It's a wrap! Scotch delivers a sport season to remember

The Summer sport season, the last for the Year 12s, has come to a fantastic end. All boys have played with the passion, spirit, and sportsmanship expected from a Scotch boy. While not everyone has seen success and not every team has won the league, everyone tried their hardest and played in the right spirit, no matter the sport or the division.

This season has seen some brilliant individual and team highlights. A special mention to the swimmers who won the PSA Swimming Carnival taking home the Tregonning Cup for the first time in 38 years. To put that into perspective, Scotch teacher Mr Hindle was in Year 12 as Head Boy when this feat was last achieved. While the carnival was at HBF stadium this year, it was held at Beatty Park back when Scotch last achieved swimming glory! Now it is onto the Athletics Team in Term 3 to try and mirror the swimmers’ success.

Across the rest of the PSA sports, Scotch had another terrific season:

• The Firsts Basketball finished fifth.

• The Firsts Cricket finished fourth.

• The Firsts Tennis Finished fifth.

• The Firsts Volleyball finished sixth.

• The Firsts Water Polo finished third.

Overall, there were some marvellous achievements by all Scotch teams.

The Basketball teams produced some memorable performances with all boys trying their hearts out. The Firsts were looking to

the future finishing fifth with some promising signs ahead. There was even a Year 9 student who managed to debut in the Firsts which, of course, is an incredible achievement. Whether it was the 9C or Firsts Basketball Teams, all boys played in the right Scotch spirit no matter the result.

In Cricket, all the years had a season with highlights a plenty. The Firsts’ season started remarkably with a win and a fantastic century from Captain Hayden Henschel. Overall, they finished fourth in a very tight Darlot Cup cricket competition won by Christ Church. Josh Griffin and Hayden Henschel managed the fairytale finish for their Darlot cricket careers both ending with 127 runs with a win against Trinity. It wasn’t just the Firsts who performed successfully, however, with all teams performing well. The Fourths Cricket Team topped their division losing just one game. The season was topped off with an exhilarating win against Hale and then a win over Trinity to round out the season. The Thirds Cricket and Seconds Cricket teams, whose seasons were not quite as successful, saw some great development of the players with mass improvement.

Water Polo also had an incredibly strong season, finishing third overall with an incredible one goal win over Trinity. Out of the summer PSA sports, Water Polo was the best performing team. What makes their achievement even more outstanding is the large number of Year 10s in the team, making them one to watch for this year’s Dickinson Shield.

While Volleyball had a tough season with teams filled with boys playing for the first time, they did an amazing job of improving, finally winning a game against Guildford later in the season. It was great to have some Year 12s transfer from their respective sports to head Volleyball in the right direction with the Year 12s in Firsts doing an incredible job of mentoring the younger boys in the team. The fact there were two Year 9s and a Year 10 in the Firsts Volleyball Team is a very exciting prospect for the future. The Seconds Volleyball Team topped their division with many of the boys in Years 10 and 11 proving their case to be up for selection for Firsts next year.

The rowers also had a good season, training hard for six months with the Firsts finishing fourth in Head of the River and overall coming fifth in the Hamer Cup. Rowing is arguably the toughest of the summer sports, so it is amazing what the boys have accomplished and endured with their many 4am starts. As Captain of Boats quoted in his address to the school “you don’t have to be crazy to do rowing, but it does help”.

Finally, the Tennis boys also fought hard, finishing with five wins and seven losses in the Firsts. After two years winning the Corr Cup, unfortunately the boys couldn’t repeat it for a third year. Led by Captain Rob Eastman, however, the teams focused on growth and development for upcoming seasons, and it was still an incredible effort to win nearly half of their fixtures for the year.

Henry Feutrill Vice-Captain of School (Operations)