Chapter Seven :
Memories of the Playing Field
The Fiftieth Annual Athletic Sports in 1958 011 the arrival of the Governor , Sir William Goode KCMG and Lady Goode , who are greeted by Tan Wee Lee , Chief Prefect , Brother Lawrence ( Director ) and C . R . Eber , Sports Secretary .
H owmany scenes of triumph and struggle
have been enacted upon the St [ oseph ' s Playing Field ! It has been the arena for athletics , football , cricket , and even wrestling matches . It has been the setting for the reception of royalty and statesmen . It has been the scene of riots and violence . It has been the focus of religious fervour and devotion .
The first recorded Sports Day was on 15June 1901 . The Champion , the earliest of whom we have any record , was V . F . d ' Almeida . The Director noted :
' Sergeant-Major Henderson supplied us with two tents and presented the Athletes ' Club with a beautiful silver cup to be contended for every year . The Madras Military Band supplied the music and everything passed off like clockwork .' The earliest Athletic Sports considered worthy of the name must have been held in 1908 , because the Fiftieth Annual Athletic Sports were not held until 1958 .
The earliest Sports Day for which we possess a programme is that of 1912 , and the list of events suggests that the Sports in those distant and balmy days were taken a little less seriously than today . In 1912 the programme included a lOO-yard Flat Race ( five Heats ), a 75-yard Three-Legged Race , a 50-yard Egg and Spoon Race , a 220-yard Handicap ( Boarders ' Race ), a Hop , Skip and Jump , a Quarter-mile Cadets ' Race , an Obstacle Race , slinging a 28-lb weight ( underhand ), a Consolation Race and a Tug-of-War ! The Timekeepers were CA . da Silva and W . Mosbergen . The Honorary Secretary was F . Martens .
The Sports were held annually , apart from the interruption of the two World Wars . In 1917 and 1918 the Director gave the money normally expended on the Annual Sports to War Charities .
The Fiftieth Annual Athletic Sports were held on Saturday 14June 1958 . Everything combined to make it a brilliant occasion : eight new records were established , the weather was perfect , and the Governor , Sir William Goode KCMG , came with Lady Goode who gave away the Prizes . The Chief Prefect , Tan Wee Lee , the Director , Reverend Brother Lawrence Robless , and the Sports Secretary , C R . Eber , received the Governor , who had shared with Mr Eber , and countless others , the experience of being a Prisoner-of-War on the Burma-Siam Death Railway .
The Sports Secretary had conceived the idea of inviting , as judges of the various events , all the surviving Champions of the past fiftyyears . Twen ty of them figure in the printed programme , the oldest being Lancelot Pennefather , who had won the Championship in 1909 . His son was Chief Timekeeper in 1958 .
The Director of Education , D . M . McLellan , wrote in the foreword to the Souvenir Programme :
' There can be few if any Singapore schools which have so long a record of athletics , or a list of past champions so studded with names which are household words in the history of Singapore sports . These Old Boys are remembered not only for their outstanding skill in track or field events but also for the personal qualities without which they would not have achieved success - the qualities of courage and endurance , of modesty in victory and cheerfulness in defeat which are the mark of all true sportsmen .' Let us review some of those names with C R . Eber , the Sports Secretary .
Lancelot Pennefather he remembers as an allrounder : ' He was a great sportsman : he represented Singapore at Football , Hockey and Badminton . His wife was also a Ladies ' Badminton Champion . He had a son , Percy Pennefather , who was also a great hockey player who became Assistant Commissioner of Police .'
C R . Eber recalls that Roland Klassen ( 1919 ) was a very good athlete in his young days , and he became a schoolteacher at SJ !. CA . R . Bateman ( 1912 ) was a well-known figure who became a Malayan Golf Champion and an Officer in ' C ' Company , 2nd Battalion , Singapore Volunteer Force : he was a Prisoner-
Memories of the Playing Field 59