In Week 8, we contested our annual Summer Intercollegiate fixtures against Prince Alfred College. These fixtures are a great time to demonstrate our school pride and support our peers. These fixtures are very historic, with the Cricket Intercol being the longest running unbroken cricket competition in the world. With this comes a fierce and competitive rivalry between the two schools. However, we are not rivals in life, we are peers, as I have come to realise from interacting with PAC boys over the years. As I put it to the sports captains and prefects at the Summer Intercol Lunch: “Intercol is an opportunity to build bridges, not barriers”.
My (James) first ever Intercol for the School was the Hockey Intercol in 2019, when I was in Year 8. Unfortunately, my first ever Intercol was not a pleasant experience. PAC beat us 11-0, which in hockey is an absolute thrashing. I remember feeling distraught and embarrassed, like we had let down the whole school. This was not how I intended my first Intercol to go, but I learnt a very important lesson, that for every team that wins in a sporting fixture, there is also a loser. We proceeded to lose the next two years by similar margins, and each time, it hurt even more. To add to this, I was playing in the Cricket intercols during the summer which we also lost by large margins, to add salt to the wound. It was in 2022 when the tides changed and we won Hockey Intercol for the first time in six years, with a scoreline of 4-1. Finally, after years of misery, we were able to pull off a victory. As I was celebrating with my friends and team mates at the conclusion of the fixture, I remembered how I felt the last couple of years to be on the losing side, and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. My point is this, think of the other team. For both boys and parents, I encourage you to think of the losing side if you have won, but also vice versa to congratulate the winning side. As Mr Browning likes to put it, we are to be quiet in losing, but even quieter in winning.
Overall Intercol is a wonderful time of year, and I look forward to hosting Winter Intercol this year. Our AV team have been working tirelessly to create a recap of Summer Intercol, which will be released next Thursday on our co-curricular Instagram page, so make sure to follow @_the_blue_army_ for more updates.
James Hattingh and Ryan Fowler
School Captains