Parents’ Association

Standing: S.Badrock, T.McKenna, P.Youens, D.McKenna, J.Egan, Mr D.Esler Seated: P.Hamblin, J.Dickinson, S.Jamieson, R.Semmel, T.Nolan, S.McNamara

Senior Chess

ACC table tennis was introduced in 1999 and, since then, it has really taken on as a keenly contested competition. There have been two very noticeable developments, namely, the standard of competition has improved enormously and the number of students vying for places in the De La team has grown. 2004 was quite a successful year for De La. The competition was divided into two groups and De La was placed in White Group which, we suspected was the weaker of the two. After a titanic struggle against Salesian in Round One, De La went through the home and away games undefeated with good wins over St Paul’s, Parade, and Whitefriars. Our suspicions about Blue Group being stronger were realized when we were drawn to play St Joseph’s North Melbourne in the semi-finals only to be beaten by a much better team on the day. In the play-off for third place Salesian managed to reverse the result from earlier in the season and De La had to settle for fourth place...a good result overall. The highlight of the season for the coach was the keen competition amongst the young men who were so keen to play each week and the gracious way in which those who missed out accepted the decision. The standard of the squad members was extraordinarily even which made the selection process very difficult, however, everyone in the squad got at least one chance to represent De La during the season. Congratulations to captain Dan Mills who lead by example all season and to Ryan Semmell who was undefeated in singles. Congratulations also to all players for their involvement, enthusiasm, cheerfulness and good sportsmanship. You were a pleasure to coach.

Mr Doug Esler Coach In October, 7 Year 10s and Kevin Nguyen, Year 7, competed in the Annual ACC Junior Chess Competition. The day started with mostly losses in the opening round, but our luck turned for the better after the third round, when we moved up to third on the ladder, a drastic improvement from the ACC Chess Open Tournament in August. At the end of the day only one player had not won more than one game. Overall a very good day: De La Salle finished fourth on the second division ladder. We did not have a first division team. A good day which allowed the coach to realise who in the team is capable of playing under the stress which is ‘Lightning Chess’. Dacid Hunter