Senior School Sport

• Summer Season Wrap-Up
• Basketball
• Cricket
• Football
• Rugby
• NSTA Tennis

Summer Season Wrap-Up

What a fantastic climax to the Summer season with 5 ISA Basketball Premierships, the 2nd XI Cricket Premiership, not to mention the hatful of Plate wins in the District Cricket along with the NSTA Tennis successes.  The boys have really done the College proud and I thank you all for the contribution you have made to Summer Sport.

The Summer season will conclude with the Basketball Presentation Evening next Tuesday and the Cricket Presentations early next term.

Winter season preparations have already begun with rugby training and ISA Tennis grading beginning this week and football grading’s already nearing completion.  I wish the Winter teams the best of luck for their upcoming competitions and look forward to seeing you all soon.

Mr M Stearn - Senior School Sportsmaster

Basketball

Basketball Awards Night

Next Tuesday evening 21st March we will be holding the Basketball Awards Presentation Ceremony. The Ceremony will start at 6:30pm and will be held in the College Gymnasium at Chatswood. All players are expected to attend the evening in full summer school uniform.

Last Saturday was a great day for our teams. The 13As started the day with a win in overtime against an undefeated Oakhill 13As. This was followed by another nail biting win to the 14Ds. The 15Ds and 17Ds also had good wins. My personal ‘Game of the day’ was the 17As win against Oakhill 17As, which was a milestone in itself. After many previous tries, this was the first time St Pius X College has won the Division 1 17As Championship. Well done to Coach Zac O’Hehir who suffered a defeat in the 17A Final last year.

Commiserations to the 15Fs, 17Cs, 4ths and 6ths who were defeated on Saturday, especially the 15F team who were knocked over by just one point. Thank you to all our coaches, supporters and especially those volunteers who manned the score benches.

Game of the day: 13A win in overtime, against a team that beat them by 22 points in Round 2 last year.

Player of the day: Ryan Siva 17As. He had a blockbuster of a game.

Deserves a mention: Thank you to the Basketball Club for their support and organisation throughout the season, their help is invaluable. Thank you to all the Coaches; staff, ex-students and external coaches.

Mr N Gibson - Convenor

Cricket

Second to None and Red Hot!

An immaculate Oxford Falls on Saturday witnessed a classic ISA match. The 2nd X1 triumphed by the narrowest of margins - two runs - over St Patrick's College in the ISA Division 2 Grand Final. For those who were there - and there were many - it was a fantastic, nail-biting game of cricket.

It was fabulous to see Oxford Falls play host to all of our remaining district teams who were playing their last matches of the season also on Saturday. Many thanks to the players and parents of SPX U14 Green, SPX U14 Red, SPX U13 Black and SPX U13 Gold who came along and played and then supported the 2nd X1 during the day.

• Cup Final:  winning medals were presented to SPX Red! A fantastic effort over the long District season.
• Plate Final:  winning medals to SPX Black and SPX Gold. Well done Red, Black and Gold!
• Cricket Presentation Night: This will be held on the evening of Thursday May 4 (Term 2 Week 2).

SPX Cricket would like to record our thanks to all the players, coaches, managers, scorers, umpires and supporters who have made the SPX Cricket Season 2016/17 so successful. We also wish to record our thanks to the Cricket Club Committee who have enabled this season and done the very best for the players.

Please click below for the latest edition of Stumped, the newsletter of St Pius X College Cricket Club.

Mr D Reay - Cricket Convenor

The Champions –    SPX Second Eleven

Final ISA Cricket Report by  Thomas Ventura, Captain 2nd X1 

Last Saturday, the St Pius Second XI hosted St Patrick’s at Oxford Falls for the Grand Final of the ISA Division 2. A beautiful sunny day and excellent pitch meant that unlike the semi-final, a full game of cricket would take place. The St Pius captain won the toss and elected to bat, so the opening batsmen went out to face a strong St Pats bowling attack.

A somewhat shaky start led to St Pats having the upper hand early, despite the best efforts of Josh Rayner (15) and Alex Graffeo (14), despite Alex carrying an ankle injury. A few sharp run outs from St Pats put St Pius in even more trouble, but if they could put a decent total on the board it would be very defendable. St Pius looked in a spot of bother being nine wickets down and not at a par score yet. However, Jordan Furlan still remained at the crease and looked dangerous. He was met by number 11 Dan Hall. With the ever increasing crowd of St Pius boys getting very supportive and vocal, they were given something to cheer about as Dan Hall smashed an entertaining 24 runs, with some very big hits. Although Furlan was the aggressor early in his innings, he rotated the strike to his partner towards the end and was rewarded with 34 not out. This gave Pius 127 of 49.3 overs (almost completing the overs for the first time).

After the lunch break St Pius started extremely well, and were gaining the upper hand in the see-saw game. Opening bowlers picked up a wicket each in their opening spell, Dan Hall (1/23 off 10) and Nick Slack (2/11 off 8). Tim McLachlan with (1/17 off 6) and Alex Bain (1/9 off 4.5) continued the flow of wickets with the help of the economic Josh Rayner (0/13 off 6) and a spectacular run out from Dan Hall to continue his outstanding game. However, some excellent lower order batting led to St Pats getting the momentum towards victory and not allowing the spinners to find their groove. But Nick Slack picked up the key wicket of the danger man and Lachlan May (2/15 off 6) picked up some key wickets. But the St Pats number 10 and 11 rallied, and only needed 3 runs to win with 8 balls remaining. But then, Tom Ventura instigated a run out and the St Pius players and supporters were in a state of euphoria.

St Pius had St Pats all out for 125 of 48.5, which secured a 2-run victory and the championship for the first time in a decade.

Thomas Ventura - Captain 2nd XI

Additional 2nd XI Match Report:

Photo Gallery - 2nd XI

Rugby

St Pius X Rugby – Registration, Training and School Holiday Clinic

REGISTRATION

Rugby registration is now open. Please use the following link to not only register for the 2017 season but also book your son a seat on the bus for our two away trips and also sign up for the annual School Holiday Rugby Clinic:

https://www.trybooking.com/266191

Hopefully this one stop registration process makes things a little easier for parents and I do encourage all players to involve themselves in all activities offered through the College Rugby Program. Parents are asked to register their sons as soon as possible so the respective coaches can begin preparing for the season. The registration link will remain open until Tuesday 18th April.

TRAINING

Training continues each Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at Oxford Falls during the season, with buses departing from Archer Street, Chatswood at 3:30pm and returning to Anderson Street Chatswood by 5:30-6pm. Boys can be collected at Oxford Falls at 5pm or get off the bus at the Jamieson Square bus stop on Warringah Road. From Term 2 the Under 13s age group will train at Beauchamp Oval for the remainder of their season.

SCHOOL HOLIDAY COACHING CLINIC

The annual Rugby Coaching Clinic will be held in the second week of the April School Holidays at Oxford Falls. While the clinic is not compulsory, all players are encouraged to attend and learn some valuable skills from some quality coaches which will set them up for a good 2017 season.

On Wednesday 19th April the students will receive specialist coaching from a range of former players and current professional rugby coaches including Ex-Welsh International Prop Ben Evans, current Head Coach of the Country Eagles and Warringah Rats Darren Coleman and Heineken Cup Runner Up and former Manly Marlin Adam D’Arcy.

On day two of the clinic, Thursday 20th April, the boys will put their skills to the test when they play an interschool Round Robin 7s tournament before our 1st XV play a trial match against Redfield College. Non-rugby players are also invited to attend and give rugby a go. See the flyer for more information.

Finally some dates for the diary:

• Friday 17th-Sunday 19th March:  Opens Pre-season Camp at Huntington House:  22 players will be selected this Thursday to take part
• Saturday 25th March:  Trial Match 1 vs Sydney High
• Tuesday 28th March:  New Zealand Tour Final Information Night for players and their parents from 6pm in the College Gym.
• Saturday 1st April:  Trial Match 2 vs St Aloysius
• Friday 7th – Friday 14th April:  Under 15s New Zealand Tour
• Wednesday 19th & Thursday 20th April:  Easter Holiday Rugby Clinic – See flyer below!!

Please check Woodchatta weekly throughout the season or contact Mr Lynch at JLynch@stpiusx.nsw.edu.au for any general rugby enquiries.

Mr J Lynch - Rugby Convenor

NSTA Tennis

News from Round 5

Last Saturday proved to be a great way to complete our summer season with the final round, Round 5 of the competition.  I saw all but one of our teams at various fixtures on the day which was the plan! Of the 19 matches that were played that morning, 16 wins occurred for our teams – outstanding. In any case, the sportsmanship on show across all teams was impressive.

Congratulations to the following teams who enjoyed success on the day – with 10 of these Teams enjoying decisive straight set victories! Teams include: SPX 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26 and 27.

Top shots from Adam and Liam from Team 18; being noted for super back hands and great serving. When results are published of the final rankings within the Divisions from NSTA – I will share these with players and parents/carers. Despite there only being two Rounds, individual results will still be recorded and used for NSTA in Term 4 for those interested. ISA results will also be used for those students who continue through the winter tennis season. If you have any points you would like noted for consideration of future teams – please send your views through to me now. I will keep record of these comments for future use.

A reminder that Summer Sports Photos will be taken next Wednesday so full Tennis Uniform will be required for this photo during the school day. Thank you to our weekly supporters and staff coaches – Mrs Iwatani, Mr Webster, Ms Keighery and Mrs Schuster for their enthusiasm and input across the season.

Ms S-J Grove - NSTA Summer Tennis Convenor