up the pressure.

It was a disappointing afternoon for the U16s who lost to their opponents in a game where we compounded errors with more errors to allow the visitors to have opportunities in our red zone which they took time and time again. 

On Thursday four of our teams travelled to Heriot’s where S1B played in a really enjoyable, competitive and well matched game. We stuck to our targets by tackling well, supporting runners and working as a team. RGC scored 7 team tries to win the match on what was a very well hosted, lovely afternoon. S1A had a great day where targets were to improve our defence from penalties and restarts and we showed real tenacity to bring down their ball carriers. Some strong running from several players meant we were always able to get through the Heriot’s line. At times our handling in draw and pass situations looked great and we scored many quality tries. To finish the game with just a 2 point difference emphasised how exciting the game was for the boys. 

The 2XV won an end to end game in which we were dominant in the first half, scoring 5 tries to 2, but came out weaker after half time and let the opposition back into the game. The remainder of the game involved us exchanging tries with the opposition, demonstrating great endeavour in attack but with plenty to work on in defence. Coach Mr Hardie couldn’t fault the boys’ willingness to work and he said it was a proud day for all to be associated with this fine group of men.

The 1st XV went toe to toe with a very accurate George Heriot’s. With the opposition targeting the breakdown RGC had to work very hard at the ruck to get any meaningful possession speed. The boys scored at the death of the first half to level the game, and gained an early second half lead to get the score to take a 7 point lead. Heriot’s countered from a poor kick restart to score and even the game up. An unconverted try from RGC took us to 24-19 with 12 minutes to go and the team managed to hold on for the win.

A great set of fixtures to round off this first half of the Autumn term.

Skiing

Congratulations to Blair M (S3), Michael M (S4), Daisy C (S4) and Autumn T (S4) who have all been selected to represent Scotland at the 2023 International School Sport Federation’s Winter Games in Erzurum, Turkey. What a fantastic experience for them to look forward to in February 2023.