For a number of years, the old boys committee has been thinking about ways to extend its reach outside “just old boys” and to be more a “friends of the college” organisation.

It is very evident that the school has a strength of character that not only draws the students in, but often encapsulates their parents as well and as a committee the Old Boys Association wants to both recognise and enhance those relationships.

An example of this passion and commitment to the school has been particularly evident in the creation of 2 new cricket nets.

Cricket Nets on wheels are a common site these days among cricketing schools. St Bede’s had nets that were over 40 years old and not only were they unsafe they took a long time to set up.

A couple of cricketing dads, Curtis Trillo and Brendan Fahey, thought they would investigate getting a net on wheels for the school and on discovering the price Curtis suggested he could make one himself.

Curtis managed to source some 30mm steel and had access to an engineering workshop and so it was all go. A sticking point was going to be fundraising for the actual netting itself.

As it happened, St Francis of Assisi primary school were in the middle of a project to build a bike track at their school which Brendan Fahey was helping with and Julian Meates was Project Managing.

Instead of simply getting contractors in to do all the work, the school had decided to make it a community project and so had organised a number of working bees and did all of the prep work for the bike track themselves to save money.

Some of the funding for the track required the school to purchase bikes for the kids and to have somewhere to store them. There was an open bike shed that needed to be turned into an enclosed structure to store the bikes, and so knowing of need for money for the nets and the metal working skills of Curtis it made sense to continue the community approach and to engaged St Bede’s Cricket to perform the task of enclosing the aforementioned shed.

A number of cricketing Dads then took up the challenge and assisted Curtis’s technical ability and set about making it all happen.

The first net has been finished, and it was very cool to see it being used on Saturday by members of the 1st XI and the next one will be finished in the next couple of weeks.

It is always awkward to mention names as the risk of missing someone out, but in this case we think it is worth noting.

Curtis Trillo – Papanui High

Brendan Fahey – Christchurch Boys High

Jason Steward – Dunston High

Chris Coombes – Shirley Boys High

Scott Pawson – Mairehau High

Mike Langdon – Ashburton High

Richard Busch – Lincoln High

Henk Stoffers – Netherlands

Julian Meates - St Bede’s College

This is a classic case of the St Bede’s community coming together to make something that was simply financially unaffordable a reality through a bit of hard work and resourcefulness.

A number of cricketing Dads then took up the challenge and assisted Curtis’s technical ability and set about making it all happen. The first net has been finished, and it was very cool to see it being used on Saturday by members of the 1st XI and the next one will be finished in the next couple of weeks.

In my opinion, it is a classic case of the St Bede’s community coming together to make something that was simply financially unaffordable a reality through a bit of hard work and resourcefulness.

Julian Meates