Tag Archive for: Cricket

Trinity Term ’24 Sports Report

A wet April meant the summer games programme kicked in a little later than usual, with pitches taking their time to dry out. When things finally got up and running, our Senior Boys Cricket team, in particular, found their groove reaching the Leinster Cricket schools final for the second year in a row. Unfortunately though, despite fine individual performance from Jan Dijkstra (50), Seb Dijkstra (58) and Harry Smith Huskinson (22), it sadly ended in a second final loss in a row, this time against Rush. Rush batted first, amassing a fine 278/4. St. Columba’s were on track during the early stages but a few quick wickets saw them end on 192 runs, losing by 86.

In athletics, Archie Monaghan (Triple Jump) and Darren Ulogwara (High Jump) who navigated their way through East Leinster and Leinster schools athletics to qualify for the All Ireland event, taking place today in Tullamore.

Hughie Casey and Alannah McCoole were the winners of our annual 8km mountain run, both setting new records. Hughie has won the last three events!

The College recently hosted a golf competition for local primary schools; read about the Lionel Munn competition here. Also in golf news, the staff vs pupils golf competition ended in a draw.

The highlight of the sporting calendar, our annual Sports Day took place last Saturday. In glorious sunshine, our pupils competed across a range of track and field sports (plus a few others), with the blue team finishing in 1st place. The final event the day – the Cloister Dash – saw Kim Guinness and Helena Schoen seeing their names etched on the cup. Click here for a full report and for loads of photos from a great day of sport.

In the annual Sports Dinner, taking place that evening, colours were awarded to 24 pupils for their outstanding contribution to sport in the College. Click here for a full report from Mr Canning.

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Sports Dinner & Awards 2024

Mr Canning, our Head of Sport, reports on last Saturday’s Sports Dinner and the awarding of ‘Colours’.

The annual ‘College Traditional Team Sports Dinner’ was held on Saturday the 25th of May after the colour and fun filled Sports Day. Many thanks to Mr. Havenga and all the teaching staff and external coaches who helped make it a special day filled with colour and combining fun and traditional athletics events.  

During the evening we celebrate the participation and successes of our traditional teams over the year. Of course, individual sporting success is important but we hold particular store in our pupils’ involvement in a team sport.

Our guest speaker was was Old Columban Sophia Cole who left the College during the Covid evacuation of March 2020. In the Second Form Sophia played on the Senior Girls’ Hockey team that won the Senior Schools’ Trophy Cup. She represented Leinster at Under 16 and under 18 level.  She also represented Ireland at Under 16, Under 18, Under 21 and Under 23. This included playing for Ireland in the Junior World Cup in South Africa in 2022. She was part of the 2020 Senior Training Squad for the Tokyo Olympics. She was awarded an Ad Astra Sports’ Scholarship to UCD where she is currently the Club Captain.

Sophia was awarded College ‘Colours’ for her hockey achievements while in St.Columba’s and she would certainly have been Sportsperson of 2019-2020 if Covid had not completely disrupted that academic year and beyond.  

In her address to the pupils Sophia talked about her overall sporting experiences. She touched on the camaraderie and closeness of team mates, the travel experiences and the buzz of the competitive match arena. She also talked about the challenges and difficulties of being an elite sportsperson. How under the surface she  experienced anxiety and a lack of self confidence; that she managed to hold this at bay by implementing a focused and determinedly positive mindset reinforced by a systematic mantra whenever those internal doubts surfaced.

She openly shared that she had been playing in considerable pain since her schooldays and was only diagnosed as  suffering from Compartment Syndrome in her calves; while playing in Australia last summer.  She is currently recuperating from a relieving operation on the calves of both legs.  Hopefully, a full recovery will mean that she will be able to play and train pain free in the future. We certainly hope that Sophia’s dream of being part of the Irish Ladies Squad aiming to play in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will be realised.  

Sophia’s talk resonated with our pupils.  The fact that she is only a few years older than them, candidly shared her thoughts and feelings so generously and openly. The fact that she is a fellow Columban made her talk even more special. I cannot thank her enough for giving us her time the day after her final commerce examinations ended. We wish her the very best while travelling through South East Asia before starting her accountancy internship.  LC

College Sports Colours 

We hold great store in what being awarded Colours means. Those who are awarded Colours are exceptional in every way.

  • They have excellent ability and an excellent attitude.
  • They are committed on and off the playing field.
  • They play and practise with consistency.
  • They are reliable and have character, resilience and courage.
  • They are an example to others either as leaders or soldiers on a team.
  • They are the ones who stand up when things are personally challenging or difficult for the team.
  • They are selfless and put others before themselves.
  • They are true team players.

Colours were awarded to 24 pupils this year and they were:

Boys’ Basketball: Connor Bermann, Chris Atkins, Finn Tabb

Girls’Basketball: Abbie and Raicheal Murray

Cricket: Isaac Dijkstra, Sean Roets, Sebastian Dijikstra, Harry St.Leger

Boys’ Hockey: Cristoph Geyer*, Julius Tenge, Joon Schultheiss, Harry St Leger

Girls’ Hockey: Helena Schoen, Leopoldine Buenau, Elizabeth Hart

Rugby: Noah Kutner, Cameron McKinley, Ned Chambre, Aaron Murray, Tomas Dwyer, Audrey Gardner, Hugo Laurenceau.

Multi Sport Colour (Special Category): Sarah Cron (For consistent commitment to a variety of Senior traditional team sports in the College over more than one year  (Hockey, Basketball, Cricket and Tennis), as well as being consistently involved in all our traditional team sports through her five years in the College)

Sports Persons of the Year

We do not always award this.  The reason is that we have a standard and that standard needs to be met for it to be awarded. We narrowed it down to two candidates this year. Both represented two College Senior Teams Hockey and Cricket for the last two years. They have also represented their country at a variety of age levels.

At Cricket Sebastian Dijikstra has represented Leinster at U15 and U17. He has been on the Leinster Schoolboys’ team for the last two years.  Last year he was on the Irish U17 team and is again. He was also on the U19 training panel and will be on that panel later in the summer.

Harry St. Leger has represented Leinster and Ireland Hockey Teams at U16 and U18 Levels. He also  represented Ireland at an U19 tournament last February. He will be playing for the Leinster Schoolboys cricket team against the MCC.  

The Heads of Sport Committee felt it would be invidious to separate them so they shared the award and the honour.  Joint winners – Sebastian Dijkstra and Harry St. Leger (pictured above with our guest speaker, Sophia Cole).

Sports Team of the Year – Senior Boys’ Cricket XI

The team reached their Leinster final two years in a row. This year’s final was one of a very high quality. St. Columba’s lost the toss and were set the daunting target of 298 runs. The pulses of the game went them and they replied with a creditable 192.

Although they did not win silverware the cricket team are playing in the very top league in the province.  The gained 2nd position last year and maintained it this year. They have four Leinster players on the team and two Irish players. This speaks of the standard they are playing at. On that basis the Senior Boys’ Cricket team beat off strong challenges from both the Senior Girls’ Basketball and Hockey teams.

Many thanks to Rev Owen for his wonderful photos of our very special sporting occasion.

Sports Dinner 2024
Sports Dinner 2024
60 photos
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Sports Day & Sports Dinner 2023

The College’s annual Sports Day always brings colour, energetic competition, a whole lot of fun and, occasionally, even sunshine. This year’s event was no different, with almost every pupil competing across a range of sports and games. There was a competitive edge of course, with the four teams hoping that they will come out on top. In the end, it was the red team that took the glory (and the ice-creams) but sport and fun were the real winners. Many thanks to all the staff who took part and helped with the event but a particular mention must go to the team captains and Mr Havenga, for his organisation of the day. Some of the notable wins at this year’s Sports Day were:

Cloister Dash – Boys: Tom Larke, Girls: Felicitas Boecking

Mountain Run – Boys: Hughie Casey, Girls: Hannah Bergmann

Later that evening, the annual Sports Dinner took part. This event celebrates the achievements of individual pupils but also the College teams. After a tremendously successful season across all codes, it was brilliant to sit down and reflect on such a great year of sport. We were deloghted to welcome Bernard Jackman, former Ireland, Leinster and Connacht rugby player and former coach to Grenoble and the Dragons. Bernard spoke about sport to the assembled pupils and coaching staff before presenting awards and colour to pupils. Some notable awards presented on the evening include:

Girls Hockey Club Person of the Year: Ayodeji Ediale.

Basketball Club Person of the Year: Dishuo Chen

Tennis: Boys’ Singles – August Schoen, Girls’ Singles- Sarah Cron

The highlight of the Sports Dinner is the awarding of ‘colours’ – an honour which acknowledges the exceptional contribution pupils have made to College sports. And, finally, the Sports Person of the Year, for both boys and girls, was annouced. Colours were awarded to the following pupils for 2022/2023:

Colours

Boys’ Basketball: George King and Stephen Kou

Cricket: Carl Kerenski, Caleb Owen, Marco Trolese

Boys’ Hockey: Johannes Pabsch, Tyrone Shi, Marco Trolese, Cristoph Geyer

Girls’ Hockey: Elys Walker

Rugby: Solomon Babajide, Tommy Casado, Kieran Ovenden, Caleb Owen, Ben Patterson, Marco Trolese.

Sports Persons of the Year

Boys: Caleb Owens and Marco Trolese, ex aequo
Girls: Abbie Murray

Team of the Year

Senior Boys Rugby

Below is a selection of photos from both the Sports Day and Sports Dinner.

Sports Day 2023
Sports Day 2023
121 photos
Sports Dinner 2023
Sports Dinner 2023
60 photos
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Sebastian Dijkstra – An Update from Glenwood High School, Durban

Sebastian Dijkstra, a pupil in Form IV, is spending his Transition Year at Glenwood High School in Durban with the aim of improving his cricket and expanding his horizons. He sends a report from South Africa on how his year has been going so far.

The journey began on the 8th of January in Terminal 2, Dublin Airport. After arriving at the terminal, I first met Senan Reid from Clontarf CC who was going to Muir College in the Eastern Cape. Then at 10 pm, we boarded the plane off to Dubai. We were lucky enough to be travelling with the Irish men’s cricket team on their way to Harare to play against Zimbabwe. A couple of the players went to South Africa during their TY year and it was nice to get some feedback from their experience.

Eventually, after 20 hours of travelling, we landed in Durban. Two days after we arrived, we met the head of cricket at Glenwood, Mr Bux, and Mr Duncan, the head of Gibson House. Mr Duncan gave us a tour of the school and where I would be staying. The next day was the annual pre-term High-Performance Camp. It was an immense change training in 30-degree heat after just coming out of winter. HP camp started with a team meeting inside along with a presentation and what we would focus on throughout the day. Then outside, we took part in specific fielding drills, along with target bowling and batting drills. After four days of intense training, school had begun.

On the first day of school, I had a session with Ben, the first team Biokineticist, as I was recovering from a broken arm. Later on in the day, I had my first u16A training session.  The first few training sessions consisted of technique and fitness. Unfortunately for the first week, I was only allowed to do recovery in the gym along with lighter cricket training as my arm was still weak. Ben was a significant help as he set me up with a full rehabilitation plan. Towards the end of the second week, I had my first full, intense training session. Not long after, I played my first match against Kearsney. We bowled first restricting Kearsney to under 250. We then fell a few runs short after accurate bowling from Kearsney.

The following week saw the launch of the academy. This involved training sessions from 7 to 8:15 am every Tuesday and Thursday. Along with that, Mr Bux organised the U16A’s to use the nets from 6 am each day where we could focus on our technique. It also allowed us to hit 300 extra balls each week which grew our confidence leading up to Saturday. Throughout the week, we completed target bowling, flat catching along with boundary work, as well as a net session on the square. This expanded my knowledge of the Durban pitches which helped me to adjust my game. On Friday, our rest day, Mr Bux organised all the ‘A’ squads to go to the new SA 20 competition at Kingsmead stadium.  We watched the Durban ‘Super Giants’ play against the ‘Sunrisers’ Eastern Cape. This was a great opportunity to watch first-class cricket at the top level especially before our game the next day. On Saturday we played Clifton at Delta Cricket Club, a premiere league ground. After a full effort from the team, Clifton, unfortunately, came away with the win. However, with a 100-ball game on Thursday and a 50 over game against Maritzburg College, we have a chance to redeem ourselves.

I would like to thank Cricket Leinster and Glenwood High School for making this trip possible and I am looking forward to the weeks ahead.

Sebastian Dijkstra, St Columba’s College & Merrion CC

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Sports Day & Sports Awards 2019

On Saturday last the annual Sports Day took place. The College was awash with colour and, thankfully, sunshine as the boys and girls competed in a range of events from traditional track and field to tug of war (and everything in between). In the end, it was the Blue Team that triumphed!

That evening our annual Sports Dinner took place in the Dining Hall, celebrating the sporting achievements of individual pupils and their collective teams. The assembled pupils, staff and coaches were treated to an extraordinary speech from our guest Old Columban Alex Panayotou; Alex is an ultra-endurance athlete whose story is awe-inspiring.

College ‘Colours’ are awarded to those who are deemed exceptional in every way in their sport: ability, attitude, commitment on and off the playing field, consistency, reliability, character and courage. This year ‘Colours’ were awarded to Avouka Assebian (Athletics), Georg Mueller-Methling (Hockey) and Orla Conlon Batey, Helen Crampton, Anna Laurenceau and Valeria McQuillen (all Hockey). Congratulations to them.

The following were appointment captains of their respective sports for the next academic year:

  • Athletics (Boys) – Leo Moreau
  • Athletics (Girls) – Avouka Assebian
  • Basketball (Boys) – Pedro Grimalt
  • Basketball (Girls) – Calina Sacolax
  • Cricket (Boys) – Daniel Swift (Vice Capt Thaddy McKeever)
  • Cricket (Girls) – Eile ni Chianain
  • Cross Country – Shannon Dent
  • Hockey (Boys) – Alexis Haarman
  • Hockey (Girls) – Sophia Cole (Vice Capt Megan Bulbulia)
  • Rugby – Thaddy McKeever (Vice Philip Shekeleton)

Below is a collection of photos from the day’s activities, courtesy of Rev Owen.

Sports Day & Sports Dinner 2019
Sports Day & Sports Dinner 2019
139 photos
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Sports Day & Sports Dinner 2018

The College was buzzing on Saturday as sport took centre stage once again.  In the afternoon the main events of Sports Day took place, with pupils assigned to one of four teams (red, blue, green and white). The campus was awash with colour as the pupils competed in a wide range of events ranging from the traditional track and field fare (short & long distance running, long jump, high jump etc) to skills based challenges (cricket throw, rugby conversions, soccer penalties, basketball throws etc) to some less traditional events (like the three-legged and caterpillar race). The final races are traditionally the “cloister dash” – a 100 yard sprint from the Hurley Lane gate to Chapel Square. The race is only contested by Form VI pupils and the winners this year were Sasha Cole and Franz Truchsess. Well done to everyone who competed – Sports Day is, for many, the highlight of the year and this year certainly didn’t disappoint. Well done to everyone on the Blue Team for amassing the most points over all the events. Many thanks to Ms. Thompson and Mrs. Johnson, in particular, but to all the teaching and sports coaching staff for their seamless running of the day’s events.

That evening the College’s sporting successes were celebrated at our annual Sports Dinner, with ‘colours’ awarded to those pupils who have excelled in their chosen sports this year. Colours for Rugby were presented to Sean Cooper, Hector Wright, Adam Murphy, Max Hopkins, Kosi Anyim and Joe Gernon. In Basketball, colours were presented to Ryan Gumsheimer, Franz Truchsess and Tiernan Mullane. In Hockey, colours were presented to Ivan Moffit, Sean Cooper, Kitty Morris, Sasha Cole and Ella Noeldeke and in Cricket, colours were awarded to Helen Crampton. The overall Sports Pupils of the Year were awarded to Sean Cooper and Kitty Morris, for their contribution to College sport over the past six years.

Below are a series of photographs, taken by Rev. Owen, from the weekend’s sporting events.

Sports Day & Sports Dinner 2018
Sports Day & Sports Dinner 2018
51 photos
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Cricket News

The cricket season started on April 18th and effectively ended on Wednesday last, five weeks later. In that time twenty six matches were played across the teams, albeit with two First I matches to come against Headfort. Their First Year B team were introduced to the rudiments of the game. The First Year A team contains some decent and potentially solid cricketers. They were certainly competitive in their matches. The Senior Team were keen and worked hard however they have not yet played enough cricket or spent enough hours training to compete with those who have done so for years. Nevertheless they managed an excellent league win against a useful Rush team, winning by two runs. They also played competitively in our enjoyable annual fixture against the Leprechauns Cricket Club.

The highlight of the season was the Second XI’s win in their League semi-final against Wesley College. This win by nine runs was marked by a four and three wicket haul by Harry Oke and Harry Kelly respectively. Also Juhyun Kim took five catches at long on or fine fine leg! They lost in the final against Clongowes Wood College First XI playing in the Senior B League. We have just completed two weeks of snappy, ‘Sports Day’ cricket which has involved everyone in the school. If we are to build on the coaching done so far in this frenetic season, as many of our cricketers who live in cricket playing countries as possible need to play for a club in the holidays. That is if they are to progress and develop for next year’s competitive school season.

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St. Columba’s Win the Fanagan Cup

Well done to the St. Columba’s College Senior Cricket team who recently won the Fanagan trophy. The trophy is named after and awarded by Mr. John Fanagan (former Head of English at St. Columba’s) to the winner of an annual fixture between SCC and Sandyford Cricket Club. St. Columba’s set a target of 125 runs off their 20 overs (7 wickets taken) – Thomas Meijer with an impressive 63. Sandyford started strongly but some excellent fielding (including an tremendous catch from George Guinness) put pressure on the visitors. In their final over, and with three wickets in hand, Sandyford needed just 5 runs to win but Form III pupil Daniel Swift nervously bowled an excellent final over. He limited the visitors scoring while also claiming one wicket with a great bowl, and seeing Sandyford’s final batsmen being run out going for a second run. The game end with Sandford on 124-9 and St. Columba’s winning with the narrowest of margins.

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