Senior house rugby winners

We like to give our oldest trophies an occasional airing!

The ‘Dormitory Shield’ was first awarded in 1888 for the winners of the senior soccer competition. When Emanuel abandoned soccer in 1903 it was then awarded for rugby, and the engraved soccer ball on the trophy was redesigned into an oval ball to replace the circular football.

In those days Emanuel was still a boarding school and the sporting competitions were contested in the sleeping dormitories rather than houses. In the 1930s the shield ran out of space for new winning house plaques and was given a larger wooden backing. Although it has been many years since new names were added, we presented it to Rodney house who won the senior house rugby competition last Wednesday.

In a keenly contested event, Rodney remained undefeated, winning all three matches, scoring 21 tries and conceding only 11. The final positions were:

1. Rodney
2. Nelson
3. Howe
4. Marlborough

Tony Jones (Senior Librarian and Archivist)