Marlow - Winners 2018

In a year full of forward strides in the College the ‘Marlow Kings’ were generating the hype from the word go. After a few years of challenge and triumph we were pinned as the house that can swim, bust out a good haka but not much else, oh boy did that get under our skins. The 2018 Marlow legacy started out way back in January where the year 13 lads helped create a warm welcome for the new Marlow brothers which was start of something special.

The week of swimming sports rolled around and the energy from the lads was big, the pressure that we had won this prestigious event for the past 8 years along with the fact we hadn’t won a chant competition in 2 years started to build as we got on the buses to the pool, but by the time we assembled in the car park it we all knew today was our day. We kicked things off with what I have to say is one of my personal highlights the initial chant competition for 2018, from a house that had a banner of flunky chants we busted out a chant that left some houses literally speechless (yes, we’re looking at you McClintock). From there besides a few scares during the day we eventually lifted our 9th consecutive swimming sports title.

Next, we had athletics. I won’t be the first Marlow lad to say this when athletics hasn’t been our strongest point, but we knew if we kept riding this forward striding wave anything could happen. It was peak hour on the day and we were down in the dirt sitting last with the usual big names smashing 1st and 2nd place (and didn’t they let us know about it). The Marlow staff led by a determined Mr Allan gave us to confidence we need, for the rest of the day if you walked past our area, you’d be lucky to see anyone because 99.9%, year 7-13 were getting out and giving it a go. The day came to the end and with that saw a David vs Goliath achievement. For the 1st time in over a decade Marlow had tipped the other houses to reign supreme, that victory was completely down to the attitudes of the Marlow men wanting to just give it a go, and with that Marlow became the talk of the school.

At the start of term two we had picked up a crucial Bruce Challenge win which sat us up on top of the table leading into Special Character Week. From the get-go we knew if we had a good performance during this week than we were looking good for lifting the cup. This meant preparations for our songs and haka started very early in the term. leading into Special Character Week the house became quite a talking point around the school which we referred to with “they hate us cause they aint us” and this was the spark for our song choices. From a house who liked to keep it within good terms during the week, we saw this day as a chance to respond to the haters with a passionate voice and a stern Haka. At the end of the day we were beaten by the better song and took out 2nd place in both the song and haka competition which was a win in our books because know how hard these boys worked throughout the term.

With term 3 being relatively quiet it meant that it was a very nervous wait until prizegiving season. While other houses shut up shop Marlow continued its tradition of a end of year BBQ and cricket match to send off the year 13’s. finally the time came and I’m happy to say through triumph and persistence Marlow took a very convincing win lifting the cup for only the 5th time in its history.

Its with memories like this that I’m grateful that I was able to lead a great bunch of lads but not with the help of some outstanding people. Id like to thank Mr Allan and the Marlow Staff who in all seriousness helped shape the vision I had for the house and were willing to help in any way. To the Year 13’s of Marlow a massive thanks as you were the lads that generated the culture for 2018 through 5-7 years of work and were always up for a challenge.

I leave the house knowing that we’ve left it better than we found it and with the characters coming up in the ranks next year led by Josh Dent, 2019 will be one for the books!

Go Yourself – Harry Mayo