St. Albans College, Buenos Aires OP Newsletter received June 10, 2002 St. Alban’s Day On the 22nd of June we honour our Patron Saint, Alban. The celebration will take place on Friday 20th of June, coinciding with Flag Day, and we will have a special assembly at school at 13:00 hrs with special guests. There is at present quite a debate in the UK as to whether St. Alban and not St. George should be the Patron Saint due to the fact that Alban really existed and George is only a myth. We of course always knew the truth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- School Rugby, Hockey & Volley-Ball Much took place on Saturday 7th of June and much was achieved. Our First XI Hockey team and our Intermediate and Junior rugby teams took part in the traditional XV and XI-a-Side Invitational Tournament at St. George’s College in Quilmes, and guess what? All three teams were crowned champions, three trophies at stake, three trophies we take! Our girls were unbeaten all throughout the tournament and won the final against the hosting school, the Inter XV likewise played St George’s in the final and the Junior XV beat St. Andrew’s. Our Intermediate and Junior Hockey teams also participated in a Tournament organized by Michael Ham at Nordelta and reached semi-finals. Our Volley-ball team took part in the ADE Tournament organized by Belgrano Day School improving their performance of the previous year, and, last but not least, our youngsters from 4th form up to 7th took part in a Triangular Tournament with Barker and St. Luke’s. A heap of activity with excellent results. Congratulations to all! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thistle Cup Regatta On Saturday 7th was held the Annual Regatta for English Speaking Schools and what do you know? We achieved a 2nd and an 11th place among 100 participants! It’s not all rugby, hockey and cricket at St. Alban’s. We congratulate Mr. Diaz, a parent and Marcos Payaslian, an OP, for their trophies! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1978 School leavers 25th Anniversary As was previously announced, on Friday 20th of June the graduates of 1978 will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary, most of the former pupils have confirmed their attendance, even some living in the USA and elsewhere. This is the first group of girls school leavers, the previous year there had been only one, and in this case there were eight. It will certainly be quite a moving event. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OP Luncheon The first of the traditional OP luncheons was held on Friday 6th of June at the American Club in town. There were 30 Old Philomathians at the table. Grace was said by Bertie Hansen and the whole affair was ably organized and conducted by Sammy Simpson, as usual a great feeling of camaraderie with anecdotes and memories ruled over all. These luncheons are held on the first Friday of every even month. Next issue we will have news on the OP gathering in the USA. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Club Rugby There was no way anyone could suspect such a remarkable performance by our lads in the Senior Side against San Cirano after the fiasco of the previous weekend against Pueyrredon, where after leading 17-5 in the first half they were run over and lost 39-24. But these things do happen in rugby. With great conviction and a classy display of good, ball running rugby our lads toppled San Cirano by 30-17. Nevertheless the effort was not enough to put us among the top seven so we are obliged to play in the re-qualifying zone. Only one game left for this part of the tournament, against Banco Nacion which will be played away on Sunday 15th due to the Pumas-France game on Saturday.