Group singing a Backstreet Boys’ medley (Alex Johnston, Sam Belcher, James Currie, William Law, Shyam Hari, and Jack Belcher) were in the top three, while the Instrumental Ensemble playing Fish and Chips (Jack Belcher, Shyam Hari, Jack Thelning, and James Currie) won their competition. Following the House Music, the House Play had a hard task to back-up the 2020 win, and contend with a large number of disruptions because of further Covid-19 restrictions. However, under the guidance of James Currie and Ciaran Huntley, they performed Horror at Hellfire Hall and ended up taking out the Tothill Cup for the second year running, with James Currie being awarded the Best Director award and William Law and Jack Brent taking Actor’s Awards. Our chess team made it through to the semi-finals of the competition following a 3-1 win in the first round, while the golf team could not score enough points to get us above 9th. The cross-country was another event affected by Covid-19 restrictions, and for the first time became a voluntary event. Over a 3000m distance, Alf Marhham was 5th and Finlay Sharpe 6th in the U14 age group; George Howard was 2nd in the intermediate age group, with Jack Belcher 4th and Abe McArthur 5th in the senior event. In the interhouse claybird shoot, we were unlucky to have both of our New Zealand representative shooters, Harry Trolove and Henry Lassen, injured for the competition. However, with them supporting the team, we came a creditable 5th. Senior Interhouse Competitions The senior interhouse competitions resulted in semi-final placings in every event except for table tennis. Cameron McCarthy led the volleyball in the first-round match against Jacobs, before falling to Corfe House. He was also instrumental in combining with Jacob Clements and Thomas Clarke, in controlling the match against Flower’s House for basketball, before we again came up against Corfe House to finish our run. The tennis team had an easy first-round win as did the badminton
team. However, the badminton team was eliminated in the semi-final with a points countback after the matches were tied. In the closest of margins four points separated us from going through or not. Caleb Manson was the hero of the senior futsal first-round match after scoring to tie the scores midway through the match, before he blasted a goal from halfway to win the match in the dying seconds. Our senior debating team of James Currie, Jack Belcher and William Law again took the team into the semi- finals, after two rounds of round- robin debates. James Currie led the team well and collected a number of best speaker awards in the process. In the semi-final, we argued the need for a binding minimum quota for female board members on boards of directors, and then followed that with a narrow loss in the final to ban in schools the use of psychological solutions, such as wellbeing and mindfulness, to solve organisational and structural problems. The time commitment for debating is huge and the need to do four debates in a short time reflects the character of our House debaters. The senior hockey team showed its skills through the early rounds, with Thomas Clarke and Tim Gould controlling things from the back, while Liam Alexander and James Luxon kept scoring enough goals to keep us in front of the opposition. The final had two teams both filled with 1st XI and 2nd XI hockey players, and proved to be a hugely entertaining event, though the score did not go our way. Junior Interhouse Competitions Our junior teams were able to collect two titles this year in table tennis and basketball. The junior table tennis team of Ryan Gu, Calib Wyness, Gordon Wyness and Finlay Sharpe was unbeaten and took the final without the need to play the doubles matches because the boys had already won all four singles. The basketball team also showed its complete control throughout the competition, with Ihaka Cate, Hoani Ifopo-Togia, Alf Markham and Louis McKeon, as well as an extensive and enthusiastic bench, leading the
way. The hardest match was a four- point win in the semi-final, before we extended to win the final by 11 points. Our volleyball team was superbly led by Jack Kennedy to come back from a first-set loss in the first round to scrape through 2–1 to reach the semi-finals. Both the semi-final and the final were decided on the ability of one team to serve well, and the ability of the other to return it. In the semi-final, we did it really well, but we could not do the same through the final. Duncan Fletcher led our junior debating team through to the semi-final of its competition with the help of James Burt and Matthew Flint. However, they could not convince the adjudicator that the introduction of performance pay for teachers was a good idea. The badminton team did its best in its first-round match, but could not get enough of the key points to take the games needed, while the junior tennis team met its match in the semi-final, after a convincing first- round win. The junior hockey team had the narrowest of losses after coming back from two goals down to level the score and then having the opportunity to win the match in the dying minutes, only to see the ball go into the back of their own net soon after. The junior futsal players suffered a similar fate to the hockey when they clawed back from a goal down to level the scores, only to see a miracle goal from the opposition in the final minute.
PRIZE-GIVING Academic Colours
Somes House Academic Colours recognise the consistency of a student over a number of years from Interim Progress report grades and Character awards, through to prizes and external examination results. In 2021, Academic Colours were awarded to: James Drury, George Howard, Alex Stead, Andrew Welsh, Jack Brent, Jacob Clements, George Hudson, Ciaran Huntley, Koen Jager, Tom McFarlane, Liam Alexander, and Harry Trolove.
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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