The family of former Scots Headmaster John Hunter have made a donation to The Scots Museum. It is a stainless steel and wood carving tray that was often used by Mr Hunter when he was carving the Sunday roast lamb. Like most items in the Museum, there is a story to it.
David Hunter related that the First XV in 1973 had a long history of being heavily defeated by St Stanislaus every year from when they were in the 13-year team up to and including the 16A. Scots First XV had never beaten or drawn with Stannies First XV; in fact, Scots had never scored a try against Stannies First XV. The 1973 team was extremely good and was tipped to be the first team to beat Stannies and score tries against them. For the final match of the season, the entire grass bank area on Front Oval (now the Old Boys’ Oval) outside Karralee was packed with Scots and Stannies students, teachers, parents, rugby representative selectors, local newspaper and TV journalists. The entire school used to turn up watch the First XV at every game. It was not compulsory; it was just what the boys did. Stannies, All Saints and Kinross Wolaroi students did the same. The war cries were loud and frequent, and competitiveness between each of the schools was robust.
With the game nearing full-time, the score was 3-3. A Scots player appeared to put the ball over the line, and the Scots supporters were elated, but then, for some reason, the referee disallowed the try. John Hunter, of course, maintained, as he always did, that the referee was always correct.
Nonetheless, it was a huge first, and all the boys were extremely proud of this result. John Hunter’s First XV report in “The Lion” says: I am certain that there can be few who played for the 1st XV this season who will not look back with pleasure and a sense of achievement in having been a member of a particularly fine team.
A First XV win against St Stanislaus was still six years ahead, and did indeed occur in 1979. David Hunter was in that team.
The tray was an end-of-season gift to Mr and Mrs Hunter from the team.
On top, it is inscribed with: “To Mr and Mrs Hunter from 1973 First XV”
On the base of the tray, are engraved the names of the boys in the team: “Taylor, Whiting, Hubbard, Bernasconi, Woods, Stuart, Wilson, Trenerry, Barlow, McDonald, Volkofsky, J, Dabradauw, Tearle, Windschuttle, RES: Symons; Volkofsky, P Roberts, Oddy, Gill Harvey, TEAM MANAGER Webeck”.
Having been used for many years at the Hunter family dinner table, at his funeral last year, the family donated it to the Museum as a memento of John’s time as Headmaster. It is an example of the respect John earned from the boys who remember is a very demanding coach, but one who knew how to get results.
Many thanks to David Hunter, who contributed to the preparation of this article and whose words have been incorporated into it. The underlining of Scots never having been successful against St Stanislaus are his.
Mr Andrew Maher
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