- -

VS

Portadown College

Bangor Grammar School

2013 DANSKE BANK SCHOOLS’ CUP THIRD ROUND

- - - - - - - - 26 / 01 / 2013

KILLICOMAINE ROAD PLAYING FIELDS

bangorgrammarschool.com

- 2 -

It’s been a long and tough season so

far with many ups and downs but

finally we’ve reached the School’s

Cup, the stage where hopefully all

this experience and hard work will

pay off.

From suffering a heavy defeat

against Limavady early in the season

to beating B.R.A and Down High

more recently, we have come a long

way as a team.

The Portugal tour was also a huge

turning point for us. As we got to

know each other better the younger

boys, in particular, became more

comfortable as part of the squad.

Ultimately we became a tighter unit.

This leads us to where we are now in

the 3rd round of the School’s Cup.

Beating Portadown earlier in the

season gives us a big psychological

boost and we are confident that if we

play to our potential we

will come away with a win.

Phil Harper

PHIL HARPER BGS 1ST XV CAPTAIN

WEATHER FORECAST

Editor: Simon Hull

Reporters: Giles Strutt, Zach Kerr,

Columnists: Jason Morgan, Matthew

Stockton, Phil Harper

Pictures: Brian Mellon, Ken Best

Analyst: Will Logan

Like the Gryphiti

Facebook page

for video h’lights

and interviews.

- 3 -

Throughout this season, Gryphiti has

been keeping track of all the Schools’

Cup teams in Ulster to bring you the

definitive rankings.

In order to place high in the table,

teams must win their games, and also

play many games. This acts as a dis-

advantage for the likes of Campbell,

Methody and R.B.A.I. who find it

difficult to get lesser teams to play

them.

You can get weekly league table up-

dates on our Facebook Page.

We’ll also be featuring the table in

future editions of Gryphiti.

This week Ballyclare are on top dis-

placing Sullivan and Limavady who

have been around the top since No-

vember.

BGS currently lie 11th, on 8 wins, 1

draw and 8 defeats. Their rivals to-

day, Portadown are four places be-

hind having played one less game and

won one match fewer.

1st XV League Rankings

POS SCHOOL PL PTS

1. Ballyclare 16 22pts

2. Campbell 12 21pts

3. Limavady 15 21pts

4. Armagh 15 21pts

5. Wallace 16 21pts 6. Sullivan 15 20pts

7. Methody 10 20pts

8. R.B.A.I. 12 20pts

9. Ballymena 17 19pts

10. Down 16 18pts

11. Bangor 17 17pts

12. B.R.A. 13 16pts

13. Omagh 15 15pts

14. Rainey 12 15pts

15. Portadown 16 15pts

16. Belfast Hg 13 14pts

17. Coleraine 16 14pts

18. Friends’ 12 12pts

19. Foyle & Ld 12 12pts

20. Grosvenor 14 11pts

21. Dungannon 15 10pts 22. Wellington 11 08pts

23. Lurgan 11 08pts

24. Dalriada 14 08pts

25. Banbridge 14 06pts

26. Carrickf’us 11 06pts

27. Portora 12 06pts

28. Regent 13 06pts

29. Cambridge 07 04pts

30. Antrim 09 04pts

31. Larne 13 04pts

* This is in no way official

and is just an experimental

method of ranking teams in

Ulster on a continual basis.

- 4 -

The junior teams have had a great season overall. In the few

games that the year 8's have played, they have performed

great winning all games bar one.

The Year 9's have had a big improvement from last year. They

narrowly lost to Methody, Campbell and Wallace, they have

really started to play as a team and get the winning rate up.

The Year 10's have had an up and down season. Losing by a

margin to Campbell, Methody and RBAI but they have really

impressed. They held on to win by a drop goal against Lima-

vady!

Overall the junior teams have had a great season and, hope-

fully, will continue and keep up the good results!

ZACH KERR MAKES A CRUNCHING TACKLE FOR THE YR 9 A TEAM (UNDER 13 A)

ZACH

- 5 -

Portadown is a medium sized town which lies on the River Bann.

The town rose to fame during the ‘Drumcree Standoff’ during the

height of the troubles, but has since quietened down.

Portadown can claim TV’s Gloria

Hunniford and racers Colin Turk-

ington and Adam Carroll, all of

whom were brought up there.

The town’s football team currently

lies seventh in the Irish Premier-

ship, one place behind Glentoran.

In perspective, Bangor FC lie bot-

tom of the Championship.

1st XV

Pitch

KILLICOMAINE ROAD, PORTADOWN

ST MARKS CHURCH, PORTADOWN

- 6 -

SCHOOL FACTS

SCHOOL NAME: Portadown College

YEAR FOUNDED: 1924

MOTTO: Fortiter Et Humaniter

(With Courage & Courtesy)

PRINCIPAL: Mr S. Harper

SCHOOLS’ CUP RECORD

WINS: 0 [Shield Wins: 3 (73, 90, 97)]

RUNNERS UP: 0

SEASON SO FAR: Played-16 Won-7 Drew-1 Lost-8

2012 1st XV KEY PEOPLE

COACH: Mr A. Symington;

ASSISTANT COACH: Mr N. Hinds

CAPTAIN: Kyle McCall

LAST SEASON

ROUND 3: Portadown 19-20 Dungannon

Mr A. Symington Coach

- 7 -

SCHOOL FACTS

SCHOOL NAME: Portadown College

YEAR FOUNDED: 1924

MOTTO: Fortiter Et Humaniter

(With Courage & Courtesy)

PRINCIPAL: Mr S. Harper

SCHOOLS’ CUP RECORD

WINS: 0 [Shield Wins: 3 (73, 90, 97)]

RUNNERS UP: 0

SEASON SO FAR: Played-16 Won-7 Drew-1 Lost-8

2012 1st XV KEY PEOPLE

COACH: Mr A. Symington;

ASSISTANT COACH: Mr N. Hinds

CAPTAIN: Kyle McCall

LAST SEASON

ROUND 3: Portadown 19-20 Dungannon

SCHOOL FACTS

Bangor Grammar School :SCHOOL NAME

1856 :YEAR FOUNDED

Justitiae Tenax :MOTTO

(Justice is tenacious)

Mr S. D. Connolly :PRINCIPAL

SCHOOLS’ CUP RECORD

5 (1969, 1978, 1985, 1986, 1988) :WINS

4 (1979, 1981, 1987, 1995) :RUNNERS UP

Played-17 Won-8 Drew-1 Lost-8 :SEASON SO FAR

2012 1st XV KEY PEOPLE

Mr J. Morgan; :COACHES

Mr D. Graham. .

Phil Harper :CAPTAIN

Max Montgomery :VICE CAPTAIN

LAST SEASON

Wallace 35-7 Bangor :QUARTER FINAL

Phil Harper Captain

- 8 -

1. JAMES LEARY

2. ZACK SLEVIN

3. MICHAEL BLAIR

4. JAMES CARSON

5. GLENN BURTON

6. ANDREW SHAW

7. MATTHEW STOCKTON

8. MAX MONTGOMERY

9. PETER EVES

10.MATTHEW HAMILTON

11.CAMERON STRUTT

12.PHIL HARPER (C)

13.PHIL BRODERICK

14.ROBERT GAMBLE

15.MICHAEL WEIR

- 9 -

- 10 -

On Saturday the 15th of September

Bangor travelled to Portadown Col-

lege for their third match in one week.

Coming off the back of a narrow loss

to RS Armagh and a close win in a

North Down derby against Sullivan,

Bangor fancied their chances against

this side. Bangor opened the scoring

early on in the match when James

Leary, Captain for the day, scored

under posts to give Michael Weir an easy conversion.

Shortly after Bangor took the lead the home side got 3 points on

board to reduce the deficit after a successful penalty from the Por-

tadown Outhalf. Bangor's running game stood out this season,

showing great improvement from the previous season. Bangor soon

followed up with a series of tries coming from Matthew Hamilton,

his third try since the beginning of the season, Cameron Strutt, his

second since the beginning of the season and Matthew Stockton

and Andrew Mellon. Portadown then added a second a penalty and

an unconverted try which was still not enough to take the lead for

the first time in the game. After strong defending from both sides

the referee blew the final whistle with the scoreboard reading:

Portadown 11 - 27 Bangor

POR BGS 11-27

GILES STRUTT GRYPHITI REPORTER

- 11 -

- 12 -

INTRODUCING…. SHAUN FAIR

Name: Shaun Fair

DOB: 25 / 05 / 1997

Position: Scrum Half

Year: 12

Weight: 67kg

Height: 5’ 10”

WILL LOGAN GRYPHITI ANALYST

Will Says:

“Shaun Fair has proven to be a key player

for the 1st XV squad this season. Shaun

only started playing rugby seriously when

it came to medallion year, since then he

has not looked back.

Shaun started the year playing for the 2nd

XV, a squad which holds a lot of potential.

However, when Peter Eves picked up an

injury, he was given a chance to impress.

His first taste of 1st XV rugby was as a

late sub against Ballymena.

Shaun’s first start came in the draw with

Belfast High, a frustrating game for Ban-

gor. This experience showed Shaun the

demands of 1st XV rugby. The highlight

of Shaun’s season has been the tour of Por-

tugal where he gained great memories.

Shaun is looking forward to the rest of the

season and expects big things from the

boys in blue.”

- 13 -

FIVE MINUTES WITH … ANDREW SHAW

To see more of this

interview, go to the

official Gryphiti

Facebook page.

1. What does playing

in the Schools’ Cup

mean to you?

“Everything. It’s all the

hard training put into

the game and shows you

how far we have come

from the start of the sea-

son. We’re very proud to

represent the school.”

2. What are your

season objectives

from a personal point

of view?

“I tried to listen this

year for a change and

put what I am coached

into my game.”

3. Do you get more

pride playing in the

white Ulster Schools

jersey or the blue of

BGS?

“Ulster Schools is spe-

cial but at the same time

so is BGS. Putting on

the shirt doesn't matter

which team I play for. I

love rugby ;)”

4. Who would you

class as the joker in

the BGS pack?

“On tour we were all

clowns but I would say

myself as I was labelled

"MOOSE" and had to

get on my knees, put my

hands above my head,

nod my head and do a

dance at the same time.

Mr Graham loved it a

wee bit too much but

what happens on tour

stays on tour!”

- 13 -

This season for us so far

has been somewhat up

and down.

However we have record-

ed some noticable victo-

ries such as defeating

BRA 10-5, Defeating

Sullivan 12-10 and most

recently defeating Foyle

College 48-0. We are

hoping that our most

recent win over Foyle

will give us great momen-

tum leading into today's

match vs. Portadown

College in our first

School's Cup match.

Despite the restricting

weather, we all feel that

we have prepared well for

this match as it is by far

the most important one

of the season to date. We

have greatly improved

since our last meeting

with Portadown College

and hope to replicate our

previous 27-11 victory

over

them,

how-

ever

we all

know that it will be a

hard fought match, of

which we hope to come

out on top. Thank you to

the supporters for mak-

ing the journey to Porta-

down today and we hope

to deliver a match that

you won't forget.

VIEW FROM THE DRESSING ROOM

- 14 -

R.B.A.I. (12)

V

BANGOR GRAMMAR (0)

27th December 2012

BRIAN MELLON PHOTOGRAPHER

- 15 -

DANSKE BANK ULSTER SCHOOLS’ CUP

1st Round Result :

Larne Grammar School 31—07 Cambridge House 01 /12/12

2nd Round Result :

Belfast High School 52—18 Banbridge Academy 12/01/13

Royal School Dungannon 16—08 Well ington Col lege 12 /01/13

Antr im Grammar 08—12 Friends’ School 12 /01 /13

Carr ickfergus Grammar 23—06 Lurgan Col lege 12 /01 /13

Foyle Col lege 36—24 Portora Royal School 12 /01 /13

Regent Col lege 42—00 Larne Grammar 12 /01 /13

Losing teams f rom rounds 1 & 2 were t ransferred to the 1s t XV Schools

trophy competi tion. They wi l l p lay on the 26 th January.

Third Round Fixtures :

Colera ine Academica l Inst . v Omagh Academy 26/01/13

Portadown Col lege v Bangor Grammar 26 /01 /13

Belfast Royal Academy v Carr ick Grammar 26 /01 /13

Grosvenor Grammar v Dalr iada School 26 /01 /13

Royal School Dungannon v Belfast High School 26 /01 /13

Foyle Col lege v Down High School 26 /01 /13

Regent House v Rainey Endowed 26 /01 /13

Friends’ School v L imavady Grammar 26 /01 /13

Armagh, Bal lyc lare, Bal lymena, Campbe l l , Methody, R.B.A.I.,

Sullivan and Wallace a l l j oin the draw for the four th round.

2 ND XV CUP

Selected 1st Round Fixtures :

Bangor Grammar School v Campbel l Co l l ege TBC

R.B.A.I. v Bal lymena TBC

Wallace High School v Methodist Col lege TBC

MEDALLION SHIELD

Selected 3rd Round Fixtures :

Bangor Grammar School v Belfast High School TBC

- 16 -

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

SUBSTITUTES

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

SUBSTITUTES

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

PORTADOWN COL.

JAMES LEARY

ZACK SLEVIN

MICHAEL BLAIR

JAMES CARSON

GLENN BURTON

ANDREW SHAW

MATTHEW STOCKTON

MAX MONTGOMERY

PETER EVES

MATTHEW HAMILTON

CAMERON STRUTT

(C) PHIL HARPER

PHIL BRODERICK

ROBERT GAMBLE

MICHAEL WEIR

REFEREE:

ROGER

CLEEVE

MATTHEW McGUILE

CHRIS BOAL

ADAM BRENNAN

MATTHEW COFFEY

SHAUN FAIR

JOSH McKIMM

ROSS McCLOSKEY

SCOTT HAMILL

BGS TEAMSHEET

CORRECT AT TIME

OF PRINTING

PORTADOWN TEAMSHEET UNKNOWN