Sunday, September 08, 2013

Saturday at the football - and TAS wins the NSW GPS thirds

A hot day yesterday in Sydney for the football and election. I wandered off to see TAS (The Armidale School) play Newington in the last game of the NSW GPS (Greater Public Schools) thirds competition. The game was held at Newington which was celebrating its 150th anniversary. It was a pleasant crowd sitting on the banks overlooking the main oval. TAS Score 1 TAS vs Newington 7 &eptember 2013 8

I wandered around in the bright sun eating a sausage and onion roll watching the various games. Eldest had promised to come with me to this last TAS game of the season, but had to pull out at the last moment because she was unwell. 

In the first part of the Thirds game, the TA First Fifteen was clearly better than Newington Thirds, although Newington were holding them. The following photo show's TAS's first try. I fear that this round my photos were not as good as usual, but you will get the picture' TAS Score 1 TAS vs Newington 7 &eptember 2013   Walking away from the game along the raised mound beside the field I saws a great celebration in the distance. This photo, not mine, captures it. The boys had just learned that in another game Saint Ignatius had defeated St Joseph's and that, consequently, they had won the first GPS third division competition. This was TAS's first win since they entered the GPS in 1897. For much of that time. It's just been too hard for an Armidale team to play in remote Sydney.      TA War cry Newington, premiership

I still had to vote, so I left the gathering. It's been a fun year. 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congatulations TAS!
AC

Jim Belshaw said...

Thanks, AC!

Anonymous said...

GLORY FOR TAS

Bravo to The Armidale School's 1st XV which last week won the inaugural GPS third-grade premiership with a convincing win in Sydney over Newington, delivering TAS its first GPS rugby premiership since joining the association in 1897. The GPS thirds competition comprised the firsts teams from TAS, Sydney Grammar and Sydney High School, with the thirds teams from the remaining GPS schools: King's, Scots, Newington College, St Joseph's College Hunters Hill, St Ignatius College Riverview and Shore School. It was perhaps the most competitive of the three GPS grades. TAS has also been very proactive in instituting a concussion program, whereby all students are base-line tested, allowing better assessment of how affected they might be from hard hits.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/the-fitz-files/having-his-cake-and-eating-it-too-20130913-2tq3n.html

kvd

Jim Belshaw said...

Thanks, kvd, really appreciated this. It turns out that this wasn't in fact the first formal GPS thirds competition; it seems that there was one briefly back in the 1960s, although TAS didn't play. It was very competitive indeed; two points separated first and fourth.