SUMMER SPORT ROUND-UP

Director of Sport Mr Johnathan Redenbach updates us with all the summer sport action.

 

032A9427.JPG

Tennis

One of the great pleasures of the recently completed summer season was being able to get through the season without a significant weather interruption. This was especially appreciated by our tennis players, who had a remarkably successful season, winning 80% of their matches. The sport is thriving, with a large number of Form I boys wanting to play tennis this year. Tennis ended on a particularly strong note with the Second team taking out the competition for the first time since 1976. Marcus Bowes (VI) had a wonderful season for the Seconds, winning all fourteen of his singles matches.

The First team, impressively captained by Christian McIntyre (VI), won five of its matches, but was always competitive, and regularly took points from higher-placed teams. Finally, congratulations to Jeffrey Chen (VI), who won GPS Seconds representation for the third successive year.

Basketball

Basketball, the sport played by more Grammar boys than any other, had a good season, too. It was especially heartening to see so much promise in our younger players, starting with the U14s, who won seventy per cent of their games. The 14C team was the standout of the age group after going through the season undefeated, winning fourteen straight games in the process. The 13As also had an excellent season, beating Scots 66-57 in its final game to finish undefeated.

A highlight of the Open basketball division was the Second team winning the Plate Cup at Newington College late last year. The best team performance by the First team this season was the 98-96 win over Sydney High First in double-overtime at home in the third round of the GPS. A sensational individual effort was Heath Clarke’s (VI) twenty-one points from twenty-six at the foul line against St Joseph’s in round eleven. Heath’s tally that day included a run of seventeen points in a row. Another especially strong individual performer this season was Dom Stathis (VI), who was selected to represent the GPS Seconds.

DSC02009 (1).jpeg

Matthew Rivera (VI) and Mitchell Kruse (VI) – First and Second team captains, respectively – showed great leadership throughout the season. Matthew led from the front, both on the court and in training, while a key feature of Mitchell’s captaincy was his tireless work off the court to keep his players focused and inspired.

Cricket

The future also looks promising for Grammar’s cricketers. The 15A XI won the OSU Shield for ‘Most Successful Team’, with captain Myles Kapoor (III) having an impressive season, scoring 430 runs at an average of sixty-two. The club had four centurions this year, alongside six boys claiming more than five wickets in an innings and three boys taking hat-tricks.

The First XI, captained by Nirav Prasan (VI), won nine out of fourteen GPS matches to finish third on the table, which is the second top-three finish for our top team in the past three seasons. A couple of highlights were the narrow wins over Shore (Reuben Kapoor (VI) 82 not out; Zack Winslow (V) 5/38) and Scots (Nirav Prasan 73; Reuben Kapoor 83 not out). Nick Stanwell (VI) claimed thirty-three wickets in all competitions for the season and was awarded the Eric P Barbour Trophy along with the Albert ‘Tibby’ Cotter Trophy for the Most Outstanding Cricketer in the First XI. Nick finished the season as the third-top wicket-taker in the GPS with twenty-six wickets.

Four boys were selected to play in the AAGPS XI: Nick Stanwell (who captained against CAS), Reuben Kapoor (the fifth highest run scorer in the GPS), William Powell (V) and Zack Winslow. Jacob Callaway (IV) was selected in the U15s GPS Chairman’s XI; and Chris Poon (VI), Nick Stanwell, Bo Baffsky (VI) and Nirav Prasan were chosen for the Tri- Grammar Merit Team. The Tri-Grammar trip to Melbourne in January saw Grammar secure an emphatic win against Brisbane Grammar, but fall short against MGS in the contest for ‘The Bat’.

Taekwondo

The summer season is not a competition season for Taekwondo, but many boys continued to achieve high standards in their training. There were sixty-five individual gradings to higher belts among the group this season.

Swimming

Grammar’s swimmers had a strong season, culminating in a successful night at the final AAGPS swimming carnival, where our junior boys finished fourth in their division. A feature of the season under captain Adam Tehfe (V) was the terrific team-first mentality displayed by all age groups, and a highlight in the pool was the U13 relay team winning four of its five relay races.

The following boys were selected in the CIS Team to compete in May: Joe Braund (I), Mark Chung (I), Maran Rajeev (I), Jonathan Cheng (III), Harry Li (III), Ian Kim (III), Asher Hamilton-Hay (IV), Lucas Kwan (V), Adam Tehfe (V) and Matthew Cheng (V).

JZH07712.jpg

Rowing

The rowing season culminated as always in the Head of the River regatta, an event which gave the Shed its best result of the season: a win for the Third VIII. The day was broadly a success for the Shed, with a number of crews racing their best times of the season.

Consistent with the theme of the terrific potential evident in our younger athletes is the considerable depth of talent in the Year Eight cohort. The promise of these younger rowers was especially apparent in the good results recorded by the Fourth and Fifth Quads this season. Promising, too, are the Year Nine rowers, a spirited and motivated group, who will join the senior shed later this year.