Secondary Interschool Athletics

The Winter's day quickly turned on Summer's temperatures at the recently held Secondary Interschool Athletics Carnival. Students had to dig deep to keep energy levels up.Competitors put in big efforts all round with special mention to Thomas Polkinghorne 13 Yrs Boys Age Champion, Maddie Fox 14 Yrs Girls Age Champion, Zac Santo Open Boys Age Champion and Runner -Up Age Champions, Rachel Dahl and Doug Rayment. Word has it that Zac has been Age Champion at every age division in Interschool Athletics, through out his stellar school athletics representation. Congratulations to the boys for winning the Alex Forbes Boys Aggregate Memorial Shield. With ASSG winning the Girls Aggregate and BTC girls coming 3rd, it was destined to be a close finish for the Combined Aggregate Shield. Unfortunately, the numbers didn't quite go our way with BTC coming 2nd to CCC . Not to be disappointed BTC, for the size of our College, we certainly competed with excellence.

Schoolboys Rugby Union State Championships

Doug Rayment and Shannon Bailey were selected in the NQ Rugby Union Team to play in the QLD Schoolboys State Championships, which were held in Townsville recently. Both boys were awarded Man of the Match Awards . The NQ team won the Country Shield for the first time in 9 years.Doug also recieved the Best Back award and Shannon won the Most Valuable Player. Further accolades went to Shannon who was selected in the Junior Rugby Development Squad to go to the AIS in Canberra in October. Doug may also have a chance to join the squad. Congratulations boys .

BTC Young Diplomats

On Friday 13th August, a team of five Year 10 students from Blackheath and Thornburgh College travelled to James Cook University to participate in the 2010 Day of Diplomacy. The team comprised of Justin Todd, Melinda Ryan, Zoe Curtis, Steven Pittman and Felicity Doyle. Our role was to discuss and implement the Townsville Protocol on Asylum Seekers and Refugees.

Each school is assigned a country that they will represent and BTC represented Japan. Weeks of research go into investigating the critical factors and the position of each nation on the topic of concern. We made many trips to the JCU Library to research our speeches and then had to prepare our speeches and tactics. The level of knowledge we gained about world affairs and the interplay between the nation schools was great.

Professor Nola Alloway (Pro Vice Chancellor J.C.U.) was the chief judge along with four other high ranking officials, including Ms. Danielle Morris, Deputy Director Queensland State Office, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The first component of the competition was for each team to outline their stance on refugees. The teams were then given two generic questions to debate. Finally, Justin Todd scripted, then and there, and delivered his Young Diplomat of the Year speech, which was excellent.

Ten other Schools participated, with The Cathedral School’s team being named the winner. BTC was the only school from Charters Towers to participate. The experience our team gained was invaluable.

A Fair To Remember

The day dawned fresh and clear which quickly turned into a warm and fine day for the BTC "Fair To Remember". The lolly stall was a big hit as well as the white elephant, bottle stall and cent sale.There were lots of fun activities for the students including mini golf, treasure hunt, making juggling balls, guess the teacher, win it in a minute, welly wagging, throw the ball through the hole and the sumo wrestling. The devonshire tea was a popular stop to catch up with friends and enjoy some of the entertainment by the talented BTC musicians and the elegant parade featuring College Captain, Zac Santo, escorting the girls in their debutante dresses. The Old Boys Football game was entertaining with many of last years Seniors returning to the field as "old boys".

Horse Sports Success

BTC has won the shield in the Inaugural Interschool Horse Sports Challenge. The competition, between schools from the Charters Towers district, was held at the Equestrian Centre at the Cattle Saleyards on Saturday.Events the students and adults competed in included Star Races, Racing T, Bar T, Jemma's Jungle, Olympic Rings, Sporting Figure 8 and the feature event called Egg Timer.Thanks to the parents who competed: Greg Adkins, Dawn Andrews and Wayne Millett.Also thanks to the supporters and Mrs Millett for organising the team.