After a total absence of Sports Day in 2020 and scaled back activities in 2021 due to Covid-19, House Athletics and Sports Day came back with a bang! After two weeks of hard fought heats and finals, House Athletics finally reached its climax last week with two days of top athletics comprising the Track and Field Finals. After glorious sunshine on Field Finals day, it was a shame to see rain and heavy skies the following day for the Track Finals. The tricky conditions underfoot and the cancellation of spectators were unfortunate but the competitors battled the elements and gave some excellent performances. It's wonderful that over the two weeks of House Athletics, five records were broken – all by Year 8 students! It was especially thrilling to see Andrew Ford's 29 year 800 m record fall!

New School Records:

Field

M Odidika Junior Boys High Jump 1.55m (Previous record A Saunders 2000 1.51m)

V Esan Junior Girls Shot Put 3Kg 9.36m (Previous record L Jeavons 2018 7.88m)

Track

M Thomson Junior Girls 1500m 5:05.28 (Previous record M O’Connell 2008 5:16.3)

K Otoo Junior Boys 300m 44:14 (Previous record J Coley 2018 45:34)

T Wightman Junior Boys 800m 2:23 (Previous record A Ford 1993 2:26.0)

Mr Ellicott had the pleasure of presenting the Athletics Shield for 2022 to ...Richmond! Overall final standings for House Athletics 2022: 1st Richmond, 2nd York, 3rd Pembroke, 4th Beaufort & 5th Gloucester. Congratulations to all those who competed with such vigour and enthusiasm, with a special acknowledgment to those who were individual winners. A huge thanks must go to Pate's PE and other school staff who worked so hard with stop watches, measuring tapes, schedules and score sheets to make the event so much fun for everyone.

The beautiful Athletics Shield is presented to the winners of the House Athletics competition - a sports shield which is a long established feature in the school's history, having first been presented in the 1900's at Cheltenham Grammar School. You may just be able to see the initials of the winners in the years preceeding 1922 - these relate to the first houses at the school H.E, C.K, F.D and B.N.G before they changed to Biffen, Baker, Corfield, Hawker, Jessop and Jayne (named after famous alumni). It was also wonderful to see two other iconic Pate's sporting trophies amongst those presented - the Vassar-Smith Cup ( first presented in 1902) and the Mike Bailey Sprint Cup. 

The Athletics Shield

The Cups 

If we look back to the earliest mentions of Sports Day at Pate's, the weather seems to have been even more unkind to the competitors than it was to our students last week! 'The storms of the early morning had rendered the field very slippery and in consequence false starts were frequent. A cross wind also interfered with the running' (Patesian 1908) and 'In accordance with the usual custom it rained. The proceedings were graced by the presence of a fair number of friends and parents who did their best to look cheerful under the depressing conditions' (Patesian 1910). At this time, there was participation in events which our students still compete in today - long jump, high jump and various running races (now measured in metres rather than yards) but also some which have fallen by the wayside - steeplechase, hurdles, three-legged race, sack race, obstacle, lemon and spoon and tug of war! Perhaps some of them might be reinstated for 2023?!

Examples of races in the early days of Sports Days at Cheltenham Grammar School (taken from the 1905 Patesian)