Sports Centre

The Park has 35 acres of games pitches, a nine-hole golf course, an astroturf hockey pitch, hard tennis and netball courts, a shooting range, and an indoor sports complex, which includes two Sports Halls.

 

The first sports hall we look at on our tour is Jowett. Opened by Princess Anne, it provides a large multi-purpose hall for a variety of sports, and includes indoor Cricket nets for that vital winter practice before the touring South Africans arrive! Here too we find the two squash courts, one with a snazzy glass back, and the new changing rooms for senior and junior girls.

 

A little further on we enter the Queen’s Hall, opened by HM The Queen in 1991, when she was one of our Grandparents, and named after her! A short flight of stairs takes us up to the mezzanine level where we look down first on a lovely 25-metre swimming pool, where the children can also learn scuba-diving and kayaking. On the other side is perhaps the finest gymnasium in any UK school. The highly qualified coaches provide expert tuition for beginners and National-Team members alike. The sunken trampoline is a real attraction for many of the children, who need not be gymnasts, as is the indoor climbing-wall at one end of the gym. Let’s hope that when you pay your real visit you see the gymnasts in action. They are quite amazing!

 

The mezzanine itself works very well for the Judo and Karate hobbies in the evenings, and in the mornings you might well encounter a Mothers and Toddlers Gym session or possibly the tinies from the Pre-Prep learning the basics of gymnastics.

 

At the end of the mezzanine we step out onto a terrace which looks over the Astroturf. The heavy Motcombe clay is unforgiving in the wet, and the Astro has proved a real boon. It was opened by Sean Kerly in 1995 after he had scored a hat-trick in helping the Headmaster’s Invitation X1 to a 4-3 victory over Cambridge University in the inaugural match. The girls use it in the Autumn and boys in the Spring for Hockey, whilst in the Summer it converts very effectively into nine excellent tennis courts. Just the other side of the trees one catches a glimpse of Ivy Ground where the four hard courts for tennis and netball are located as well as several playing fields and all-weather cricket nets.

 

The other playing fields are largely to the south of where we stand and here, depending on the time of year, we might see rugby, football or cricket in progress with some athletics too in the Summer. “Sport for All” is our watchword - not just sport most afternoons for all the children, in games groups which suit their talent and enthusiasm, but also teams for them, whatever their ability. We even have a 7th X1 in the older age-group! The sport at Port Regis is really successful, but it is also treated in just the right spirit: it is something to be enjoyed by children and a delightful way also for them to learn some very important lessons about life, not least how to win and how to lose with good grace!

 

Click here to continue to the Dining Hall