In 2017 Worcester Gymnasium waved goodbye to the sports day against their rivals HTS Drostdy, leaving a definite gap in the annual sports calendar.
What many current Bosvarke do not realise, however, is that this has paved the way to take up an even older rivalry, steeped in rich tradition, against Robertson High.
This sports day took place on Saturday 5 May.
The rivalry with Robertson started yesteryear with the rugby shield match, but it had blossomed into so much more.
By the 1970s the sports day against Robertson had become the official interschools between these two schools, where every team’s results in a wide variety of sporting codes (and cultural debates) mattered.
It remained as such into the late 1990s when it was cancelled.
Even in those early annuals it becomes apparent that the matches against Robertson were the most anticipated event of the year. And the competition was clearly fierce and very competitive.
In the earlier days of competitive sport among schools a number of the Boland schools competed for a Rugby Shield. It started off with eight schools in total, including schools like Bonnievale, Swellendam, Ceres and, of course, Robertson High and Worcester Boys’ High (the grandfather of Worcester Gymnasium).
As time went by more and more of the schools left the competition for various reasons.
Around the 1980s only Worcester High (our direct predecessor) and Roberston High were still competing for the shield.
For the past decade there has been limited competition between the two schools.
