in action.
We’ve had an excellent start to 2016, namely on the back of the great success of Orientation Week, where credit must be given to the outstanding and diligent work of both Orientation Week Convenors, Allison Paxton-Hall and Rowan Hickson. Their organisational wizardry enabled the swift integration of the 132 new Johnians who have adopted the culture of this great college with spirited attitudes.
The abundance of talent, our achievements and proactive student involvement so far place us in good stead to retain the ICC Weighted Shields for both the male and female competitions, and regain the ICC Cultural Cup.
The ICC sporting season began with Tennis over the first few weekends with a solid start to the year seeing us finish 4th in the mens and 3rd in the ladies. This was followed by one of the most entertaining Johnian sporting evenings – the ICC Swimming Carnival.
The ladies produced a magnificent carnival to finish 2nd, narrowly missing out on retaining the ICC Swimming Cup from last year.
Unfortunately the gentlemen can’t boast the same success. The departure of last year’s 3rd years and the relative youth and inexperience of the bulk of our team saw us finish in 7th place. We can however confirm, what we lacked in experience, we made up for in spirit and all who participated enjoyed the meet.
Table Tennis and Badminton rounded out the last few weeks before the mid-semester break, with the mens finishing 7th and 6th respectively. While the ladies remained the dark horse in both competitions, finishing 2nd in the Table Tennis and dominating their way through the Badminton ranks to win the ICC Women’s Badminton Trophy for 2016.
Following the Easter Weekend, the fresher Rugby mens played one of the most entertaining games seen in College history, kicking a penalty after full-time to beat Emmanuel 15-13. The Touch Carnival followed, with solid results of 3rd in the mens and 4th in the womens competitions.
Culturally, the main focus so far has been the annual College Idol, held prior to the Easter weekend. Talented lead singer of the college band Who is John?, Helen Stewart-Koster, finished runner-up, controversially missing out on top place despite an amazing performance.
In other news, the Debating and Chess Teams started their competitions last week, both winning comfortably against Union.
Community Engagement
The year has started strong, despite the weather cutting into the success of our Red Cross Door Knock Appeal. In spite of this, Clean Up Australia Day in conjunction with Women’s College went very well, ending with a joint BBQ between the Colleges.
The weekly Block BBQs have now begun and are being held at University on Wednesdays.
Congratulations to all who have participated in College events so far, and to our spectators and supporters for your much appreciated encouragement.
I look forward to reporting on the highs and lows of our next round of extra-curricular, in particular our Cross Country results, in the next edition of Connect@StJohns.
View other articles:
