St Joseph's Nudgee College

March 31, 2009

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The Premiership winning 1st XI with coaches Matt Hawkins and John Stackpoole

Cricket Captain Corey Barsby with the Premiership cup

The St Joseph's Nudgee College 1st XI won their 10th cricket Premiership on the weekend and, in so doing, helped achieve a remarkable GPS sporting milestone.

Nudgee College beat Brisbane State High School by three wickets on Saturday to finish the season with 68 competition points, 11 points clear of ACGS and TSS who tied for second place.

The 1st XI win means Nudgee College achieved a summer sports trifecta after also winning the swimming and rowing championships earlier in the term. The last school to win swimming, rowing and cricket in the same year was Churchie back in 1963.

Nudgee College Cricket Program Manager Mark Ensor said the 1st XI players and coaches had done a remarkable job of winning the Premiership in a year of change for the College’s cricket program.

"2009 was a year where Nudgee College cricket, despite adversity and change, achieved many major milestones," he said.

"A record number of students participated in cricket this year, with 23 teams in the GPS and 11 teams in the CIC competition."

"The 1st XI achieved remarkable success in winning the GPS Premiership for the first time since 2001, and only the 10th time since GPS cricket started in 1919. Congratulations to all players and the very hard working coaching team," he said.

Director of Activities Peter Todd said although the College is excited to win any premierships, it is particularly proud of doing well in the Term 1 GPS foundation sports.

"Swimming, rowing and cricket are all GPS foundation sports," he said.

"They have been around since 1918 when the competition started and are really the ones you want to win."

In addition to the talent of the individual participants, Mr Todd believes it is participation that has played a major role in the College’s results.

"This year we have had very strong participation rates with more boys involved in activities than in previous years. Over 80 boys turned up for swimming, cricket numbers spiked and rowing had their highest numbers ever."

Mr Todd is now looking forward to the GPS winter season and hopes to follow the lead of Churchie by winning additional titles.

"When Churchie won the swimming, rowing and cricket in 1963 they went on to win the rugby and athletics titles that year as well. We have over 600 boys registered to participate in rugby and football this year and training numbers for cross country are the largest in history so things are looking promising."