Newcastle's sports day a success
27 August 2008
The ship's company of HMAS Newcastle, (CMDR Nicholas Stoker) recently hosted a successful FFGUP whole-ship sports day at Randwick Barracks.
The games, organised by PO Stuart Rowe, were held to stir up some friendly inter-departmental rivalry and with great weather throughout, made for a highly enjoyable day.
The day included a barbecue lunch, inter-departmental competitions and the main event for the day: the Techos v Non-Techos rugby league match.
The morning saw a round robin tug-of-war competition, with the Weapons Electrical Engineering department taking out the top prize in a tightly fought final against the Marine Engineering Department.
A series of sprints was held, with LS Susie Wright and CPO Hart taking out the open female and male events respectively. A fill-in for an absent representative, MIDN Scott Carter from the Supply Department, won the tightly fought Commanding Officer /Heads of Department race, with the CO in close second.
A European Handball competition saw some strong athletic performances with the Marine Engineering Department redeeming themselves by beating a team which combined the Supply and Communication Information Sailor branches to take out the competition.
The highlight for the day and the event that everyone had looked forward to was the Techos v Non-Techos rugby league match, and the game certainly lived up to its billing.
The match was played in four 15 minute quarters and the game was tied at 10-all by three quarter time. The final quarter saw some strong plays from the Non-Techos, who took the lead and went on to win the match with a final score of 28 to 14.
Both teams had some notable performances. The Non-Techos' winning captain AB Luke Woodcroft put in some strong plays and PO Scott Wheeler beat a series of tackles and ran over half the length of the field to score in the second half.
For the Techos side, both LS John Haviland and AB Dominic Wildin played big matches.
The game was played at a high level and the crowd was kept entertained throughout.
This event was revived this year after a long hiatus, with the result being inscribed on the ship's perpetual trophy.
