College sport: Athletics resurrects an old winning formula

Jarmon Peua, 14, of St Pauls College, pitches during his junior boys softball match on Monday. St Peters beat St Pauls 7-1. Photo / Richard Robinson

A return to the "good old days" promises to breathe new life into track and field athletics at Auckland Secondary Schools.

A change in structure, following a working party of key club athletics officials and school administrators, has produced a blueprint for the future and a means of promoting the sport and highlighting the athletes' achievements culminating in a greater Auckland Championship.

Many years ago, Auckland Secondary Schools hosted zone championships with the top three from each school then competing in a "Champion of Champions" meeting - in those days at Eden Park.

It was a highlight of the Auckland sporting calendar with huge crowds treated to seeing some of New Zealand's very best in action.

The restructure is aimed at achieving a greater synergy between athletics clubs and centres and allows for a much greater involvement from athletics officials.

There will be five zones - North Harbour, West, Central, East, South/Counties.

Each school has been allocated to a specific zone which has been arranged geographically and with an eye to expected participation numbers.

The zones are centred around an athletics stadium which enables schools to work closer with clubs associated to that venue, providing a better pathway for participation for secondary school students through to club athletics.

For each zone event, there will be a limit of three entries per school/per event.

The Greater Auckland Athletics Championship will take place after the five zone meets and will bring together the top three athletes from each zone for all track and field events.

There will be a wildcard spot (the 16th place) for all events and schools may apply to take that. The committee will determine the final make-up.

Schools have been invited to a meeting later this month at which questions will be answered and the Greater Auckland Athletics committee will be formed.

The changes will take effect from term one next year.

CRICKET

AUCKLAND

The top-of-the-table fourth clash between AGS and St Kentigern in the premier two-day championship promises to go to the wire when the match ends on Saturday.

Batting first, AGS piled on a handy 255 with worthwhile contributions throughout the orderand opener Sam Crooks laying the foundation with 48. Angus Harman (40), Kyle Jamieson (57) and Shawn Hicks (61) all played their part in the face of a marathon effort from St Kentigern spinner Nick Kelly who bowled a massive 32 overs in claiming 5-67.

In reply, the home team made a solid start reaching 35 without loss by stumps.

It was a different story at Westlake where Rangitoto College won the toss and decided to bat. Bad call. After 10 overs they were reeling with six wickets gone for only nine runs. Jordan Sussex was on fire for WBHS picking up 5-16 from 13 overs.

Only Mathew Trent (54) offered any resistance but even he could not get them to 100 as the innings ended at 97.

The home side found it only a little easier early in their innings as they slumped to 26-3 before Robbie O'Donnell, continuing his outstanding form from two weeks earlier and ably supported by captain Kyle Dunsmore, righted the sinking ship with a fourth-wicket partnership of 182 from just 26 overs.

O'Donnell was unbeaten on 117 at stumps posting his second consecutive century as Westlake ended the day at 224-4 for a 127-run lead.

Like WBHS, Kings set the early pace after opting to ask St Peters to bat first at St Peters. Tom Urry picked up a wicket with his fifth ball and four more fell to reduce the home side to 86-6 just before lunch. After the break St Peters' lower order showed their worth with partnerships of 59, 43, 52 and 39 in frustrating the King's attack.

Mark Chapman's marathon spell of 27 overs gave him a deserved five-wicket haul as St Peters were finally dismissed for 277 with Nathanial Bearman (85) and Cameron Insull (54) the main contributors.

Kings gave themselves a solid start with Ash Vodnala striking a sweetly-timed six over square leg in the second over as he and Ben Horne pushed the score along.

Horne was just getting on top of the bowling when he fell to a rash shot for 37 but Simon Hickey was soon into his stride, helping Vodnala to 32, before he was dismissed leaving Hickey poised on 50 overnight with an interesting chase still ahead.

In premier plate action, leaders MAGS will be keen to continue their season-long run of outright results but again they will have to fight back after trailing KBHS on the first innings.

Kelston batted first and were dismissed for only 94 with Chris Beck the main destroyer taking 4-19.

MAGS were a player short in their chase after losing a player to illness on the morning of the match. That may or may not have been the difference as they finished 10 runs shy of their target with Robert Evans-Moore (4-19) and Ben Starns (3-34) the pick of the Kelston attack.

KBHS made a solid start to their second innings reaching 22-0 by stumps.

Rosmini are well in control of their match with Avondale College after scoring 234 in batting first. Led by Alex du Rand (69) and Robbie McConnochie (63), and with a cameo 42 from Angus Reid, the home team were always comfortable, yet they were upstaged by Avondale bowler Vishwa Samaranayake who finished with 7-41.

Facing that big target, Avondale have an uphill battle after losing three early wickets before the close.

Macleans are staring at a hefty first innings deficit after being bundled out for 109 by Sacred Heart as Joe Green and Matt Quinn bagged seven wickets between them.

Macleans too had some early success but a timely 42 from Freddie Klassens steered the home side to within 19 runs of a first innings lead at 90-5 by stumps.

ROWING

Auckland's secondary school rowers wasted no time in getting back on the water as the country became immersed in the build-up to the World Championships.

Relishing the superb Labour weekend weather, school crews took to Lake Pupuke for the first regatta of the season to continue a 50-year tradition of racing on the lake.

Another successful day of competition, the TGS/Waitemata regatta gave many crews an early season hit-out.

TGS won the Takapuna Cup for schoolgirls with most points with their under-17 and under-16 quadruple sculls winning, as did two other crews. TGS boys won four events but overall honours were claimed by AGS.

The central North Shore venue has an interesting history.

In 1960, Lake Pupuke was opened up to rowing. The club captain of Waitemata Rowing Club of the day, Brian Hawthorne, was stroke of a crew that was trained on the lake by Bill Tinnock, an Olympic and Empire Games representative. These rowers were part of the North Shore club operating out of the old pumphouse building alongside the Takapuna Canoeing Club. To this day, "The Lake" remains the home of North Shore Rowing Club.

The first regatta held on The Lake in the modern era was the Bennett Shield on November 26, 1960. An article in the 8 O'clock that night proclaimed: "Four thousand spectators - the biggest crowd ever seen at rowing in Auckland - watched West End snatch the Bennett Memorial Shield from Mercer and North Shore at the first regatta held on Lake Pupuke for more than half a century."

Lake Pupuke has always been a challenge with the wind inevitably coming up in the afternoon. Despite the often-changing weather conditions it is very rare for a regatta to be cancelled.

In recent years The Lake has hosted the TGS/Waitemata, Bennett Shield, Masters, Westlake Junior and Head of Harbour Regattas. These sprint regattas are always keenly contested.

Sylvan Park provides an excellent viewing point for spectators and the atmosphere generated by its close proximity to the finish line is unique.

The next regatta at the lake will be the Bennett Shield on November 27.

TENNIS

Auckland Grammar made the finals of the Auckland A1 championships their own with a commanding three-from-three charge on Saturday.

In the senior boys final they reversed their narrow first term loss to WBHS claiming a cliff-hanging 5-4 victory.

AGS led 2-1 after the doubles before Westlake's star players Chester Espie and Hamish Duff claimed the top two singles, beating Lachlan Kitchen and Harry Loos to lead 3-2 before Niko Vulinovich beat Alex Klintcharov reasonably comfortably and David Jiang edged Sam Bennett in an epic battle to win the third and fourth singles for AGS and put them back in front.

Sean Wiggins (WBHS) then beat Jay Barclay to lock it at 4-4.

In the decider Raphael Cho took a commanding 3-0 before Dillon Lazarus rallied bravely to square it at 4-4. In front of a large, tense crowd the players were under a lot of pressure but in the end Lazarus finished the stronger to clinch the match 6-4 and the tie - Auckland Grammar's first senior A1 title since 2003.

In contrast, St Kentigern had no trouble in continuing their year-long dominance of the senior girl's competition, clinching the title with a 7-0 lead over St Cuthberts when rain intervened.

In the intermediate boys AGS had a similarly dominant 8-1 win over WBHS to claim their second title in as many years.

In the intermediate girls St Kentigern were the surprise package.

After qualifying in fourth place, they overcame top seeds St Cuthberts in the semifinals and beat second seeds EGGS 6-3 in the final.

Both the junior finals went to the wire before the top seeds came through as AGS edged St Kentigern 5-4 and Baradene did the same to St Cuthberts.

AGS beat St Kentigern 6-3 in first term pool play and went in to the final as favourites.

St Kentigern wasted no time in showing they meant business winning two of the three doubles and continuing that momentum as their top singles players Trent Smith and William Matheson claimed good wins over Cameron Philpott and Nathan Metzger to put them in a commanding position at 4-1.

AGS hit back strongly, however, and wins for AJ Valero, Andrew Qi and Josh Bowden at three, four and five levelled the match at 4-4.

It came down to the deciding last singles in which Sam Jeffries came up trumps winning 6-2 to claim the title by the narrowest of margins and complete a three-peat.

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