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It’s been a long and hard-working year for Cartmel’s Carter Shield performers which has seen success, annihilations, injuries, controversy and laughs. Here’s the story…

The Michaelmas term began with controversy in the dodgeball department leading to Cartmel not qualifying for the semi-finals. Korfball and volleyball were also unsuccessful for the Griffins but a solid set of performances from the ladies in women’s football got us into the semi-finals – an immense achievement.

In Lent term we began with a bit of pop-lacrosse. We only needed to win one game to qualify for the semi-finals. One game was won allowing the mighty Cartmel to march on through. Sadly, that was where the march ended despite being the better team throughout the game. Good goalkeeping from Lonsdale rendered our attack impotent (not literally) and they scored a flukey goal to send us packing.

Next came a very busy day with two sports being played at once. Table-tennis and aeroball were on the agenda for the day. This was to be the last time table-tennis was to be played in Carter Shield as it will be replaced by kwik-cricket next year. In table-tennis we came third in a group of four, beating Furness in a good warm-up for the Patriot’s Cup. Aeroball proved successful as we managed to progress into the semi-finals once more. However, they again proved to be a stumbling block as we fell against Bowland. Good effort once again though from the Cartmelians.

The final sport of Lent term was basketball. This one was always going to be a struggle thanks to nearly every other college team being full of University players. As expected we got absolutely battered. But, still, at least we turned up!

Moving on to Summer term proved slightly less successful for us in the outdoors. The first of the competition days saw Cartmel perform in ultimate Frisbee. This was one of the wettest Carter Shield days in history, but seeing as Frisbee is ‘ultimate’, we played on anyway in the bog. This was another day of struggle and toil and we didn’t manage to record a win playing against teams full of, once again, Uni players.

Touch rugby was a successful one, with a dramatic win in our final game against Lonsdale to see us into the semi-finals. The curse of the Uni players struck again in the semi’s though with Bowland/the University rugby team prevailing over us, to prevent us from reaching a final once again.

Rounders day was a scorcher. Sadly, that didn’t help Cartmel’s fortunes. Although admittedly struggling, we were dealt a very harsh decision indeed in our last game which ended our last hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals – Ben was definitely obstructed!

The final competition to be played in Carter Shield was the traditional tug of war. Perhaps the less said about this the better. We were murdered.

Finally, we must say a massive thank you to everyone that took part for Cartmel this year in Carter Shield; especially to the regulars. You were amazing! Cartmel was one of the few colleges to turn up to every single event which helped us gain a respectable sixth position…

Now let’s build on that and rise up the table next year!

– Mark Lord – Sports Rep