Rowing 

Grafton Tour

In early December, 36 boys from the Newington GPS Rowing Squad travelled to Grafton to compete in the Head of the Clarence Regatta and the Grafton Rowing Club Regatta, followed by a week-long training camp on the Clarence River.

These regattas are attended by the best schools from Queensland, plus Melbourne Grammar School, King’s and Hamilton Boys High from New Zealand. Both regattas were very successful for Newington.

In the Head of the Clarence Regatta, the following crews had wins:

Under 17 VIII, Under 17 Quad Scull 2nd VIII, Schoolboy Double Scull, Under 17 Single Sculls, 2nd IV.

The 1st VIII won their heat in the hotly contested Schoolboy Eight event and then rowed a gutsy final in tough head wind conditions to finish second behind a much larger Nudgee crew.

In the Grafton Rowing Club Regatta, Newington crews had wins in the following events:

Men’s Open Double Scull, Mixed Double Scull, Men’s Novice Four, Men’s Under 16 Scull, 1st VIII, 2nd VIII, Under 17 Double Scull, Men’s Open Single Scull, Under 17 Single Scull.

January Camps

In late January, selection trials for the GPS crews were held over three days including ergometer trials, sculling and seat racing trials at the Nepean River in Penrith. The newly selected crews travelled to the AIS in Canberra for six days for a training camp. Dr Mulford’s previous School, Radford College allowed us access to their boatshed and they were very generous hosts throughout the week. This was a gruelling week as the training was long and hard, however, it has laid some solid foundations for the upcoming racing season in Term 1.

The Year 10 VIII’s were at camp throughout the final week of the holidays, staying at the Newington Boatshed. This has been difficult for some with injuries and illness keeping them out of the boat, however, a good time was had by all.

The Year 8 and 9 Quads have returned from the holidays and posted good improvements in their erg test results, which bodes well for the season ahead. We have had excellent attendance with over 90% of these squads making the effort to come along to the camps.

Tennis

Most of Newington’s top tennis players competed in a comprehensive schedule of tournaments over the Christmas holiday break.

Events ranged from an ITF Junior event in Shenzhen China (Joseph Lui), the Australian National titles in Melbourne (Julian Panagopoulos), to a wide range of tournaments at Gosford, Bendigo, the University of Queensland, Albury, Newcastle, Narrabeen and Manly to name a few.

Damien Minguez and Joel Hannan travelled to the Bolletteri Tennis Academy in Florida ( IMG Academy) for a few weeks for solid training and Blazo Djurovic broke into the top 200 players of the nation with a personal best ranking of 175. Newington now also has five players in the top 1000 in Australia. A great milestone for our boys.

Newington tennis also conducted its selection and training camp for Representative players between January 21 to 24.

USA Basketball Tour

On December 27th 2102, 26 boys, four staff and numerous parents departed for the USA. The tour started in Santa Cruz, California with the group being broken into three squads for the tournament. The 1sts played in the Monte Vista High School tournament and won the competition and the 2nds came runners up in the Watsonville High School tournament. The tour was already off to a stupendous start.

The group then moved into the Bay area in San Francisco for a game against Richmond High–the school from which the movie ‘Coach Carter’ was based on– for another memorable night of great sport. Whilst in San Francisco the group also got the opportunity to see two NBA games amongst other sightseeing activities.

The next stop was Arizona and the boys enjoyed experiencing the generosity and hospitality of the South West. As the tour continued, with more games being played, the boys had an opportunity to attend classes at local high schools for a few days. The tour ended up in Los Angeles where the final games were played and then off to Disneyland, California Park, Universal Studios for the remaining four days of the tour.

For the record the 1sts came back with six wins and four losses and both the 2nds and Development team had four to five records.

Cricket

Newington XI vs Brisbane Grammar School–December 7 and 8

BGS 1st XI – 8 dec 312 (wood 2-56, Neil-Smith 2-30) and 9 dec 146 ( Wood 5-35, Amos 2-33) drew with Newington XI 107 (Adams 30, Gauci 22) and 8 – 151 ( Smyth 51, Gauci 21)

Newington U/15’s vs Brisbane Grammar School U/15’s–December 8

Newington 77 (Haldane 15, Hodges 13) lost to BGS 6-78 (Hodges 2-10, Lawson 1-15)

Newington XI vs Felsted School– December 11 (T20)

Felsted 118 (Tritsiniotis 2-10, Longhurst 2-13) def Newington 85 (Tritsiniotis 31, Adams 13)

Newington XI vs Felsted School–Dec 12

Felsted 180 (Smyth 4-21, Kuenzle 3-20) lost to Newington 9 – 181 (Roby 54, Gauci 37)

Newington XI vs Wesley College (Melb)–Jan 14 and 15

Wesley 120 and 5-152 defeated by Newington 135 (Anderson 89) and 7 – 89 on first innings.

Newington XI vs Brisbane Boys College–January 18

BBC 150 def Newington XI 93

Newington XI vs Haileybury (Melb)–January 22 and 23

Haileybury 143 (Morris 2-27, Neil Smith 3 – 35) and 5 – 102 (Roby 2-36) defeated by Newington XI 3 – 235 (Jackson 58*, Morris 46, Holland 45*)