Swimming

Major colours were re-awarded to S. R. Dench (Capt.), P. D. Widdicombe (Vice-Capt.), R. C. Barker, and were awarded to J. P. Abbott, P. W. H. Chilman, J. N. Denison, S. W. Humphreys and R. A. Kaiser.

The rifle club owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Hirst and R.S.M. Power for much help, especially during the Summer Term. Without it shooting would not have been possible.

Individual and House awards for the year were: Green Howard Cup (.303 championship): Donegall Badge (best score at 200 yds.): R. C. Barker S. R. Dench

English XX Jewel (best individual score under

Marling conditions): M. C. J. Sunley House Aggregate Cup (highest average in classification): Grove Individual Cup (highest classification score): R. E. Craggs Recruit Cup (on classification scores): D. M. Ellison L.C.LeT.

Nineteen-seventy-six started well for the swimming team with the Seniors winning their section of the York Schools Swimming Competition and the Under-15s combined with St. Olave's Under-13s to win the Junior Relay Trophy. Chris Stubbs (Under 13 Back), Nigel Denison (Senior Fly), Peter Clare (Senior Breast) and Victor Matthews (Senior Free) all recorded individual wins.

The John Parry Relays (North of England Public Schools) were held at St. Peter's this year and were highlighted by our Colts Freestyle Relay win, in a new record time.

The new record was set in the heats of the competition by: —

Richard Pulleyn 26.7, Mike Johnston 26.9, Ian Hindhaugh 26.9, Kevin Clarkson 25.3 for a time of 1 min. 45.7 seconds.

The placings of the finalists were as follows: — 1st St. Peter's 1.46.7 2nd Bradford Grammar 1.48.3 3rd Bootham School 1.49.5 4th Barnard Castle 1.52.8

With Hindhaugh and Johnston still eligible next year, there is no reason not to expect another win, in yet another new record time.

Only four Inter-School matches were held this season. They were: —

Worksop College, home, won 159-124.

U.14 won 51-25, U.16 draw 49-49, Seniors won 59-50.

Durham School, home, lost 95-101.

U.15 lost 484-491, Seniors lost 464-512.

Bootham School, home, lost 111-117.

U.14 won 40-36, U.16 won 42-34, Seniors lost 29-47.

Welbeck College, home, won 54-31. Senior match only.

The Worksop match gave us a confidence booster for the early season though the signs of weakness, or rather our lack of depth at Under 16 and Senior levels, were a cause for concern. Nevertheless Kevin Clarkson started well with two Under 15 Freestyle records. His times were 25.5 for 50 yards and 60.2 for the 100 yards. Nigel Denison set a new Under 16 mark with his 28.3 for the 50 yards Butterfly and the Under 14 Medley 74

team of Chris Stubbs 15.7, Paul Greenwood 16.7, Justin McCarter 15.1 and Guy Nettleton 13.1 set a new School record of 60.6.

Against Durham the match result was in balance until the very last relay and were it not for the same old problem of cricket commitments, we would have registered a noteworthy win. Alas, we should be content with the fine swims of Kevin Clarkson, who had three individual wins, and Nigel Denison, who swam a superb 50 yards Butterfly in 27.1, which gave him a new senior record.

The Bootham match again showed how badly we need to be able to field a full strength side if we are to win fixtures. This match result was also decided by the last relay and the age group scores show clearly where our weakness lay!

Ian Hindhaugh equalled the School record of 27.2 for the 50 yards Freestyle, a time which he had already done in the School Sports.

In the annual St. Peter's Quadrangular, Barnard Castle were again easy winners and Bootham again just managed to beat us for second place after we had led the competition in its early stages.

The Inter-House Swimming Sports produced five new record times— Kevin Clarkson in the U.15 50 yards Freestyle 25.8, Ian Hindhaugh in the U.14 50 yards Freestyle with 27.2 and three Relay records. Both Under 15 relay records fell to the powerful Manor House team and Queen's Seniors set a new Medley mark. The competition was won comfortably by the Manor with Queen's and School House runners up.

Colours were re-awarded to Victor Matthews, Tom Reay, Nigel Denison and Kevin Clarkson, whilst Martin Gray and Roddy Turner were new colours.

Congratulations to Kevin Burns (Queen's 1971-72) on his selection for the Montreal Olympics and to Nigel Denison, who takes over as Captain for 1977.

Our thanks go to Mr. Tiffany, who is leaving the School, for his devotion to this sport and for developing it within the School to its present high standards. V.V.M.

STANDARDS

This year the Swimming Standards programme was both modified and up-dated, so that it could be incorporated into the general physical education syllabus and therefore tested during class periods. Because of the present allocation of "games time" it is still not possible to test all boys in the School, but each boy tested this year had the same opportunity as the next, and so a fair comparison of standards can be made by working out the average points per boy.

The old "Low-Mid-High" standards have been replaced by an elaborate system of tables on which the slightest improvement can be registered. This eliminates the long gaps between standard points, and each boy has something to aim for with each of his attempts at standards.

Everyone swims 25 yards of each of the four strokes—butterfly, backcrawl, breaststroke, frontcrawl, and their percentile ranking can be registered and compared with other boys in their age group, both in St. Peter's and in other secondary schools around the country.

In working out the Inter-House competition scores, we use a scale of 1-12 points for each of the four strokes, and a score of 40 points and over places a boy in the top percentile for his age, in the country. 75

THIRD FORMS

Points gained

Boys Average points tested per boy Position Dronfield 400 13 30.7 3rd= Grove 421 14 30.7 3rd= Manor 290 9 32.2 2nd Queen's 429 17 25.2 6th Rise 444 13 34.1 1st School House 395 13 30.4 5th Temple 402 16 25.1 7th FOURTH FORMS Dronfield 175 10 17.5 5th Grove 166 13 13.0 7th Manor 360 14 25.7 1st Queen's 242 13 18.6 4th Rise 257 12 21.4 3rd School House 304 14 21.7 2nd Temple 146 11 13.2 6th FIFTH FORMS Dronfield 214 10 21.4 7th Grove 206 9 22.9 6th Manor 223 8 27.9 3rd Queen's 269 9 29.8 2nd Rise 175 7 25.0 5th School House 223 7 31.8 1st Temple 190 7 27.1 4th

The following boys gained over 40 points in their respective sections: - THIRD FORMS J. E. A. Brown, Queen's, 45 points. I. D. Hindhaugh, School House, 43 points. A. H. Kershaw, School House, 43 points.

C. E. Irwin, Rise, J. R. J. McCarter, Manor, and I. G. Wilson, Temple, all had 42, with J. Clayton, Rise, and J. C. Hicks of Dronfield both gaining 40. FOURTH FORMS K. P. Clarkson, Manor, 41 points. M. J. Tyson, Rise, 41 points. A. T. Barton, School House, 40 points. FIFTH FORMS M. Gray, School House, 42 points. A. R. Turner, Queen's, 42 points. G. W. Tait, Queen's, 40 points.

TOTALS AND RESULTS Accumulative Points No. of Total boys tested Average Position Dronfield 789 33 23.9 5th Grove 793 36 22.0 6th Manor 873 31 28.2 1st Queen's 940 39 24.3 4th Rise 876 32 27.3 2nd School House 922 34 27.1 3rd Temple 743 34 21.8 7th

THE H2O POLO CLUB

The opening of the season saw us withdraw from the West Yorkshire League due to travelling problems and therefore most of the season's games had to be on a friendly basis. 1975 League Results: — Halifax Water Polo Club Home Lost 4-9 Halifax Water Polo Club Away Lost 1-12 Huddersfield Otters Away Lost 0-1 Huddersfield Otters Home Lost 0-2

Not too impressive a start to the year on first sight, but it must be remembered that Halifax have been the National Junior Champions for three out of the past five years and they had no less than five Yorkshire County players in their team and one Great Britain International.

These were early season games for our team, who lacked both fitness and match practice after the long summer lay-off.

Results improved as the year went on : —

Spenborough Home Won 5-3 Bradford Metropolitan Away Drew 3-3 Bradford Metropolitan Home Won 5-3 Huddersfield New College Away Lost 2-4 Huddersfield New College Home Won 11-0

In the annual Yorkshire Championship, which is run on a "knockout" basis, our U.18 side reached the semi-final stage. In the quarterfinal we played Sheffield Dolphins and registered one of the longest games on record in the County. After "full time" the score was 7-7 and so two periods of extra time were played to decide the outcome of the game. After these two periods the score was 8-8. It took a further four periods of extra time for St. Peter's to emerge the eventual winners by 11 goals to 9.

We unfortunately played the semi-final directly after the Easter break and it took the team too long to settle. We faced a three-goal deficit after the first quarter and although we managed to reduce that deficit to seven goals to six at one stage the eventual score was ten to seven against us.

We played friendly games against the following sides: — Bradford Grammar School Away Drew 8-8 Bradford Grammar School Home Won 7-4 St. John's College Away Won 6-4

We also entertained the Army national team and with the help of David Spencer, Peter Kendrew and Trevor Tiffany the score of 9-6 against was by no means discreditable.

We had several matches with our old friends from Scarborough Swimming Club which seemed to work out in our favour each time, though the U.16 side are having much closer contested games as the 1-1 away draw, and the 5-2 home win would suggest.

We congratulate V. V. Matthews on a fine season as Captain and on his selection for the Yorkshire County U.19 squad.

Gary King had another very good season in goal and he also is to be congratulated for his County squad selection and his representative honours for the North of England U.16 side. 77