The annual exchange between the two rival boarding schools returned in great fashion a fortnight ago!

On Thursday the 9th of February, Argyle House loaded 3 buses and headed down the road to St Paul’s to re-start the annual exchange between the 2 boarding houses after a 2 year hiatus.

The first event was the much anticipated tug ‘o’ war. The event was divided into 4 teams per school. One team of 10 Year 9s, one team of 10 Year 10s, one team of 10 Year 11s and one team of 10 combined Years 12 and 13s. Each matchup was decided by a best of 3 pulls.

St Paul's were well drilled within their junior cohort and they jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after claiming the Year 9 and Year 10 events in convincing fashion.

With work to do the Year 11s, led by their strong rowing contingent took out round 3 to reduce the deficit. The Year 12 and 13s repeated the feat and all of a sudden the scores were tied at 2-2.

It was decided that to find a winner, each school would put together a combined all-star team. Two strongest boys from each year level would combine to make a team of 10 for the final to decide a winner.

St Paul’s claimed the first pull, but our boys bounced back to take the second. This one really was going down to the wire! Unfortunately during the final pull, fatigue set in and we didn’t quite have enough left in the tank. St Paul’s claimed the final pull and with this the tug ‘o’ war overall 3-2.

Off to the pool we went, ready to make amends. A slightly different structure of events took place at the pool. Each school divided themselves into their individual houses within the hostel. Argyle divided into Bennett and Sutherland Houses and St Paul’s into their 3 existing houses. Each of these houses selected their top 10 swimmers per year level to form a 5 team relay for each of the 4 year levels with the Year 12 and 13 teams again being combined. The individual winning house for each race would claim that event for the school.

In an instant replay of the tug ‘o’ war St Paul’s claimed the Year 9 and 10 race to go up 2-0. Bennett swam a strong race in the Year 11 event to reduce the score to 2-1, but unfortunately for us the senior swimmers of St Paul’s were too strong and they claimed the swimming event 3-1 overall.

The final event was the one we were all waiting for, the manu bomb competition! This is where Argyle came into a league of their own. Two selected students per school were chosen to compete in the 4 man competition. The unbiased judges of Mr Moorby, Mr Katene and St Paul’s teacher Mr Rees-Gibbs (HBHS Old Boy) were unanimous in their decision per event and Argyle claimed the 'manu comp' overall 4-0. 

Final results were:

Tug ‘o’ war: St Paul’s 3-2.

Swimming: St Paul’s 3-1.

Manu Bombs: HBHS 4-0.