Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

Page 24 text:

22 100 pounds, but was under eleven and his opponent, Cooper i, was almost fifteen. He was beaten, but did surprisingly well and certainly had no regrets himself, He obtained, and deserved a great deal of praise for his performance. In the higher weights the problem is slightly different. There seem to be every year fewer boys over lv30 pounds, and a good boxer at this weight can do much more damage to an unskilled opponent than can be done in the lighter weights. Yet even here, if a boy is reasonably fit and will learn the rudiments, it is surprising how much he can do. It looked for a time as though Harrison ' s reputa- tion was likely to prove too much for his friends, so that there, would be no fight for him on the night of the finals. But in the end Anfossi i, largely in order to set a good example to his House, offered himself as a sacrifice in the preliminaries, and found that it was not nearly as bad as it might have been; and, after beating Vivian, Lombardo really put up a very good fight against Harrison in the finals. The spectators showed, perhaps, more enthusiasm over this than over any of the other bouts. All the finals produced good fights. I believe that I am right in saying that the judges ' decisions were split in four out of the ten bouts, a sure sign, when the judges are as experienced as those whose assistance we are lucky enough to have, that the contestants are evenly matched and game fighters. It is hard to pick out any for special mention where all were so good, but the fights between Churm and WooUard, between Shanks and Cooper i and between Lines i and Fall ii were perhaps the closest. It may comfort some of the losers, if they need comfort, to know that many of our visitors from abroad have told me how much they appreciate our competition ; they like the goodwill with which friends, sometimes in the same Houses, go for each other without any suggestion of taking it easy. Admiral Sir Irvine Glennie and Admiral Braisted both said this year that it was the best schoolboy boxing that they had seen. This is a reputation both to be proud of and to maintain in the future. After the bouts were over, the Cox Shield was presented to Lombardo of Watlington House, the winners of the competition, and the Critchley Cup for the best junior boxer to Churm by Lieut. Col. Astwood. For the first time the seats were numbered and reserved. The arrangement of these and the erection of the ring on the platform in the School Hall were undertaken by Mr. Gascoigne. The pro- grammes were again printed by Mr. Welch (I do not know what we shall do without his assistance next year). The contestants had the advantage of expert seconding by Messrs. Raymond and Ross Adderley. To all these, and to the officials, whose names are below, we extend our sincere thanks.

Page 23 text:

21 S.G.S. Role in B.S.S.A. Sports This year the School even bettered its fine performance of the past taking all five Group Trophies and winning twenty-one out of a possible twenty-six events. In Groups C and D, the School made a clean sweep, and in groups A and B won all but one event in each. The School set four new records. D. H. Harrison made a new mark of 18 feet 9} inches in the Group E Long Jump, while C. Martin established two new records in Group D. Martin cleared the high jump bar at 5 feet 1 inch, and in the Long Jump increased the Group D distance to 17 feet 03 inches. The fourth record was set by the Group C Relay Team. Oatham, Astwood, Collis and Minugh i covered the 440 yards in the record time of 56.2 seconds. Other individual winners were, Archdale, Patterson, Ford, Pearman, Cox, Hutt, D. S. Smith and Leseur, the last mentioned having run a very creditable one mile. H. C. E, M. Boxing The Eleventh Annual Boxing Competition for the Cox Shield took place this year on Friday, March 8th, under the patronage of Lieut. Col. J. C. Astwood, O.B.E. The preliminaries had been fought off on the Monday previous, and had produced some very good fights indeed. It is always difficult to know beforehand just what is likely to happen; there is too little opportunity to judge the form of the various entrants. This year, it is true, owing to the presence of Sergt. Bardgett on the staff of the School, more tuition in the noble art had been given than has been the case up to now. There is, however, the constant clash of purpose between the House Competition and the desire to offer the public a. show worth watching on the night of the finals; the one requiring as many as possible to learn something of the art and take their chances for the honour of the House, and the other making it necessary to seed the contestants, so that the best fights may remain till the last. As soon as it is known in what groups last year ' s winners are placed, there is a natural reluctance on the part of the semi-skilled to risk being hurt. Nor, naturally, does anyone else want to see a boy badly hurt. There have been many occasions in the past when I have hesitated to accept an entry from a boy who is keen, but overweight for his age, for fear of his being damaged ; yet, in the event, he has proved quite capable of protecting himself, if not of winning his fight. For a couple of years I had refused, on these grounds, to allow Marshman ii to compete; but this year he positively insisted. He weighed almost

Page 25 text:

23 The results follow: — Mosquito weight: under 68 lbs. — Terceira beat Barnes. Paper weight: 68-75 lbs.— Churm beat Woollard. Flyweight: 75-80 lbs. — Pearman beat Ranee. Bantamweight: 80-86 lbs. — Cooper iv. beat Todd ii. Featherweight: 86-94 lbs. — -Oatham beat Cooper ii. Lightweight: 94-100 lbs. — Shanks beat Cooper i. Welterweight: 100-107 lbs.— Critchley beat Minugh i. Middleweight: 107-116 lbs.— Fall ii beat Lines i. Cruiserweight : 116-128 lbs. — Hutt beat Roach. Heavyweight: over 128 lbs. — Harrison beat Lombardo. Referee: Mr. D. J. Williams. Judges: Mr. Harry Williams, Major Harold Evans. Timekeeper: Mr. N. H. Williams. The final order in which the Houses were placed was: — 1st Watlington, 2nd Butterfield, 3rd Darrell, 4th Saltus. Swimming The Annual Inter-PIouse Swimming Meet, held at the Langton Pool on October 1, 1945, saw Saltus and Butterfield Houses capture the Senior and Junior shields respectively. The keenly contested meet proved extremely interesting, par- ticularly in the Junior Competition where Butterfield House nosed out Watlington by one point while Darrell and Saltus tied for third place. In the course of the meet, C. A. N. Butterfield of Butterfield House set a new- record in the Group C covering the 25 yard back- stroke distance in the creditable time of 16.7 seconds. H. C. E. M. Swimming Competition Results GROUP A 25 Yards Freestyle. — 1 Patterson, 2 Archdale, 3 Smith iii. Time: 17.2 sees. Diving. — 1 Patterson, 2 Davis ii, 3 Archdale. GROUP B 25 Yards Freestyle. — 1 Stone, 2 Trimingham, 3 Thompson. Time: 38.6 sees. Diving. — 1 Stone, 2 Murray, 3 Constable.