Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 147
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[Page 147]
73
in the formation of the First A.I.F. He was killed at the Anzac landing on Gallipoli.
The new playing fields at the College, which were now well enough grassed, first went into service with the opening of the 1910 football season, and it was much more convenient than having to go all that way down to the old ground at the Chinese market gardens, and it saved an awful lot of time that we were able to give to still further improving our game. The new ground had been created, at much expense, by cutting and filling the sandy terrain of what had been about a five-acre orchard. It became an expansive, open, airy, flat area with beautiful views of the harbour. Its surface was still rather soft and sandy and the Couch grass not yet thickly matted. It accomodated a full sized football field, with central Cricket pitches of black clayey Bulli soil, and a small practice field projecting from one side.
The sports played in Summer were Cricket and Tennis (on two asphalt courts on an upper terrace) and there were, of course, swimming competitions within the College, and also some G.P.S. fixtures. At Cricket, I was never a successful batsman: I failed to learn the proper way to hold and wield a bat, but I could bowl a very fast straight ball.
At the beginning of the Spring term, serious training for the athletic events of our early September sports meeting, at the Rushcutter Bay oval, began. All the other schools of the G.P.S. Sports Association, held their sports meetings around this time, with one "open" event. It all culminated in the big G.P.S. sports meeting, held near the end of September, at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where all the various school champions were in very keen competition in the several events, and each school was striving to win the biggest aggregate of winning points. In 1911 "Scots" were placed top, mainly because of the success of our E.R. (Ted) Cox, an outstanding record-breaking sprinter and middle-distance runner. I gained a few points for my school in the mile championship and the 440 yards team relay-race.
It was about this time that the new Rugby League code of professional football was introduced, and Rugby Union remained the amateur, and slower, game.