College sport: Avondale having hoop dreams

By JENNI RUTHERFORD

Avondale College will be seeking a place in college basketball history on Friday as they seek to win both the boys' and girls' premier-grade finals.

The West Auckland secondary school has already won the under-14 and under-16 girls' and boys' inter-regional titles.

Capturing the premier grade titles would complete the picture.

If the premier sides are victorious, Avondale will have truly dominated Auckland secondary schools basketball.

However, this Friday at the YMCA in Pitt St, both unbeaten teams will face tough opposition.

The girls, who have never won the championship, tip off against Epsom Girls' Grammar, who have been finalists for the past three years, winning in 1997 and 1998.

The Avondale boys, who are defending champions, must overcome Mt Albert Grammar.

MULTISPORT

Two promising junior Auckland athletes have completed an impressive treble, winning the national secondary schools championships.

Jade Gilbertson, of Epsom Girls' Grammar, and Terenzo Bozzone, from Rangitoto College, have both won the national triathlon, duathlon and now multisport events this year.

Bozzone's younger brother, Dino, joined him on the podium after finishing third.

Auckland Grammar's Clarke Ellice continues to impress, winning the senior boys' event.

Ellice has also had a successful season in the three sports, finishing second in the duathlon and triathlon and winning the multisport championships.

Team-mate James Elvery was second.

SOCCER

Mt Albert Grammar have finally retained one of the three trophies which have escaped their grasp this year.

They posted a convincing 3-0 win over premier league champions Westlake Boys' High, keeping the knockout cup in their now significantly diminished trophy cabinet.

Mt Albert were the defending champions of the Auckland premier league, holders of knockout cup and were the national champions, but failed by the narrowest of margins to rewrite the engraving on two of the sought-after secondary school football prizes.

Coach Kevin Fallon was pleased with his team's performance over the season, despite their second place in the Auckland premier league, which Westlake won on goal differential.

They were also on the losing end of a penalty shootout in the final of the national championships against big improvers Rangitoto College.

Mt Albert's 47-match winning streak was broken this season by Westlake in the round-robin of the Auckland competition, a defeat that effectively cost them the championship.

Fallon is already preparing his next batch of players for the 2001 season.

Through the school's soccer academy, he has built up a nucleus of young players within the squad, compensating for the loss of older members at the end of each year.

It was a young replacement player who came through for Mt Albert at Kiwitea St at the knockout final.

Davendar Singh, an under-16 super-sub, scored two goals in the last 10 minutes to secure Mt Albert's victory.

The match was scoreless at halftime, but Matt Luke notched the first goal 20 minutes into the second spell. Singh had an eventful 10 minutes on the field, bagging two goals and a booking.

RUGBY

The New Zealand secondary schools team showed they are ready to restore some transtasman rugby balance when they thrashed the Australia A schools team 61-5 in Bathurst, New South Wales.

It was an awesome display from the New Zealanders, who end their three-match tour with an international against Australian schools in Sydney on Saturday.

New Zealand had forward dominance throughout the match, allowing Wellington No 8 Thomas Waldron and Canterbury blindside flanker Adam Thomson to cross for two tries each.

Most of the other six tries went to outside backs in the second half as New Zealanders added to their 25-5 lead.

They were equally impressive in their tour opener last Saturday when they beat an ACT XV 62-9.

New Zealand have not lost to Australia at schoolboy level for three years.

Meanwhile, Wesley College wasted no time on Auckland 1A grade runners-up St Kentigern College in the first round of the national secondary schools First XV championship.

Wesley, who were second in the Lenco Cup, downed St Kentigern 39-3 to advance to the next round of the competition where they will meet Westlake Boys' High School, 54-0 winners over Kaitaia College.

St Peter's College will meet Hamilton Boys' High School after thrashing Hauraki Plains College 71-0.

What's on this week-

Today: New Zealand secondary schools netball championships, September 6-9, Hamilton.

Friday: Auckland: badminton finals, premier basketball finals.

Saturday: Greater Auckland cross-country championships, St Kentigern College.