Sporting News 

Cricket Report

Nossal HS vs Melbourne HS

On Monday 5 December Nossal’s Year 9 cricket team travelled to the beautiful Melbourne High school cricket ground as we finally managed to reinstate the traditional Year 9 cricket match. The date had previously been changed twice, some of our players were injured and some had already flown overseas for holidays. And of course COVID had meant that we had not played for quite some time.

The boys told me before the match “we are all playing and training regularly with our own clubs, no need for us to practice at school”. As the boys warmed up on the day of the match and proceeded to drop maybe eight of every ten catches I was thinking otherwise. I said to them that based on what I saw we were about to be thrashed. I said we really needed to improve or we had no chance. My super coaching didn’t pay off though as in the first over we dropped one catch and had two mis-fields.

Melbourne High did in fact bat first and made a good start managing 43 runs for the first wicket. Things were looking grim until they got to 72. At this point their opening bat had scored 44 runs and was looking at retirement on 50. Fortunately, he was dismissed. In the end they scored 143 from 30 overs. Our bowling had been tight but with 15 wides we knew we had a big job in front of us to claim the win. Our bowling was very even with Senula, Paarth, Shaurya and Jishan each taking one wicket.

Our chase began well with Shaurya and Aahil putting on 39 for the first wicket. We had been running aggressively and ultimately this led to aahil being run out for 7.  This brought Jishan to the crease and he and Shaurya batted magnificently with both scoring 50 before retiring. All along we were ahead of the run rate but with new batters at the crease, could we do it? Paarth came in and scored a quick 10 but, alas, he was also run out. Senula was sent in to lift the run rate but was bowled by a sharp in swinging ball. This left Nayeel and Mohammed together and they saw us home with some quick fire runs and we reached the target in the 26th over.

A fine win against excellent opposition. Congratulations to both teams for the excellent spirit the game was played in. And, yes, happy to admit I may have been a little bit wrong about us being about to be thrashed.

May the tradition continue!

Ian Pegram

Cricket Coach

Nossal Intermediate Girls came 3rd in the Table Tennis State Finals! 

Our Girls Intermediate Team went to Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre (MSAC) in Albert Park on Wednesday November 16  to compete in the State Tournament for Table Tennis. There were many other schools there, some of which were familiar and others were new faces. This was the first time we had beaten MacRoberston Girls School to make the state finals for table tennis, so we were eager to do the best we could. We played three schools in our pool to start off with: Glen Waverley Secondary College, Mary Mackillop College Leongatha and Gilson College.  

We successfully won all three contests after playing four singles matches and two doubles matches against each school. The games were amazing with a lot of competition among the schools and the wonderful encouragement by our team and Mr Armistead. All six girls were able to win a singles and doubles match on the day and it showed that our team was well-rounded and that we all worked together to do our best in the spirit of the game which I enjoyed immensely. 

Moving onto the semi-finals, we were thrilled to make it to the final 4 where we came up against Suzanne Cory. After some rigorous rallies and some very close matches with Suzanne, we were defeated. Both schools won 3 matches each, with Suzanne narrowly finishing ahead 11 sets to 10. This meant that Nossal finished 3rd in the State Championships!  

We learnt a lot along the way and most importantly enjoyed ourselves very much! Well done to everyone on the team (Caron, Marion, Julie, Mehar and Khushi) and thank you very much to our incredible coach Mr Armistead for all the organisation and motivation! Also a big special thank you to Shaurya and Eric who gave up some of their own time before the exams to help train us as student coaches!!  

Vinamraa Naidu

Year 10 

Nossal Intermediate Boys Table Tennis State Champions! 

At long last, the State Championships for Interschool Table Tennis has been achieved! After a week of exams, the intermediate boys team were eager to give it our best to earn Nossal's first State Championship. Being held at MSAC, the team arrived at around 8AM. Our first games starting at 9, we warmed up and looked around for competition. At the championship, I saw some of my friends who also represented the state at Junior Nationals, and made sure to watch their teams as well. 

Starting our first round off, we played against Mercy Regional College. In it, Eric and Shaurya were able to put our team in a good start, putting us at a 2-0 lead. From there, Danny and Prnav won both their singles and doubles, while Karry and I secured our team a 6-0 win against our first matchup. Next, we played Bass Coast College, and Shaurya and Karry won their games to start us off. Again, Danny and Prnav won both of their singles and their doubles, and Karry and I finished the round winning 6-0 once again. In the final round before the semi and grand finals, our team won 6-0, with Eric and I winning the first two games. We had secured our spot as seed 1 in the semi-finals.  

In the semis, we met with Brentwood Secondary College. Their seed 1 was one of my friends from the Victorian State team, and tensions were high as the first game between the two team's seed 1s would impact the flow of the following games. After losing the first set, I was able to make a comeback and bring things back to 1-1. From there, I was able to win the match 3-1, starting our team with a 1-0 lead in the semi-finals. Earning a comfortable win, Karry won 3-0, putting us at 2-0 against Brentwood. Danny and Prnav also brought back wins for our team in both singles and doubles, alongside Karry and I, guaranteeing our spot in the finals with our 6-0 win against Brentwood. 

Then came the intense finals. On the other side of the draw was Suzanne Cory High School, and their seed 1 was another friend of mine from the Victorian State team. Playing against him, I lost 3-0, putting our team at 0-1 down. Following this, Karry fought hard but was also defeated in a quality match, putting us at 0-2, but the comeback was on! The matchups between the third seeds ended with Danny and Prnav being able to once again draw the scores at 2-2 by both winning their singles. Now it all depended on doubles. If we lost even one game, we would lose due to a set countback, so we could only win by winning 4-2. Stakes were high, and pressure was even higher, but Prnav and Danny were able to pull through and put us at a 3-2 lead.  

When they finished, Karry and I were still playing. We had won the first two sets, and were in the third set. Following our tactic until the end, Karry and I were able to win our doubles, and we won against Suzanne Cory! We were officially State Champions for Interschool Table Tennis.  

Going into the day, you could say I was worried. Worried about how we would handle the pressure, worried about how well we would play, given the fact that none of us had trained very much over the exams period. But I guess that worry was just in my head, because in the moment, we were standing in front of a School Sport Victoria banner, me presenting each player with a medal, and finally holding the flag declaring our victory in my hands. Once again, thank you to all my teammates for giving your all, and thank you to Mr Armistead and for the alumni Winuk coming to support us and help coach us through those tense moments. Words really cannot express how proud I am of this team, and what we have achieved. Go Nossal!

Leo Tran

Year 10