SPORT OF THE BATTALION.[ToC]
The achievements of the Seventeenth in the field of fire cannot be dissociated from their experiences in the field of sport. The exploits of the Battalion in Football, Cross-country Running, and Boxing—revealing as they did the elements of challenge, perseverance, cheerfulness in defeat, and also the power to win honours to their name—have their grand reflex in the more grim and arduous experiences through which the Battalion was called to pass.
In October, 1915, the Battalion won Divisional honours in Cross-country Running. The winning of the Cup and medals in an event in which a thousand runners took part was no small feat.
In the world of "Rugger" the Battalion's career was one triumphal march, but the end accomplished cannot be summed up in figures, adverse or the reverse. As for "Soccer" the successive achievements of the Battalion are recorded in every number of The Outpost. Minor struggles and conquests are recalled and rejoiced in, but the glory of carrying off another Divisional Cup will never be forgotten by those who witnessed the fray. Progress to the final of the event was not easy, and the final was a particularly hard fought game, and though the Battalion won, it was felt that equal honours were due to the vanquished for their good play and sportsmanship.
In the Boxing World, the name of Corporal George Barrie, will be ever green in the memory of all Seventeenth men; and the honour brought to the Battalion by his pupil, Pte. Cushley, in winning two Divisional Cups for Boxing, can be looked upon as a fitting tribute to Barrie, the man who played the game even unto death.
Altogether the Seventeenth has much to be proud of in its athletic record, and in future days when those of the Battalion sit round and tell of the things which are theirs, which they won also at great cost, their prowess in the field will not be among the least; for it played no insignificant part in the making of the Battalion which, although disbanded, has remained, both in name and in comradeship, still the Seventeenth.