Winchester College- Sports

Looks to me as if you should be looking at Wellington College. Sport is taken very seriously and boarding is flexible at weekends.

"I don't think Id see much of him......and the boarding arrangements which don't seem to offer much flexibility."
Win Coll's boarding arrangement don't offer any flexibility. At the weekend the boys cannot come out on Saturday night until the U6th and then only 1 Saturday every half term. Up till the U6th they can come home on Sundays but only after chapel which on alternate Sundays doesn't end till 1130 am. I thought I understood from friends that Eton's boarding arrangement are slightly more flexible.
Sport is never going to be big at a Win Coll, as said above it's just not in it's make up, the non mainstream sports are often more successful than the usual mainstream ones eg Cricket especially against other schools but the boys are often mainly only winning on school circuits if your DS has ambitions to be successful at higher levels e.g. successful against reputable non school clubs etc then Win Coll again is not really the place because the school is very reluctant to give the boys time out to go to competitions attending chapel on a Sunday takes priority.

Workingtoohard if your DS wants to play rugby or has ambitions to be a professional sportsman or wants termtime weekday evening release for county training forget Winchester. The A / B squads in cricket and football are serious and well coached however the teams will have a smaller pool of boys to select from compared to a school like Eton which is so much larger or other schools that attract mainly sporty boys. The athletics, crosscountry and minor sports are very good whilst tennis and rowing are not bad at all. The advantage for the above is that boys can focus on them rather than having time divided between main team sports and minor sports.

Basically apart from the criteria in my first sentence your DS will have what he needs to develop and enjoy sport and play for serious university teams, he may actually find other sports he prefers aside from the main team sports and be able to focus on them by daily training. The downside of relatively fewer very sporty boys has to be balanced with the advantages of Winchester including its unique academic programme and in your case proximity to school.

Working,
There are some very knowledgable Winchester parents who post here and can give you more views but if I haven't put you off completely , DS is at home at the moment, so if you wanted to PM with any specific questions then he would be happy to answer them.

Agree with Darkling - it is not in the DNA of the school. WC is a brilliant school for academic, thinking children, but there is no compulsory team sport after the first year. Beautiful place, great facilities but a lot of the boys just aren't into it, and so those that fancy a game of cricket for example get beaten regularly by those schools where sport ranks alongside academics. Are you looking at Eton? Masses of team sports there...!

Should have said - DS is at Wincoll.

Just asked DS.
On the positive side (apart from rugby) WC has excellent facilities to do pretty much any sport you want to do. They are good at some of the less mainstream sports e.g. fives, squash, he thinks fencing as well.
However, the ethos of the school is not the same as e.g. Radley. If your son excels at team sports and results are important and outweigh any other aspect of the school then he says you have a legitimate reservation. However, if you just like and want to do a lot of sport then you have great facilities and ample opportunity.