Firstly, some questions that need answering. Where have all the Frisbees gone? How come some of the table tennis bats have disappeared? Why are footballs still being left out on the field? Did a hundred tennis balls really get mislaid this summer? It’s not just the library that seems to suffer from a lack of responsibility towards property - your property!

We want to encourage you to play sport in your free time, but equipment has to be returned. Is it really so un-cool to be the one who puts the equipment away? Of course not. We don’t have an endless supply of it, so play fair and put kit back in its proper place when you’ve finished using it, please. Plenty of responsible individuals currently do so and so should the minority who currently don’t.

And another irritation - borrowing sports clothing out of other peoples’ lockers, simply because you’ve forgotten to bring your own kit, is lazy and selfish. Doing it without asking permission first is tantamount to stealing or bullying or worse still, both! If you’re one of the few who are guilty of this, then you need to do some growing up over the holidays.

Anyway, that’s the ugly part out the way. Let’s move on to all the good things that have been going on in sport at St George’s over the summer.

A special mention goes to everyone who took part in the school tennis competition. Competing is about testing your abilities against the benchmark of what other people can do. Plenty of students entered these tournaments knowing that they weren’t necessarily going to win. But they had a go anyway. A competition can’t have a winner without a field of competitors to play against. So well done to everyone who chose to take part.

In Inter-House sport, it’s hats off to Atalanta and to their two sports captains for a quite outstanding year of achievement. They added the tennis, athletics and swimming titles to their heaving trophy cabinet, though they did have to share the honours with Diana in rounders. However, this term Diana and Minerva offered a much more credible challenge to Atalanta’s dominance. So keep up the good work and keep Atalanta on their toes.

Outside of school, St George’s sent a team to the ADISR athletics championships and after a very enjoyable day our students came home with a number of personal best performances. Those who achieved a podium position were Rebecca Harling, Juliet Pearce, Branden Stobbs and Dean McIntosh, who all won bronze medals, and André Sanchini who won silver at the end of a very exciting senior boys’ javelin competition.

In swimming, the honours continue to flow in both ADISR and SGIS competitions. The junior team earned a highly commendable third place again, this time in Gstaad, whilst in Villars Juliet Pearce and Libby Urquhart-Ducharme won the Moyennes Girls’ Team Trophy.

We also entered six pairs into the ADISR and SGIS tennis competitions. Chris Hutton and Branden Stobbs made a creditable semi-final appearance in Villars. And there is plenty of fresh talent coming through the junior ranks too, with Adelaide Wood leading a crop of skilful players from lower down the school. So, aside from the earlier moans, you can see that there is plenty to cheer about in sport too.

Finally, don’t forget that the summer holidays are very long. Try to put into action all that you’ve learned in sport over the course of the year and ensure that your break is an active one. And if you still think that enjoying physical activity is all about carrying shopping bags around the mall, cast your mind to Mr Gillan’s personal challenge this summer. On July 19^th he will attempt to swim 4 km, cycle 180 km and run 42 km, back-to-back, all in one 14-hour marathon. You maybe don’t have to go quite that far to prepare for the Inter-House Cross-Country in September, but it’s worth thinking about while you eat your ice-cream on the beach.