To coincide with national celebrations of Harmony Day, St Peter’s College hosted the annual International Social Event on Wednesday 20 March in the Burchnall Sports Centre. This has become an eagerly anticipated event on the international student calendar and this year was no different. For the first time in this event’s history, student participation matched that of PAC and so the event promised to be a closely matched contest.
Indoor Soccer
Joshua Chu (Year 11) captained the Indoor Soccer match, along with the support of Jordan Chu (Year 11). It was a closely contested match which wasn’t truly reflected in the end score of PAC 8 to Saints 4. Fierce competition across the court and brave goal keeping from Daniel Nguyen (Year 9) kept Saints in the match, but we were overpowered by the sheer force of the PAC side. A special mention to Joe Xu (Year 8) the youngest member of the international team and Warren Chan (Year 10) who was the most gentlemanly player of the event.
Badminton
Ably led by Chao Chen (Year 11) and Kingsley Chan (Year 11) and a few stuents who play in the Open A squads for St Peter’s College, Saints finished the matches with a clean sweep in the singles and only dropping 2 games of the doubles. Many of the singles matches were convincing wins with Jules Sheedy (Year 10) winning one of his matches 21 – 3.
Basketball
This year’s match was much more evenly fought than in previous years. Led by Benjamin Teng (Year 11) and supported by Jordan Chu (Year 11), the Saints boys started off slowly, allowing PAC to get away from us. However, consistent efforts from all the boys, and especially Ryan Mah (Year 10) meant we were able to claw our way back to take the lead during the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter, the scores were equal. Saints started the fourth quarter with the first score, but were unable to keep the momentum going. PAC were finally victorious 28 to 24.
Table tennis
Oscar Chen (Year 9) a First Table Tennis player in 2018 led the charge by captaining a talented table tennis squad in 2019. Singles matches were very even, with 4 wins and 4 losses. Saints came out eventual victors winning 3 matches to 2 in the doubles, taking the overall win.
Saints and PAC finished the evening with two wins each. At the light supper afterwards, Mr Tim Browning spoke about the importance of internationalism and the place in each School with international students. He urged the students to be willing to not only learn from the local students, but also be willing to share their experiences and knowledge about the wider world too, focusing on their important role in our Saints community. He also reminded both Schools that we are ultimately the same, and post school our friendships will continue to grow.
The evening was a great success. Thank you to Ben Hanisch, Sam Cheesman, James Tamblyn; and also to Ana Christensen, Monica McCauley, Fangfang Qiu and Xiaoning Wang who supported the boys throughout the evening. We look forward to another successful event in 2020.
Sally Ziniak
Coordinator of International Programs
