Wallace sports celebrations

Sports Day was held last Wednesday with blue skies and scorching sunshine greeting the competitors and spectators for this ever popular event. As always, there were two competitions running side by side with the more serious athletes taking part in the Individual Athletics event, whilst the House competition provided opportunities for everyone to get involved in events ranging from welly wanging to tug of war and long jump to relay races. For the first time ever the Army were also present which proved popular with both staff and pupils alike, the best pupil scores going towards house points.

The individual event was as competitive as ever with close scores in all four Year groups. Kelsie McDowell and Oliver McLuckie were the Year 8 winners, whilst Alyssa Jebb and Ben Morrison triumphed in Year 9. Andrew O’Hare and Harriet Matchett won the Year 10 event, whilst Chloe McCoosh and Michael Downey were the Year 11 winners.

On Thursday night, the school held the inaugural Sports Awards Dinner. Distinguished past pupils Raymond and Lawrence Hunter and their wives were invited as guests for the evening and all at Wallace were delighted to welcome them back. Raymond is a former international cricketer and rugby player who also played for the British Lions, whilst younger brother Lawrence was a well known local cricketer who won two caps for the Irish rugby team on the wing.

After the food was served each sport presented a report which reflected on the year past. Certificates and cups were presented to individual pupils for colours, representative honours and certificates of achievement for junior school pupils, whilst the traditional cups in each sport were awarded. It was not only the traditional sports which were represented as the successful fencers, Anna Boe in trampolining and Gary Dillon in motocross were also recognised for their outstanding achievements throughout the year.

Year 14 pupil James McCallan won the big prize as he was presented with the WR Hunter Cup for Sporting Excellence. James has represented the school in a number of sports including rugby, cricket, badminton and tennis. He played for the Ulster Schools’ rugby team and was a recent triallist for the Ulster Schools’ cricket team having captained the school 1st X1 to the semi final of the Schools’ Cup. He represented junior underage Ulster badminton teams.