May 2004

It is almost the end of the holidays and our rugby team will be gathering today in Harare for the Cottco Festival at Prince Edward and I have been drawing up trial teams for the first practice of my U14 hockey boys so the focus is definitely on winter sports. For that reason I must write a quick report on how our athletics went over the second half of term. In many ways the athletics season can be summed up in one word : wet. We don’t want to complain about rain and it is good to see rivers flowing and dams filling up but no-one ever seems to remember such a prolonged period of rainfall. We have received more in a shorter time but not known so many days with rain turning the field into a quagmire more suited to an Irish rugby match than an athletics track.

Due to the wet weather the standards programme was a complete wash out and abandoned in favour of school aths training and Founders’ Day heats on the odd occasion it was dry enough to do anything. Relay day was also postponed from its scheduled date so the team went to CBC for the Inter Schools Relays without any serious competitive warm up. I did not actually attend the meeting myself and so have little to report except that we ended up in third position. A couple of things conspired against us to lose us points which certainly would have made us second and could have given us first place but that’s sport and overall Orlando Fernandes was very pleased with the team performance.

Inter House Relays did finally take place and turned out to be a very close fought affair with at least 4 Houses at the top at one stage or another and even at the end there was not much between them but in the end it was Chubb who came out on top a feat they repeated at Founders Day.

Founders Day

The Founders Day Athletics meeting was delayed this year as a result of the unseasonably late rains. In March the Inter-house Relays had had to be postponed, twice in fact, until a later date as the rain teemed down incessantly, and in the week leading up to Founders Day itself rain turned the fields into a swamp. Thus Founders Day had to be rescheduled to Tuesday 7 April, the day before the College officially closed for the April holidays, but even then the continuing damp weather made it touch and go whether it would actually happen. It seemed a particularly unlucky circumstance that Founders Day might have to be cancelled altogether in the 50th Anniversary year. As it was standards and athletics training had been badly affected by the weather.

However, the day itself somehow stayed dry even though a huge storm had hovered perilously close on the previous afternoon and after lunch on the day a glowering blue-black storm cloud and much ominous rumbling of thunder threatened to close the meeting early. But all was well and the events were concluded in good time for prize-giving. Some of the results may have been affected by the fact that several top athletes, including a contender for the Victor Ludorum, had already left for a Hockey Tour in South Africa, but that is not to detract by the competitive spirit and effort shown by all involved. Although Chubb were the eventual winners it was not a run away victory and right through the day places were swapped from top to bottom, Hervey, the traditional athletics specialists, just avoiding the ignominy of last place by pipping Founders in the final relays. Oates were second and Tredgold a much improved third, George Grey 4th.  The Victor Ludorum was presented to Nqobile Mpala of Oates by Mrs Chingono, mother of the Captain of Athletics, Brian Chingono.

South African Inter-Provincials

Brian, also deputy head-boy this year, had been chosen to represent Zimbabwe in the Select Schools side at the South African Schools Inter-Provincial Championships held the previous week. Unfortunately the whole team came down with food poisoning shortly after their arrival and so did not perform optimally. Nevertheless, although Brian did not manage his best time (10,9secs) in the 100 metres coming in eleventh with a time of 11,1 seconds, in the 400 metres he achieved his personal best.  It was tough! according to Brian. A number of records were broken though it has to be said they were in relatively new events, but credit to the athletes all the same, especially Peter Trethowan who broke two:

The event which didn’t take place was the Inter Schools Meeting which was disappointing for our athletes who hoped to atone for certain failures at the Relays. We felt we had a very good chance of success but now we will never know!

To end with I have a couple of bits of news of other sports. Ross McTaggart took part in the Mashonaland U17 Squash Championships and ended up a very creditable third.

At the beginning of the holidays there were inter provincial age-group cricket tournaments. Gary Manchip, Ross Waghorn and Graham Swanepoel were selected for the U19 Matabeleland team. I haven’t heard full details but I believe Gary did well in both matches played. At U14 level, Falcon was represented by Dirk van Heerden and Raz Dube. Again I lack information but Raz tells me he took 7 wickets in the 3 one day matches they played which doesn’t sound too bad. I am better equipped to report on the U16s since I was in Mutare with them. Jason Graham had a fine all round performance as batsman and wicket keeper, the only boy to score a century. Jason Paterson and Daniel Landman also gave good accounts of themselves and if Drew Deary was not at his best he was not disgraced and entertained on the final day with an innings of 27 not out in 15 balls.
 

Richard Harrison

7th May 2004

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