McClintock House Report 2017

There was pressure on McClintock house this year as the reigning house champions to continue our All Blacks like stranglehold on the Thomas Ruane Challenge Cup. This year’s house leader Tobias Sunter had grand plans and many ready and willing lieutenants in the form of Patrick Hansen, Leon Barrowcliffe and many others to support him in these grand plans.

Our year started off in less than auspicious circumstances with a below par performance at the swimming sports. As defending house champions it was not the best start to our title defence. From this we as a house and our leaders learnt many valuable lessons about how not to approach an event and it was just what was needed. This spurred the leaders and boys into action for the next event, the Athletic sports.

It was a gloomy but warm day as we set about redemption from the swimming sports. We made sure we were decked in our finest green attire, there was face paint, dresses, wigs, tights and camouflage all on display. Led by Tobias the chants were rowdy, the support unrivalled and the haka was done with passion. McClintock were back and leading the pack. What can be only described as the biggest and best athletic sports to date, McClintock dominated every aspect and this was key to its success. From the silky smooth voice of John Gaffaney on the microphone, to Sean and Dominic helping with first aid and a special mention of Julie Maxwell’s and Lynda Collins’ costumes. Add in the ever present support and enthusiasm from our whole house, McClintock controlled the day.

The next big house activity for the house was St Thomas Day. This was a chance for us as a house to continue our dominance and to set the cat amongst the pigeons as it were….A big thanks must go to Patrick and Leon for getting the music sorted for the day. Also a huge thanks to Anaru Shadbolt for his assistance in getting our haka looking and sounding respectable. This year McClintock took a risk, sometimes to be successful you have to take risks and that is what we did this year. We did attempt to practice the chosen song….but it just did not work and quite frankly it sounded terrible. So we decided to be bold and choose an old favourite instead, one which we all know and could sing loud and proud.

That did mean we were disqualified, but we have now made a change for the better. Because of this innovation and bold break out from the standard script, from next year all the houses can choose all of their own songs. So the boys are to be applauded for taking this risk and creating change.

Overall it was a successful and enjoyable year for McClintock house. One in which we dominated many of the school events but also many Bruce challenges. We say Goodbye to the Year 13 of 2017 and look forward to seeing what initiatives, surprises and style of leadership Sean Willets will bring to the house in 2018.