A beautiful sunny day brought many old faces back to the College on Saturday 1 September as we celebrated and remembered one of our Old Princethorpians Alex Wallis, who was tragically killed in a car crash on New Year's Eve 2010.
The first ever OPs Sports Day was a true sporting spectacle as the College played the Old Princethorpians at rugby, netball and boys and girls hockey with all the points being added together to produce a collective sporting score for the honour of raising the Alex Wallis Memorial Shield.
All games were closely contested with the Old Princethorpians teams including some fantastic players from the past years.
As the culmination of the day the John Shinkwin Trophy Rugby Match was contested for the fourth year with the Old Princethorpians looking to overturn last year's pasting.
The College had completed a solid pre-season with many new faces and started the game on the front foot as they controlled the early exchanges. The Old Boys featured many experienced players and some who are playing a good standard of university rugby.
Soon the game started to change as Princethorpe tried to force the pass and began to put themselves under pressure. The deadlock was broken as Princethorpe were awarded a penalty which was converted by McCallum. This lead was short lived as the Old Princethorpians escaped the College's tackles for Joe Gravestock to crash over. Half Time 5-3.
The second half tested everyone’s fitness as holes started to appear in both teams' defences. Both sides continued to try and play rugby and the College should have converted an early chance with a try but again the pass didn’t go to hand. The final score was 11-3 to the Old Boys who regained the John Shinkwin Trophy deservedly and ended a fantastic day of sport and celebration.
The final overall result saw the Old Princethorpians win the Alex Wallis Memorial Shield 34-26, but sport was the real winner on the day and all involved certainly played in the true college spirit as we remembered ‘Wallis.’
Images show the OPs 1st XV and John Shinkwin presenting the Shinkwin Cup to Ben Warman and Richard Sidaway.
The date of next year's OPs Sports Day is Saturday 31 August 2013, contact jonfitt@princethorpe.co.uk if you would like to get involved.