Founders' Day Report

If you had to ask any other sort of Bishops boy as to why Founders’ Day is special to him, you would get an answer like, “It gives us a chance to remember our forefathers” or “I find the OD debating quite interesting”. Now, ask a White House boy that same question... “We get a whole day off school!”, “We get free cokes and donuts for tea!”, “The Avenue Mile gives me a chance to make a fool of myself in a goofy outfit!” or “I love the house gees during the Tug-of-War!”

I think you get the idea that Founders’ Day is a highly anticipated event in the Bishops calendar for us White House chaps.

The day started with College Eucharist which allowed the boys time to mentally prepare for the excitement of the day ahead...

The excitement started with the Avenue Mile – an event organised by White House’s very own Mr Court. The Avenue Mile is a traditional running ‘race’ where the boys start below Rondebosch Train Station and finish at the school gates on the far side of campus. Seen by some as a competitive event (including Michael Foxcroft who quite unsurprisingly won the event) the Mile also provides the houses a chance to spark some house spirit. Armed with boxing gloves, swimming caps, ties and skateboards, the White House runners made their presence felt on the course! The finish line was particularly rewarding due to the free cokes and donuts that were on offer.

After the Mile, there was hardly enough time for the boys to catch their breath before the Inter-house Tug-of-War started. With the entire House out to support our troops, the gees was electrifying! The deafening call of, “Dip, heave. Dip, Heave” sent shudders down our opponents’ spines! Our junior team managed to annihilate their first opponents before narrowly losing in the semi-finals. As for our seniors, the inspirational words of Andrew Earl and Tshepo Motale spurred our boys on to scream their hearts out for our senior ‘tuggers’. One by one, our opponents fell to our sheer power backed by the droning chants of the Koshuis supporters. Although our valiant efforts were eventually thwarted in an epic final tug-off against a post-matric team with a few Mallett House boys in it, the result did not silence the White House cheers. We left the battleground in White House fashion – our heads held high!

Amongst the many other exciting activities on the day was:

• The OD tennis matches (in which Jean Truter made known his Botswanian prowess)
• The OD shooting (in which many hours of Shoot ‘em Up computer games gave Egor Arkhipov an unfair advantage)
• The OD basketball match (during which Kevin, Jordan, Shiraz and Matthew How managed to salvage some pride at last against a seriously talented OD side)
• The Inter-house long distance gala (in which Jaco (alias David van der Merwe) skretched his way to a admiral 2^nd place in the u19 category)
• The OD Water Polo where Chaaba Jangulo and Jaco both played their hearts out but were thwarted by a seriously talented and LARGE OD team.

See below for the Founders’ Day highlights video...