Sunday 17th October, 2015

Recently at Rugby school we lost a great headmaster and a gained an unproven one. Understandably he made many changes in his first term. Things to help achieve his target which was to improve the academic prowess of its pupils and things to stake his claim over the new school. There was much annoyance  over many of these changes however most of this was merely just people finding excuses to dislike the new "imposter"! Yet there was one thing that seemed truly unnecessary and was extremely irritating. 

                Every year for as long as most people can remember there has been a push car race which consists of each house making a vehicle, selecting a driver, preferably someone light but experience is vital, a passenger, the smallest person in the house and finally a team of paired runners who have to run 400m each pushing the cart. It's always a great event and those members of the house who aren't directly involved all crowd together as supporters and the close is filled with the sound of house chants. 

        With the arrival of our new headmaster we noticed the absence of this event in our term calendars. Blatant unrest was displayed as pupils discussed their disappointment and annoyance and a year went  without a pushcart race. He protested that he hadn't banned it but no one really believed him. However he had clearly sensed the disappointment and this year the race was back on. As soon as we heard it was arrangements were made. A boy in my years father was a formula one car designer and so sneakily we chose him and a friend to make the cart! They made it on a leave out and with the close aid of ben's dad and the provision of materials, in particular aluminium frames which meant the cart was extremely light we felt confident that we were in good stead for the race. We had a boy in the year below who was previously a passenger but this year had his debut as a driver and one of the smallest f blockers (1st years) as our passenger. With a strong team of runners, including myself, we were sure we to have a good chance of winning! After some inspirational although comical speeches and enthusiastic chants and everyone running as hard as they could we were sure we must have won the race but our optimism was shattered as we discovered we had been pipped to the post by School House of all people. At least there is always next year... headmaster willing!