Bolton School’s young sports players had an amazing summer, with exciting involvement in a wide variety of fixtures.
Zahara Muhammad (Year 13) has been appointed as an assistant coach at the Regional Talent Centre in Bolton and started coaching junior players in the England talent pathway in September. This is the highest level of water polo coaching appointment that has ever been achieved by a current student. Mr David Teasdale, who coaches the School’s water polo teams, said: ‘I know that Zahara has worked hard to hone her coaching craft over several years of volunteering at school sessions, so it is fantastic to see her receiving external recognition for this with her outstanding appointment.’
A number of current and former pupils enjoyed representing their country in water polo over the summer. Harriet Dickens (Class of 2024) and Lucy Blenkinship helped Great Britain to a ninth-place finish at the Under 19 European Championships, held in Zagreb, Croatia. Both were key members of the team and scored crucial goals at important moments to help the GB team to their highest finish since 2016. In addition, Amelia Crompton (Year 12) and Sam Fitzsimons (Class of 2024) were selected to represent the Great Britain Under 20s teams, and competed in the next Generation Cup in Barcelona in September.
In football, Daniel Bleakley (Year 9) with Harry Roach (Year 9) took part in the ISFA Boys’ National Under 14 Representative Camp, held at Haileybury School, Hertfordshire, in August. The Camp saw them play in matches between football academies from across the UK as well as teams from the USA and Canada. They won five games and only lost one across the three-day event, and represented Bolton School with a great deal of passion and dedication.
The last of the summer sport fixtures took place in mid-September with the Year 8s playing the postponed Under 12s Lancashire Cricket Cup Final against Manchester Grammar School. This closely-fought game of schoolboy cricket was hosted by Egerton Cricket Club, and went to the very last over with the Bolton team in an agonising run chase. Though they at last fell short by eight with a final score of 121, it was a great achievement to reach the final and take second place.
