Athletics

gramme of activities should be available to accommodate the wide range of physical abilities of most boys in the School and provide an outlet for satisfying, constructive physical activity without detracting from the traditional major games in the School.

For largely economic reasons, any unused time, particularly in the evenings, has allowed the School to hire out the Sports Centre to outside organisations. The greatest demand so far has come from local badminton, soccer and cricket clubs. In addition vacation courses have been run by the School in swimming and cricket, both of which were well attended.

Individual approaches have been made by Old Peterites concerning the use of the Sports Centre. We would encourage the Old Peterites to make use of these facilities on a regular club basis. Anyone interested should pursue this through the O.P. Club.

Whatever intrinsic benefits Peterites gain from the Sports Centre will not be made apparent immediately, but it is to be hoped that with time any increase in the quality of physical education in the School as a result of the Sports Centre will be manifest in increased expertise in a wide range of physical activities, greater satisfaction from the pursuit of such activities and a desire for continued participation in later life. J.W.R.H.

ATHLETICS, 1974-75

In the Athletics Standards Competition, which runs for the first three weeks of the Autumn term, Queen's eventually won in a close finish with Manor. Rise finished third after being well down at the halfway stage.

The final positions were Queen's 1st Average 9.07 points per boy Manor 2nd 8.80 Rise 3rd 8.06 Temple 4th 7.66 School House 5th 7.01 Grove 6th 5.71 Dronfield 7th 5.56

Congratulations go to the following boys, who gained maximum points for their houses:

SET C. M. D. Willetts (Queen's), C. J. Hirst (Temple), 22 points.

SET E. J. R. Markwick-Smith (Grove), K. P. Clarkson and C. P. Sanderson (Manor) 18 points.

The Inter-House Sports tended to follow much the same pattern as the standards competition, with Queen's and The Manor again being the main contenders.

The standard of competition was as high as it has ever been, with five new School records and a further two being tied.

J. N .Denison (Queen's) set a new mark of 12.5 in the Junior 100 metres. C. J. Hirst (Temple) took three clear seconds from the 800 metres time with a run of 2 mins. 12.0 secs., and he also set a new Intermediate 1500 metre record of 4.32.0, this time taking 11 seconds from the old mark. J. R. Markwick-Smith (Grove) was an easy winner in the Junior 39

Long Jump with a new record destance of 4.66 metres. The Manor Junior Relay Team also altered the record books with a very good 53.5 sec. win.

R. M. Craig (Queen's) managed to equal the Junior High Jump record with 1.45 metres (4 feet 9 inches) and P. M. Witty (Rise) also equalled a record with a time of 25.4 in the Intermediate 200 metres.

Queen's "ran out" eventual winners with 97 points from The Manor, who had 79-1 points; Temple were placed third with 55 points.

R. F. Pulleyn won the Gofton Cup for the Senior 400 metres; M. J. Day took the Clive Lewis Cup for his sprinting performances and M. P. Haw won both the Robinson Walker Cup and the Emsley Cup for the 800 and 1500 metre events respectively.

CROSS COUNTRY, 1975

A change of rule this year proposed that all boys ran the Junior event and the first 12 in each house counted towards the team result. This meant that 146 fit and agile boys set out on the race (and in true character building form, 146 returned) and although Queen's had only one runner (J. N. Denison 6th) placed in the "top 16", good team work gave them the overall win.

D. C. Smakman of The Grove won in a time of 17 mins. 31.2 secs. and because the race was run over a new course and distance, this time now stands as the Junior record. R. G. Sharp (School House) managed to place third and in so doing prevented J. P. and J. R. Ross (Dronfield) taking the minor places—they placed 2nd and 4th respectively, but their fine efforts could not keep their house team from 7th place.

The Senior Long Run result was "as expected" with C. J. Hirst taking the Goodburn Cup for individual first place. The only question in doubt was if he could set a new record time, as the old record of 23 mins. 23 secs. had stood since 1955. The quality of that time is better understood when you realise that Robin Walker (Queen's) could only manage 23 mins. 37 secs. with his attempt in 1971.

Chris reduced the record by an amazing 25 secs. with a time of 22 mins. 58.4 secs. and he is obviously going to be very difficult to beat in 1976.

D. M. H. Phillips (Rise) was second and J. B. Hart (Grove) ran in third.

As in the Junior event, Queen's again dominated the "middle order" running with 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 19th places—by which they narrowly won the team title from an unlucky Manor team whose captain M. P. Haw had to miss the race owing to influenza. The Grove improved well on their Inter-House Athletics result and gained third place. T.T.

BIATHLON

The York and Humberside Biathlon Championships were held last December at St Peter's. Three boys from School competed in the event 40