Squash

Squash started on a keen note this term, there being 22 entries for the Junior Competition, restricted to boys under 16, and 29 in the Open Competition. These competitions progressed steadily throughout the term until the climax was reached in the last fortnight.

In the Junior Competition, Fairweather and Ratcliffe reached the final, which the former won comfortably, 9—I, 9 o, 9-1.

In the Open Competition, the four seeded players duly reached the semi-finals, in which J. A. Hannon beat P. J. Dennis, 3—o, and W. H. N. Fairweather beat R. Parker, 3-2. In the final Fairweather proved himself slightly better than Hannon and won, 9-4, 5-9, 9-2, 9-5. Fairweather, for his oustanding achievement in winning both competitions, was presented with a memento by the Headmaster.

There were also three School matches during the term. The first, against the Staff, resulted in a win for the Staff by 3 games to 2.

Mr. Harding beat P. J. Dennis, 9-3, 9-2, 9-2. Mr. Blunt beat W. H. N. Fairweather, 9-4, i o-8, 9-5. Mr. Sootheran beat R. Parker, 7-9, 9-5, 9-3, 9-6. J. A. Hannon beat Mr. Crews, 9-3, 9-5, 9-4. R. D. Watson beat Mr. Jeffs, 9-2, 9-10, 5-9, 9-5, 9—I.

On 5th March, the School played York Railway Institute at the Railway Gym. A win by 4 games to I for the Railway Institute was not as overwhelming as the result suggests; as J. A. Hannon was absent, a reserve had to be brought in and the team re-shuffled.

S. Fletcher beat R. Parker, 3—o. W. H. N. Fairweather beat K. Cousins, 3-2. H. Neilson beat R. D. Watson, 3-2. B. Wilson beat P. J. Dennis, 3—o. D. Greenwood beat E. D. hornton, 3—I.

In a return match on r9th March, the School had their revenge, winning by 4 games to I.

W. H. N. Fairweather beat S. Fletcher, 3-2. J. A. Hannon beat K. Cousins, 3—I. B. Wilson beat R. Parker, 3—o. P. J. Dennis beat D. Greenwood, 3-2. R. D. Watson beat H. Ormiston, 3—o.

The Inter-House Squash matches were played towards the end of term. In the semi-finals, Manor beat Temple and School House beat The Rise. As was expected, in the final, the more experienced School House team beat the Manor by 3 games to nil.

W. H. N. Fairweather beat W. Graham, 3—o. R. Parker beat N. B. Harrison, 3-2. J. A. Hannon beat W. Addy, 3—o.

We finish the term with great hopes for next season as it is likely all the members of the team will still be with us next year.

School Matches.

We have another successful term to report. Of the 6 matches originally planned, 2 had to be cancelled owing to pressure of exams., but of the 4 played we won 3 and drew r. The details are as follows :-

School v. Clifton Hospital. Won 4-3. School v. Bootham School. Drawn 34-3-1. School v. Nunthorpe School. Won 5-2. School v. Clifton Hospital. Won 7-2.

At the beginning of the term we were faced with the problem of finding two players to replace Samuels and Greenhalgh, who left us last term. The choice finally fell upon Harrison and Burgess, who played at 6th and 7th boards in the first match. Harrison in particular did very well and finished at 3rd board, having won all 4 matches. Burgess finished at No. 5 with 3 wins.

Other individual successes of the regular players are as follows :-

Jenkins (1st). Won 2. Drawn i. Goode (2nd). Won 2. Daneff (4th). Won 2. Ham (7th). Won 2.

Allanson and Shaw also played in the last two matches, the former doing very well in winning both his matches. Herring also played in the last match and won his game.

The first 2 matches were most exciting; after losing the first 3 games at Clifton Hospital, the team rallied and wins from Jenkins, Daneff, Ham and Harrison gave us the victory. Against Bootham a hard match resulted in a draw—no decision being possible on the 1st board as both sides were equal.

The season's results are : Played 8, Won 7, Drawn 1.

House Chess.

In the semi-finals of the Inter-House Chess, School House gained a good win over Temple, Herring being the only Templar to win.

The other semi-final resulted in a 4—I victory to the Manor. The Manor who, having 3 School players, were expected to win, were given an early shock by Shaw's win over Harrison.

In the final Manor beat School House, 4—I, Parker of School House putting up a stiff fight to beat Berg of Manor.

ATHLETICS

Last year we had no Athletics at all : the weather did not even allow us to think about a track. And so this year, when we came to standards, cross-country, and team-building, we found that Juniors had mysteriously become Seniors, and many Intermediates had never appeared as Juniors. Our promising athletes of two years ago had 41

missed an important year in their development, and this had its effect upon our Senior performances. And we found, too, that in this very short term, we had a new and serious rival in hockey, which kept some of our best Seniors occupied in School matches for a considerable amount of our three weeks.

But the weather was on the whole kind to us, and we ran a full programme of Standards, and also managed, before Sports Day, to hold an informal Inter-House Relay meeting, at the end of which a Staff team was narrowly beaten after a very good race.

In Standards we once more had the five age groups with which we experimented two years ago, and they obviously have considerable advantages over the old system. The number of High Standards continues to rise in a very satisfactory way, and Jackson, R. H., Fairweather, Chadwick, Blincoe, Goodburn, Unwin, Fletcher, Kershaw, Kendell, Baker and Speight were outstanding in the number of points they gained in Standards. There are still those, however, who are content with Low Standards in one or two events, and who do not realise that Standards are devised to encourage improvement of individual performances. As usual the result of Standards was very close, the House averages being Temple 9.48, School House 8.68, Rise 8.44 and Manor 8.18 points per boy. Such a result left the destination of the Athletics Shield very much in doubt.

With so little time at our disposal, team-building for the Ampleforth match was very difficult, and we were pleased .to find that we had made so few mistakes in choosing our team with inadequate trials. The weather for the Ampleforth match could not have been worse, for it rained throughout the match. Nevertheless we had a most enjoyable afternoon, and the many Peterites who travelled to Ampleforth must have been delighted with the lead which our team built up in the early events. Special mention is due to Speight for his High Jump, for although he only started to "roll" this year, he developed a fine and effective style. Kershaw and Blincoe, in the Intermediate and Junior events, were outstandingly good, but once again we were well beaten in the Senior events, and Ampleforth finished comfortably in the lead, with 61 points against our 41. The lesson of our last two matches is abundantly clear : it is that whilst our Junior athletes are good, lack of practice prevents them fulfilling their promise when they become Seniors. Our middle distance runners, too, lack experience and pacejudgment, and much remains to be done if we are to produce a good Senior team. After the Ampleforth match Athletics Colours were awarded to Speight and Slegg, and Colts Colours to Kershaw.

Sports Day was fine, and the track in excellent condition. From the start Temple built up a commanding lead, and it soon became obvious that for all except Templars, the main point of interest was the newly-instituted io points for the second House. After an exciting struggle, Rise beat School House by i ri points, whilst Temple, with twelve first places, including all the relays, had a lead of 67 points over 42

Rise. The performances were good on the whole, with three new records, viz. : Goodburn's 5 mins. 13.4 secs. in the Intermediate Mile; Blincoe's 25.8 secs. in the Junior 220 yards; and Kershaw's Intermediate Long Jump of 18 ft. 4 ins. It is clear that with more confidence on the board, Kershaw could develop into a very useful jumper. And we were delighted to hear that in the London Athletic Club meeting he was third in the Junior too yards. This is our first success in this meeting, which attracts the best schoolboy athletes in the country, but we hope it is the first of many.

CROSS-COUNTRY, 1st MARCH, 1948

As usual we ran House teams of 8 with 6 to count. The weather for the race was good, but rain for the previous few days made the going rather heavy. The course was slightly different, and we started the race on the Golf Course to avoid the congestion as the runners leave the School grounds. Goodburn (R.) went away at the start, and the experts shook their heads and wondered where he would "crack". But although those behind him tried hard, he led throughout and finished a well-run race in 20 mins. 6.1 secs. He promises very well, and we hope he will do a great deal for School Athletics before he leaves us. With Thornton second, it seemed that Rise were going to win the race, but some very good packing by School House (3, 4, 6, g), cancelled out the early lead and laid the foundation for a good win.

Result

Goodburn (R.) 2. Thornton, E. D. (R.) 3. Hannon (S.H.) 4. Unwin (S.H.) 5. Slegg (T.) 6. Wilson (S.H.) Time: 20 mins. 6.1 secs.

House Placing :-

Manor Rise

so I

II 12 19

2 7 16

22 18 27

23

Total to'

- 67

School House 3 4 6 9 13 Tcmplc 5 8 14

15 17

24 20

59 — 79

ST. PETER'S SCHOOL v. AMPLEFORTH COLLEGE

At Ampleforth, 17th March.

Junior ioo Yards: I. P. J. Blincoe (S.P.); 2. E. Robinson (S.P.); 3. T. C. Dewey (A.). Time: 11.9 secs. Intermediate ioo Yards: 1. M. E. Kershaw (S.P.); Vincent (A.). Time: 11.I secs. 2. ; 3. P. J. Senior ioo Yards: I. H. Vincenti (A.); 2. M. Speight (S.P.); 3. J. M. Graham (S.P.). Time: it secs.

Senior High Jump : 1. M. Speight (S.P.); 2. F. C. Wadsworth (A.); 3. P. T. Baker (S.P.). Height : 5 ft. ri ins. Intermediate Long Jump : r. M. E. Kershaw (S.P.); 2. P. J. Vincent (A.); 3. J. D. Wall (S.P.). Distance : 18 ft. r ins. Senior Half Mile : r. H. B. Meynell (A.); 2. G. A. Hay (A.); 3. A. M. Kendell (S.P.). Time : 2 mins. 14.8 secs. Intermediate 440 Yards : 1. P. H. Martin (A.); 2. J. W. Baker (A.); 3. M. G. Goodburn (S.P.). Time : 56.8 secs. Senior 440 Yards : t. R. F. Kirby (A.); 2. P. C. Cowper (A.); 3. F. C. Slegg (S.P.). Time: 56.1 secs. Senior Long Jump : 1. F. C. Wadsworth (A.); 2. R. Parker (S.P.); 3. W. M. Hopkins (A.). Distance : 17 ft. t ri ins. Senior Mile : 1. G. A. Hay (A.); 2. J. McEvoy (A.); 3. E. D. Thornton (S.P.). Time : 5 mins. 6.2 secs. Junior Relay (4 x fro Yards): 1st. St. Peter's (E. Robinson; D. S. Chadwick; J. N. Tomlinson; P. J. Blincoe). Time : 52.2 secs. Intermediate Relay (r ro x 440 X 220 x 1 10 Yards) : ist Ampleforth College. Time : t min. 52.9 secs. Senior Relay (t ro x 440 X 220 x Ito Yards): 1st Ampleforth College. Time : t min. 46.2 secs.

Result : Ampleforth College 6i points. St. Peter's School 41 points.

INTER-HOUSE ATHLETICS, 23rd MARCH, 1948

Standards : Manor 168; Rise 178; School House 184; Temple 200. Senior Mile : t. Kendell (R.); 2. Graham, J. M. (T.); 3. Thornton, E. D. (R.); 4. Slegg (T.). Time : 5 mins. 16 secs. Inter. Mile: r. Goodburn (R.); 2. Unwin (S.H.); 3. Wilson (S.H.); 4. Ratcliff (M.). Time : 5 mins. 5335 secs. (Record). Senior too Yards : 1. Speight (M.); 2. Graham, W. (M.); 3. Graham, J. M. (T.); 4. Ryder, J. M. (S.H.). Time : 1133; secs. Inter. too Yards : 1. Kershaw (T.); 2. Thompson, D. (R.); 3. Wall (R.); 4. Elliott (S.H.). Time : r t secs. Junior too Yards : r. Roe (T.); 2. Robinson (T); 3. Tomlinson (M); 4. Frost (S.H.). Time: 52 secs. Senior High Jump : r. Speight (M.); 2. Dryden (T.); 3. Baker (S.H.); 4. Graham, J. M. (T.) and Walter (S.H.). Height : 5 ft. 2 ins. Junior Long Jump : 1. Robinson (T.); 2. Fairweather (S.H.); 3. Baird (T.); 4. Gunning, A. N. W. (R.). Distance : 16 ft. 4 ins. Inter. Half Mile : 1. Goodburn (R.); 2. Unwin (S.H.); 3. Wilson (S.H.); 4. Hodd (M.). Time : 2 mins. 205 secs. Senior Half Mile : r. Kendell (R.); 2. Whitehead (M.); 3. Parker (S.H.); 4. Bird, G. W. (T.). Time : 2 mins. 13.5 secs. Senior 220 Yards : 1. Speight (M.); 2. Slegg (T.); 3. Warrington (R.); 4. Graham, J. M. (T.). Time: 24.8 secs. Inter. 220 Yards: t. Kershaw (T.); 2. Thompson (R); 3. Goodburn (R); 4. Dwyer (T.). Time : 25.6 secs. Junior 220 Yards : t. Blincoe (T.); 2. Roe (T.); 3. Chadwick (M.); 4. Annequin (R.). Time : 25.8 secs. (Record). Senior Long Jump : I. Graham, W. (M.); 2. Dryden (T.); 3. Parker (S.H.); 4. Ryder, J. M. (S.H.). Distance : 19 ft. 4 ins.