Scotch College

Ath's summer premiership

The 1998-99 track and field season saw Old Scotch Collegians' Athletic Club walk away with two premierships, with its D grade team triumphing in dramatic style in the Box Hill Venue Final, then going on to take out the Association Final against the premiers from the other metropolitan venues.

The Venue Final was a thriller, as:

• our main opposition ignored the rules blatantly, by stacking its D grade team and giving up on B grade;
• there was protest and counter-protest;
• we tied with our main opposition at the end of the day's proceedings;
• there was a 600m "run-off", where three athletes from each team were required to race one another, with points allocated 7,5,4,3,2,1;
• Don McLennan ('95), Adam Nettleton ('93) and Charlie Feddersen ('98) combined to claim victory in the run-off 14 points to 8.

The Association Final was not as dramatic, but was nonetheless a beautiful thing. Our team dominated to score 193 of a maximum possible total of 208 points in the track events. O.S. scored 244 points in all, compared to the last placegetter on 44, no mean feat, given that that club was venue premiers from the school of hard "Knox"!!!

Ahem ..... back to the athletics. The flags capped a season where, although membership numbers remained relatively constant, it seemed that more athletes competed in a wider range of events, and more often.

This makes it difficult to single out athletes whose deeds over the season stand out, and would do injustice to those not cited, but it is impossible to ignore the efforts of rising star Tom Cade ('99), hardened veteran Andrew Jamieson ('64), Tom Gray ('99) and David Johnston ('98).

The winter season is now underway, with Johnny Halliday ('95) and Pete Simm ('93) spearheading the O.S. team to early success.

New members are sought for the cross country season, male and female, fast and not so fast - there are events to suit everyone. Contact Pete or Andrew Simm on 9818 0900 or Mark Purvis on 9534 5105 if you are interested. Alternatively, visit our website at http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/2423.