View Here - Cranbrook School

Thursday, 30 May 2013 | Term 2, Week 5
Sports pages
Cross Country
By Liam Apter
Following Cranbrook’s successful debut
last week at Centennial Park, we returned
to the venue as the hosts this time to
show the other GPS and CAS schools
our capabilities as both an organised and
efficient team.
The U14s field spanned nearly 190 boys,
with Cranbrook performing admirably
against so many other competitors. Drew
Fryer lead the charge of the Cranbrook
team seizing an admirable 10th, followed
shortly behind by newcomer Ben
Brennan at 21st and Leon Salvaggio
at 31st. A commendation must go to
William Pembroke, whose continual
determination saw him come 157th.
As a runner in the U16s I often found
the 5-6km courses extremely fast-paced
and a painful race to run. The Centennial
Park course is a perfect example of these
types of pain-intensive courses. The
Cranbrook assault was fronted by Michael
Turner who cracked, what was a heavily
GPS lead field coming a gutsy 13th.
Acknowledgement must also be given
to Benjamin Clarke who came 53rd and
Michael Vacropolous 55th who are both
moving from strength to strength.
The U18s field closed the day, with
another gigantic field of boys moving
onto the course to lumber round the
7.2km. Cranbrook snapped up the lead
positions, with Kurt Fryer coming 4th,
Liam Apter, who was narrowly beaten
at the line, coming 10th and Panayiotis
Panaretos following hotly at his heels
came 11th. The rest of the opens team
performed strongly with Charlie Donald,
powering in to the top 50 positions at
47th while praise must be given to Nathan
Finch running at 97th.
All boys should keep in mind even if their
placing was not the same as last week,
they have not deteriorated over the week
but were merely competing against more
runners and we were proud of everyone’s
efforts. However, this event would not
have been possible without the assistance
of the Slavin Brothers, Mr Simic, Mr Burr,
the parents and boys who came early to
assist with the organisation of the course.
I look forward to seeing you all next
weekend.
Dee Khan – dribbling in 1sts
Football
Football Report v Trinity
Grammar School
1sts
1-5 Loss
Goal scorer – Eddie Najm
After an upsetting 4-3 loss at the hands
of Waverley last weekend, the 1st XI were
determined to earn 3 points away at Trinity.
With eliminating our in-game inconsistences
as a focus, the first half began incredibly
strong. After some creative play in our upper
third Eddie Najm was calmly able to slot the
ball past the keeper, giving Cranbrook a 1-0
lead. This was short-lived as Trinity were able
to even the game with a spectacular volley.
After a miscommunication between the back
four, Trinity captured another heading into
the sheds 2-1 up. Not written off, the attitude
was positive and motivating within the change
room. Unfortunately this was not carried
through onto the pitch in the second half.
Complacency and inaccuracy plagued the
entire team throughout the final 40 minutes,
turning a once competitive game into shooting
practice for Trinity. Several positional
and formation changes were not enough
to rekindle our gameplay of the first half.
Finishing 5-1, the squad search for a reason
to explain our embarrassing second half skid,
though none was found. The culmination of
sleek passing, precise finishing, and overall
communication by Trinity proved too much
for the 1st XI.
2nds
1-1 draw
Goal scorer – Nick Morris-Mikado
For the Year 12 boys in the team it would
be our last game away at Trinity on their
artificial pitch. We knew as soon as we sat
down in the changing room we were going
to be in for a big fight. A win would provide
hope of achieving top spot in CAS. However,
we did not win, or lose. We drew 1-1. Again.
Right from the first whistle, we came out
fighting with a couple of chances on goal.
Their midfield was strong and tough to mark,
as they weaved through us. Fortunately, they
created nothing of promise. However, when
we had the ball, the game was under control.
Felix Holmes-Stenback easily dominated
the midfield, teaming up with the holding
midfield, Alex Fraser, and creating some neat
plays through to the wide men, Nick Morris-
Mikardo and Terry Tang.
Positive words from the coach, Mr Bray, at
half time reminded us of our training from
the previous week. He knew that once we
started to play our 1-2 touch passing game we
would easily dominate the game. Countless
passes in the second half led to total control by
Cranbrook. A strong attack on the right side
put Nick Morris-Mikardo’s name on the score
sheet for the second game in a row.
Trinity tried to play around us on counter
attacks but our left back and right back, Peter
Richardson and George Tsioutsias, showed
absolute resilience in stopping them from
creating anything hopeful.
The game did come down to an unfortunate
last minute free kick for Trinity, which
led to a goal. Let’s just say every keeper
has a nightmare save and today was very
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