Athletics

If the 1957 season can be said to have gone a long way towards popularising athletics, the same cannot be said of the 1958 season. Seldom can the weather have been more foul than this year.

The first disappointment came with the final cancellation of the Cross-country Race after an earlier postponement. The contest was intriguingly open. S. S. Hobson, holder of the Goodburn Cup, had the unenviable task of defending his title in the face of stiff opposition, and at least three Houses, maybe more, had designs on the "plate".

It seemed for a time that the same fate was likely to befall the entire athletic programme. The track, so-called, presented a pathetic sight when the programme was due to start, and only a complete transformation of the scene brought about by bitter, yet drying, east winds, made it possible to start the programme a week only behind schedule. This delay did, most regrettably, necessitate the cancellation of our only fixture and demonstration, a match against a team of Northern athletes so kindly organised for us by C. H. Lewis (O.P.). There was a danger, however, of the inter-House competition being left stranded on the rocks, so our whole time and attention was devoted to the running of Standards and the elite had to forego the invaluable experience that would have been provided by this fixture.

The icy conditions never relented, and the fact that so much was achieved in such a short space of time seemed to justify the cancellation. The Standards competition was completed and rivalry was just about as keen as ever. Those who particularly distinguished themselves by attaining maximum points were as follows :—Set A : J. A. Bygate (Q.) and R. R. Baldwin (R.); Set C : C. Hermiston (G.), W. E. Jones (G.), M. F. Grainger (T.), and T. D. F. Anderson (S.H.); Set D : T. P. Brown (G.), R. G. Armstrong (M.), T. E. Giddings (Q.), A. Hardman (Q.), G. H. Dale (M.), and P. G. Humpherson (T.).

The Rise gained a narrow lead over the Grove. Final placing and points from Standards were :- Rise 200

Grove 196

School House Queen's Manor Temple 183 182 177 161

Queen's made up much of the lee-way by their successes in the Mile races which followed. Although the track had considerably improved conditions were still bitterly cold, and, in the circumstances, W. Mitchell's lopping second off his Intermediate Mile record of last year was a fine achievement.