The air on campus was rife with anticipation and excitement as the day of the Opening Ceremony of the annual Monash Cup finally arrived. Despite the downcast weather and grey skies, Monashians showed up regardless and waited around the football field for the event to begin. Finally, after a few more minutes of allowing more Monashians to swing by, the ceremony was kick-started with the emcee’s announcement of a food-eating competition.

With a representative from each House, the goal of the competition was to eat seven toast sandwiches from Monash’s very own Toast. To the sound of roaring applause from each House, the four representatives set upon their sandwiches, bread-y to claim the bragging rights for their own Houses. All-dough they had a great start, the representatives began to look like they were toast as the number of sandwiches in front of them dwindled. Finally, after much spilt water, Manticore’s representative and Captain, Daemyoung emerged victorious.

Crumbs cleaned up and much groaning aside, the ceremony began in earnest with the emcee calling upon each of the four Houses, headed by their respective captains, to march down the field. The flags of Manticore, Leviathan, Culebre and Opinicus waved proudly above as athletes and bystanders alike cheered at the sight. With the four Houses assembled, the emcee thanked them before prompting the performances of the evening to begin, starting off with the Monash Street Dance Society stepping up to the field and displaying some electrifying dance movies for the growing crowd of Monashians. Their performance was followed up by the winner of the Sing competition that was held last semester, Izetta Cze Hui Roxas, who performed her amazing renditions of Titanium, We Will Rock You and Despacito. Between her glowing performance and the previous dances, the crowd’s excitement was explosive, Monashians dancing and singing along.

As the singers cleared the field, the emcee called for the Houses to assemble once more, with the heads of CNS, Kai Bin and Wei Yang, personally invited on to the stage for the annual Shield ceremony. The pair thanked all of the athletes and attendants of the ceremony for making it a success and earnestly wished the athletes all the best for the upcoming games and events. Their pieces said, the pair went about removing the emblem of the winner of last year’s Monash Cup, House Manticore, from the Monash Shield. Each of the House Captains were then invited to come up to the stage and say their part about the upcoming events, with all four Captains unanimously wishing all of the athletes to have a good time and rallying words for their respective Houses.

The opening ceremony was finally concluded with the emcee calling for everyone holding a balloon bearing the colors of the four houses to group up and release their balloons on his cue. In just a few seconds, the sky became awash with red, blue, green and yellow as the balloons slowly floated upwards. Much cheering commenced as songs started to be played over the speakers while athletes readied up for that day’s events. In their minds they all had a singular purpose: guaranteeing their House’s colors will be the one to decorate the Monash Shield for a year.

Words by Yau Jun Min

Photos by Andrew Peter Lim, Celine Chua, Renee Bong & Terence Kong