Tug-of-War : Senior Champions!

Sunday 19th September proved to be a remarkably busy day in the life of Repton School. After the New Pupils' Service at 10.15am, the Houses poured onto San Hall for the annual tug-of-war competitions. The Juniors battled hard to come a creditable 5th before tucking into their BBQ lunch at 1pm. At 2pm it was the turn of the Seniors to take the strain and, having performed poorly in recent years, hopes were not high as the competition started. Anchored by the highly impressive Kaven Bains (the people's player of the tournament), the Latham eight (Boyle, Hignett, Macdonald, Priestley, Shiralagi, Swann & Webster) soon started to show the sort of commitment and teamwork which won the Caroline Tyler Relays only three days earlier. Cross, Priory and School were soundly defeated and we lost to New House by the narrowest of margins, 2-1. This was enough to see the Latham team through to the final against old enemies New House. The toss was all-important and, as Kaven shook hands with the opposition, the crowd looked on with bated breath. Mr Cooke tossed the coin, Kaven called "heads!" and heads it was! The first pull went like clockwork - Latham one-nil up. The second pull went to New House - one-all! One final, Herculean effort was all it required and nothing could separate the two teams on the third pull. Just when we thought the rope was inching to our side, New would put in a counter-attack and regain any ground lost. Eventually, the superior skill, fitness, and House spirit won through and, despite practising under the expert eye of Captain Wadsworth, New House just could not cope with the Latham strength. Two-one to the boys in blue and white, and another House Cup is ours!