Latest News -

The Grafton Morrish competition (KCS winners 2001; 2004) held on 5/6/7 October 2018 involved a re-draw following Loretto’s absence.  KCS Wimbledon were selected, by lot, to re-balance the draw, playing against Canford at Brancaster, instead of Seaford College.   

KCS top foursome of Alex Gems and Matt Reynolds endured a tough Friday, a 2&1 loss against Canford, played in a light breeze.   Then a splendid 3,4,4 finish by Peter Crowther and Mike Choong enabled a win by two holes. Fate dealt the third pair of Rory Codd and Paul Mortlock a cruel finish. Two up with two holes to play, having eagled both the 7^th(490 yards) and the 14^th(430 yards) holes, the latter with a Codd three-wood, the Canford duo cruelly holed a 55-foot putt from the very front of the 17^th, with KCS well-placed 30 feet from the hole.   A KCS-car-crash followed down the 18^th– despite a fine drive.   The deciding 19^thhole was not well-contested.   This lost KCS the match and placed us into the Plate competition. Four leading Saturday qualifiers would contest the Committee Bowl (KCS winners 1984; 2006) at 6,900-yards long Hunstanton on Sunday. Whitgift lead the way on Saturday, with just 70 scratch points (i.e. 23 points each).

Qualifying on Saturday morning, enduring continuous Brancaster northerly force-7 rain squalls (e.g. the 129-yard 4^thhole played a firm 5-iron) that had many schools withdrawing, the Matt Reynolds (2010)/Alex Gems (2008) ex-Oxford Univ. vanguard pair thereafter came out swinging.  In Sunday’s Whitgift semi-final, and the Committee Bowl final, they had two victories on the 16^thhole. The sunny morning saw a solid 4&2 victory off the Blue ‘tiger’ tees (two birdies, 4 bogies, 10 pars).

Peter Crowther (1972)/Mike Choong (2004) turned back the clock in their Whitgift semi-final, against a foursome pair including a two-time English Mid-Amateur Champion. Crowther played his 114^thKCS match in Norfolk, and Choong was competing in his 4th final in 5 years’ appearances. A Hunstanton back-nine of 4,5,4,4,2,4,3,4,4 in light winds brought a 2-up semi-final victory, winning the 14^th, 15^th, 17^thand 18^th, and 2-1 match win overall.

Rear-gunners Rory Codd (1997)/Paul Mortlock (1996) had lost their semi-final anchor match 4&3 to two Old Whitgiftian Royal St. George’s members. They fell behind, early, and failed to hole any putts at crucial times.

In the final, after lunch against 2017 Committee Bowl holders Loughborough, the Reynolds/Gems top pair reeled off 3 birdies and 7 pars in the first 10 holes, for a 4-up lead against a 1 and +1 handicap combination. They held on, after that, for a fine 4&2 win.

Codd and Mortlock, again at the rear, turned on the gas for the final, thrashing the Loughborough captain & his partner by 7&5, grinding out 10 pars in their 13 holes.  This victory made up for their rather sad Friday!  Crowther and Choong finished in some style 444434264, but lost to Loughborough by one hole in the dead rubber.  This capped a very pleasing week, with everyone playing well, all contributing points in a KCS team including two debutants.

Members joined together for a chance to catch up and socialise at the Naval & Military (In & Out) Clubon on St. James’s Square, thanks to Major Neeraj Shah RAMC (OK 2006). SEE FACEBOOK

The junior school has, for many years, taught boys aged 7 to 13. These boys would then join the senior school at 13. Today’s decision means that boys in the junior school will, from 2021, move across to the senior school at the start of year 7, not at the start of year 9 as has historically been the case. The new structure is one shared by almost all day schools in the UK. 

King’s already has a lower school that takes an entry of about 60 boys from local primary and prep schools at the age of eleven, and these will be joined, from September 2021, by their peers from the junior school, creating an expanded lower school of about 280 boys aged eleven to thirteen in years 7 and 8. King’s will continue to accept about thirty boys every year from prep schools at the age of 13, so the 13+ entry remains a key feature of the school’s admissions.

Head master, Andrew Halls, said: “I think we have one of the very best junior schools I have ever seen. Teaching is bright, imaginative and compassionate. The same is true for the teaching of boys in our parallel lower school. Now is the time to bring the two cohorts together.”

Members of the Old King’s Club met at the King Harald V room at the Naval and Military (In & Out) Club to commemorate the anniversary of the duel fought in March 1829 between the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchelsea. SEE FACEBOOK

Having re-established their place back in London 2SW at the culmination of the 2013-14 season King’s have enjoyed a solid four seasons back at Level 7 finishing 5th, 6th, 8th most recently 4th.

Whilst the side finished last season impressively with 21pts from 25, this campaign has been better again as the team started well and has gone from strength to strength recording a series a victories, each one with a four try bonus point. This culminated in win number seventeen last weekend over Farnham and with a maximum 85pts achieved it meant that King’s were confirmed as league champions and were promoted to London 1 South. This achievement was made all the more special by virtue of being the first side in the English rugby pyramid to achieve this double honour and having done it at the very earliest opportunity in mid-February.

Coached by Sam Richards (OK 2005) and captained by Tom Dugarin (OK 2007) with able support from on-field captains Will Slater (OK 2008) and Joe Mason (OK 2009) the success has been built on a core of players whose association with the club goes back many years and several of whom have played together through the Mini, Junior and U21s sections. Allied with some wise heads who have been involved in senior rugby for a number of seasons, the formula has proved to be a winning one.

Level 6 is the highest the club will have competed at and will come with the added mileage associated with travel not just to Surrey and Hampshire but also E & W Sussex, Kent and even Essex. It is a 14 team league so there will also be 4 more fixtures to fit in to the season calendar. Still, all these challenges shall be embraced and hopefully overcome of course.

Before then though there remain five games left to play – Twickenham (A), Old Emanuel (H), Old Reigatian (H), Old Cranleighan (A) & Old Alleynian (H) – and the team will have to maintain the high standards set to this point if the umblemished record is to be maintained!

Regardless of what remains in 2018-19 this has aleady been a season to be proud of, we hope you’ve enjoyed what you have seen and will continue to lend your support in the next couple of months and the years to come.

On Saturday, 5th of January, three old boys teams, including circa 40 old boys took on the School first, second and third XIs at West Barnes Lane at 11am.  This was the first time that the old boys have managed to get three teams together for this fixture and we were very much looking forward to the event!