Scotch College

What they are doing now ...

Dr Jim Poulter ('58) has continued his athletics involvement since his School days and has just competed in his 45th season of interclub. Pole-vaulting is still his pet event, but at age 60 he took up the Decathlon, winning the 2002 inaugural Australian Master title for 60-64 age group in Brisbane recently. He had the highest score of all age groups from 30+.

Jim is a Social Worker in the forensic psychiatry field and continues his secondary career as an author, scriptwriter, publisher and historian.

Jim has written and published eight books to date and scripted a documentary film, 'The Fighting Gunditjmara'. There are a couple more novels, children's books and academic texts due for publication in the next twelve months. As an amateur historian, it was Jim's knowledge of Scotch's role in the first recorded game of Aussie Rules football, plus his Aboriginal history research, that helped him trace the origins of Australian Football to Marn-Grook, a tribal Aboriginal game played all over Australia.

Welsh is truly excellent

Champion backstroker Matt Welsh ('94) is the toast of the Victorian Institute of Sport, after claiming the Institute's most prestigious award recently.

Matt was awarded the 2001 VIS Award of Excellence at a gala function at Moonee Valley Racing Club, in April this year.

His outstanding form in 2001 included gold medal performances in the 100m backstroke and the 4 x 100 medley relay at the 2001 World Championship in Fukuoka, Japan.

Latimer makes his mark

Physiotherapist, Mark Latimer ('74) has been selected to travel with the Australian team to Manchester in July, for the2002 Commonwealth Games. He will be one of six physiotherapists looking after the five hundred and forty member Australian team.

'I expect to be very busy with such a large team, as athletes at this level of sport tend to carry niggling injuries', Mark said, 'and fortunately, many of these can be fixed prior to competition'.

After Mark left Scotch, he completed a Diploma in Radiography at RMIT in 1977 and then later went on to complete a Bachelor of Applied Science in Physiotherapy at Lincoln Institute in 1987.

He commenced his private practice in Box Hill in 1991 and honed his skills in sports physiotherapy with the Blackburn and Mitcham football clubs.

In 1993, he joined the Victorian weightlifting team and eventually became the physiotherapist to the Australian weightlifting team in 1997, with whom he has travelled internationally.

In 1998, he gained the title of APA Sports Physiotherapist and was later selected as a volunteer physiotherapist to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

At the Olympics he supervised the weightlifting competition, then treated international athletes at the warm-up track at the Olympic Stadium.

'The highlight of the Olympics for me', said Mark, 'was treating a sprinter, Susanthika Jarasingha, who had been plagued by back and knee pain for over two months prior to the Games. With treatment, she eventually made the final, ran a personal best and won a Bronze medal. This was Sri Lanka's only medal and it still gives me a buzz thinking of it'.

Australian Oarsmen

Four Old Boys have been selected to row for Australia at the forthcoming World Championships: they were

Drew Ginn ('92), in the coxless pair with James Tomkins, Rob Douglas ('93), and Cam McKenzie McHarg, in the eight. George Jelbart, in the under 23 lightweight Quad Scull. In a recent email to Leigh McGregor, Fergus Macdonald ('52) wrote that he is recovering from an illness and living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and would love to hear from any old friends at fergmac@cscoms.com or at 33838 Bann Pruekwaree, Land and House Park, Mae Jo road, Chiang Thailand 50210.

John Mackinnon ('87) recalls that his father-in-law, Viv Minchinton ('49) was at both concerts. He went with his father, Walter Minchinton ('12) and with his son-in-law, John Mackinnon ('87) in 2001, and my brother Alan Mackinnon ('93) came with us as well. Alan Gilchrist, ('38) who often hung suspended in icy, silent crevasses and was nearly struck by a bounding boulder in a rock chute at Heard Island and swept out to sea in a boating accident at McQuarie Island is now quietly retired at Eaglemont.

A rich red oceanic beach and some icy aiguilles have been named after him at Heard Island. He has been awarded the Australian Antarctic Medallion. He avidly follows Scotch Rugby First XV.

Combined Degrees gives Doctor of the future legal know-how

Most people would have been content to call themselves either a doctor or a lawyer, but not Vinay Rane ('94), now qualified as both.

When Vinay completed his studies last year, he was one of the first students in Australia to graduate with a combined medicine and law degree.

The programme is a joint initiative of the Monash Medicine and Law Faculities.

Vinay completed his sixth year of medicine last year after having already completed an undergraduate and postgraduate law degree and a Bachelor of Medicine Science with Honours.

Vinay, who has postponed the completion of a masters in law with a view to taking on a doctoral reading and concentrating on his medical studies, said the workload had not been as heavy as it sounds.

Robin Wiggins ('51) returned to Scotch for the first time in 50 years in February 2002.

Much to his regret Robin had to leave Scotch at the end of 1951 when his father's profession required him to return to England. After National Service as a Musician in the staff band of The Royal Artillery he entered Harrow School of Art. On graduation Robin worked as a freelance Illustrator for a number of major British and International publishing houses.

He married the pianist Susan Steele in 1976 and moved from London to North Devon as Head of Creative Arts at North Devon College, a Tertiary establishment where he was responsible for 400 plus full time Art/Design, Drama, Music and Sports Studies Students. He retired from the college in 1995 to work as a portrait and landscape painter.

He is represented by six commercial galleries in the UK, exhibits regularly in national exhibitions and completes a number of portrait commissions each year. During a recent visit he established a contact with the Cape Gallery, Byron Bay, NSW, and hopes for a return visit to Australia in the not too distant future.

If, by any chance, I were asked to give advice to an existing Scotch Collegian, or any young person regarding a possible career in the Arts, I would have to say - 'Be realistic; it is a very tough world; talent, that whatever it is, is not enough. One has to be totally committed and be prepared to face many set-backs and disappointments, but, and it's a very BIG BUT, if it's what you really want to do - go for it!' There are lucrative and fulfilling careers to be carved in the Arts and the very best bit of all is that we never have to retire. I hope to complete my final painting on the day I finally fall off my perch, hopefully not in the too immediate future.

Chosen as UK's Goldman Sachs Global Leader

Adam Sher has recently been appointed as one of the U.K.'s eight Goldman Sachs Global Leaders. All the undergraduates chosen from Eastern and Western Europe as well as those from the U.K. met in London for a three day conference.

During this time they were interviewed to select those who would be invited to

New York in July to receive 'Top Honours'. Adam was chosen to be one of the four students chosen from the U.K.