Scotch College

Preparing the way for surf success

Words: Mr Matt Monaghan

Scotch fielded two teams of nine members against six other Melbourne schools in the fourth round of the metropolitan surf titles, held at South Melbourne beach. Our team mainly consisted of members of the Scotch swimming and diving team.

Some great individual efforts from Nick and James Tissot in the beach flags, Matt Perrot and Alex Neerhut in the board paddle, Chris Watts in the beach sprint and Jack Hurley in the open swim saw Scotch ‘A’ finishing second overall, two points clear of Scotch ‘B’ in third place. This performance qualified the school for the Surf League state finals at Point Leo.

The state finals pitted our team against schools from Melbourne, Geelong, and the west coast. The competition was held on a less than perfect day, with the competition transferred from the massive swell at Point Leo to the benign Mornington front beach.

Scotch’s team was below full strength due to some competitors having other commitments. The Tissot boys showed their class in the beach flags with Nick Tissot winning the gold in the open age group, Jacob Clark finished fourth in the run-swim-run event, while Jack and Leo Hurley both finished a creditable fifth in their respective age group in the same event.

Unfortunately Scotch finished out of the placings, but did gain valuable knowledge and experience in preparation for an assault on the state title next year.

Congratulations go to the following boys who represented Scotch in the heats and finals:

Jack Acton, Matthew Bate, David Carey, Jacob Clark, Damian di Donato, Charles Forbes, Harry Fox, Conor Herbert, Lachie Hocking, Tom Holding, Dougal Hurley, Jack Hurley, Leo Hurley, Lachlan Malcolm, Max Mellor, Alexander Neerhut, Chris Perrott, Matt Perrott, Matt Reddish, James Sansom, James Tissot, Nick Tissot and Chris Watts. GS