Cricket - Bowled Over

The GPS Cricket season saw TSS wrap up 240 games played in Term One in 2021. This is 60 overall games more than any season in the last decade and is a tribute to our ground staff, coaches and TSS cricketers’ enthusiasm to compete, as well as some luck with weather! Congratulations to all teams on the positive involvement, many successes and how you played this season.

Our cricket players prepare well, look the part and play the part. This is a saying you have heard before from TSS Cricketers of which we are proud. We play a game that is based largely on failure, and you need to be resilient to be able to weather these bumps. The key is your attitude. When you look at the qualities of the young men in successful cricket teams, when you spend time with the coaches and captains and when you “feel” the culture of the school - attitude matters. …and resilience is what you get.

Congratulations to Cameron Sinfield who deservedly wins the 'John Glenn Trophy' for most outstanding Years 7 to 10 non First XI Player during the 2021 season. His performances in Captaining the Year 8A Team and his performances at the crease and on the field are testament to these efforts.

The Year 11C and First XI teams are the winners of the 'Most Successful Team' trophy for an undefeated and dominant season. Well done, gents!

Our coaches deserve a massive pat on the back. Your reliability, care for the boys, enthusiasm and knowledge of the game has shone through. We are a small school compared to some but we compete so well. Thank you and well done.

Congratulations to all award winners of Player’s Player awards now voted on by team members as this is a recognition of outstanding performance and teamwork to your team. The full acknowledgement follows.

TSS Cricket Senior Awards 2021

Player’s Player WINNERS

Year 7A Jonty Philp Year 7B James Artley Year 7C Tom Robertson

Year 7D William Stevenson Year 7E Leonardo Hughes Year 7F Fletcher Saville

Year 8A Cameron Sinfield Year 8B Raam Pema-Chawhan Year 8C Aidan Massey

Year 9A Riley Johnson Year 9B Jack Parkinson Year 9C Maverick Dennis

Year 10A Daniel Statham Year 10B Ben Brinsmead Year 10C Ned Cowan

Year 11A George Powell & Cooper Veivers Year 11B Asaad Vahidy Year 11C Zach Dart

Open Second XI Stirling Smith

Open Third XI “Col Hawtin Service Trophy” Jack Biddle

The John Glenn Trophy - Best Junior Cricketer Cameron Sinfield

Jack Sinfield

First XI Captain

Summarising what was the most dominant First XI Cricket season in recent times proves an elusive task, for there is no true way to encapsulate the stress, hard work, effort and focus that not just the First XI, but entire cricket family endured through words on a page. However, as it is my task to do just that, summarise the prolific 2021 TSS undefeated Premiership First XI, I will begin with an analogy.

Cricket is the perfect analogy for life itself. You could prepare all week, hit 1,000 balls in the nets, take a wicket with every ball in the warm up, and still get out first ball and go 0/100. There is no escaping the inevitability of the humility in cricket, for everyone gets ducks and everyone gets hit for runs. But every game there is a hero, someone who scores runs, someone who takes the winning wicket, catch or stumping, and it is necessary that you celebrate their achievements for without them you wouldn’t win. These (while sometimes unforgiving) sporting lessons lend themselves perfectly to entering somewhat blindly into the world outside of the comforting walls of The Southport School. This game reinforces resilience, adaptability, courage, hard work, celebration of others, collaboration and goal setting all within an eight hour game of a Saturday.

To say that each and every one of the First XI representatives for 2021 befitted those key life (and cricket) traits would be an understatement, for the way they carried themselves on and off the field played a pivotal role in the successful outcome of the season. Each man working for the one beside them, a true Band of Brothers.

It would be remiss of me not to highlight the great time and effort spent developing our team this year by our magnificent coaches, Mr Wallace, Mr Sperling and Mr Baker. Mr Sperling and Mr Baker, I have complete confidence in knowing that you will continue to grow and harness the seemingly endless talent pool of future TSS cricketers and I cannot thank you enough for being there over my cricketing journey here. Lastly, from all the boys in the First XI we give thanks and celebrate the finest cricketing coach TSS has ever seen – Mr Wallace, your infinite wisdom, care and tough but fair approach to the game has made us all not just better sportspeople, but better men.

Additionally, one coach in particular is due thanks, Mr Wilson who hangs up the boots on a fine 18 year coaching stint of teams such as the First XI, Year 11As and most recently the Second XI here at TSS. Thank you for all you have devoted to TSS Cricket over the years and I’m sure you’ll continue to find use for those famous Oakley sunglasses on Saturdays in the future, thank you Mr Wilson for your commitment to TSS Cricket.

So, from myself and on behalf of not just the First XI boys, but all the boys associated with cricket here at TSS, we thank the parents, coaches, umpires, groundsmen and staff for an excellent season of cricket. A perfect way to begin the year for the school, an undefeated premiership from the mighty First XI Cricket team.

GPS Gymnastics 2021

Mr Brett Newton

Director of Gymnastics

TSS Gymnastics has made a transition this year to the new venue at the Super Performance Centre (SPC) across the road from school. This venue is a state-of-the-art facility that has given us more space and new equipment to enable our gymnasts to reach their potential.

Congratulations to all our boys who competed at the GPS Championship. 2021 saw the introduction of GPS Gymnastics as a Foundation Cup. Essentially the format and competitors remained the same with the name change reflecting the fact that there are only five of the nine GPS schools competing. TSS finished a very credible third to BGS with BBC second. This is an amazing result when we consider the small number of gymnasts we have compared to our competitors.

The day started with Division 3 where we took second place again this year. Our team was polished and presented extremely well throughout the morning. TSS top performance went to Nick Graham who placed an incredible third overall only 1.40 points off first place. Nick’s results included a second on the pommel horse and a third on the high bar. Nick was strongly supported by Zack Marland sixth (with a first place on the high bar), John Cleverly 13th and debutante Jasper Power in 16th. Jasper has had a long wait to be eligible to compete at GPS and it was great to see him line up with his older peers to take his spot on the team.

Next up for competition was a combined Division 1 and 2 session. In Division 2 our sole competitor was Jayden Niddrie. Overall Jayden improved two places from last year taking seventh spot. This included a third on the rings and top 10 placings on all his other events.

This year our Division 1 team consisted of Kane Rodway, Cy Dacey and debutante for the division Dan Maurice. Strong performances from all three gymnasts gave TSS another second place behind BGS with BBC third. Just a week after winning two silver medals at the National Championships for Queensland, Kane was our best placed finisher in fifth place only 0.05 of a point in front of Cy in sixth place. Kane’s day included a second on the floor exercise. In his last year at TSS and coming back from 18 months out of competition with a back injury, Cy exceeded expectations to take third placings on floor, pommel horse and parallel bars. Newcomer to Division 1 Dan Maurice showed he was more than up to the task with strong routines and big moves across all apparatus. His double front on the floor exercise and handspring front on vault gaining a lot of attention from both his competitors and crowd.

Thank you, Matt Stevens (ATK14), Kaimana Barry (RAD17) and Cody Corbett (WAL18) to our coaches for your support and guidance in the TSS 2021 GPS campaign. It is always special having Old Boys involved in any sport with their passion and experience.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate every boy who competed on the day. Most of whom were also doing a season in another sport parallel to their gymnastics’ commitment. Thanks to you, the mums and dads who have also given your sons the opportunity to be involved in this great sport.