College sport: Digging deep for a grand sporting legacy

Alison Gernhoefer, watched by property manager Grant Brown (left), board chairman Alan Curtis and sports director Dean Flyger (right), turns the first sod. Photo / Paul Estcourt

In her 30th, and last, year as principal of Westlake Girls' High School, Alison Gernhoefer is determined to bow out in style. In overseeing an ambitious multi-million dollar sporting legacy, she will certainly do that.

And, unlike many such projects, parents won't be dipping into their pockets to pay for it.

Proudly showing the sketch plans of the development which will accommodate a state-of-the-art artificial hockey turf, two similarly top class artificial soccer fields - with a cricket pitch between them - and a new dual purpose tennis/netball court facility, Gernhoefer sees the project as the fulfilment of a long-held dream.

"It is my 'farewell gift'. We have certainly been waiting long enough to do it," she said. "The initial planning started back in 1991 when they said they would take land from us for the motorway."

Now, with further land lost to the bus lane, the money paid in compensation has given the school the wherewithal to progress. Neighbouring WBHS will benefit from the development.

The total cost, including covered netball and tennis courts which will hopefully be completed next year, is about $7.5 million. Overseen by OCTA Associates with Phil Crampsie as project manager, the first on-field action should be as early as May.

"It is the largest artificial project undertaken in the Asia-Pacific region," said Shane Page, national sales manager for Sports Technology International, who are providing the surface and overseeing the work.

There will be 350 tonnes of rubber in the 20mm shock pads under the three fields and in the rubber infill. There will be 110 tonnes of sand which will come in once 10,000 cu m of top soil has been scraped away from the 11,000sq m site.

The soccer fields will meet Fifa's two-star rating (their highest) while the hockey turf will almost certainly be used in the build-up to the Olympics.

CRICKET

Kings and St Kentigern are setting the early pace in the premier one-day championship as the only unbeaten teams after three rounds.

Following a double-header opening weekend, unbeaten Kings and traditional powerhouse WBHS squared off at Kings. Batting first, the home side piled on five runs an over to reach 250/7 with in-form Ben Horne again leading the charge with 61, assisted by useful contributions from allrounder Mark Chapman and Fa'asiu Fuata'i. In reply, and despite a half century from captain Robbie O'Donnell, the visitors were bundled out for 150.

Rosmini continued their season-long improvement, running out victors by seven wickets over St Peters.

Batting first at home, St Peters managed just 169, thanks mainly to Cameron Insull who top-scored with 41 and Richard Compston (31 not out). Sam Pierce (3-22) and Matthew Moxley (3-28) were the destroyers in a Rosmini side who left the field confident they could chase down the target.

Captain Nathanial Larmer (52) and new recruit Charles Elton, who blasted a boundary-laden 74, got them home comfortably.

Sacred Heart picked up their second win of the season to leave Macleans still winless at the bottom of pool A.

It was shaping up to be a good day for Macleans as, batting first, they put on 67 for the first wicket but that was to prove the only partnership of note in their innings as Sacred Heart dismissed them for 135. Wicketkeeper Andrew Morrison was the sole bright spot with a well compiled 55.

Sacred Heart suffered an early scare, losing their first wicket to a run out, but a string of scores in the 20s saw them comfortably home for the loss of only four wickets.

In the battle of the undefeated pool B teams, St Kentigern beat AGS by 115 runs to move clear at the top of the table.

Looking to get off the mark for the season, Rangitoto would have felt fairly confident after amassing 230 for the loss of only six wickets after batting first at home against KBHS.

Matthew Trent top-scored with 86 and captain Blair Smith assisted with a fine half-century.

Kelston, led by a century from captain Sean Chick, got home by five wickets despite a good match double from Smith, who picked up 3-39.

MAGS made short work of Avondale College in a one-sided affair. Batting first, the visitors reached 198/9, which left Avondale with the feeling they had a chance.

But they were blown away in the face of some extraordinary seam bowling from Chris Beck and Bret Randell, who picked up figures of 4-12 and 3-11 respectively. Not to be outdone, Vaidik Raj also chipped in with 3 wickets for only 10 runs.

NETBALL

Following the outstanding success of Sky Television's venture into College Rugby last winter, New Zealand's rising netball talent is to get their chance in front of the cameras.

"We are committed to sports at all levels and viewers can't get enough of College Sport as evidenced by viewer feedback we've received following our screening of College Rugby on the Rugby Channel," said Sky TV's director of sports content, Richard Last. "Including College Netball as part of our live coverage of the ANZ Championship is a natural progression and we look forward to adding further support for New Zealand's largest female sport at this level this season."

The new-look 12-game competition involving 16 teams, selected in the main on results from 2010, will be played over four 10-minute quarters as curtainraisers to ANZ Championship matches on Sundays starting at 4pm and will be screened the following day in a dedicated 6.30pm spot.

The first game, between Bay of Plenty Coast Selection and Bay of Plenty Central Selection, will be played in Rotorua on Sunday.

Games to be broadcast have been chosen with traditional rivalries in mind, giving the best of the 30,000 school netballers the chance to shine.

Games featuring Auckland teams will be played on March 6 between St Kentigern and WGHS and on April 24 between national champions MAGS and old rivals AGGS. On March 13 Hamilton rivals Hillcrest High and Hamilton GHS will do battle.

ORIENTEERING

The growing popularity of the sport has seen Auckland split into four zones for the sprint series which starts on Monday with competition for the West zone at Rutherford College and Franklin at Waiuku College.

On Tuesday the South East zone will be at Howick College followed by Central/Shore zone at Rosmini College next Wednesday.

The courses are in college grounds and at times will include adjacent primary, intermediate and council parks where possible. This helps make the events more challenging and the courses slightly longer. Course lengths vary in distance from just under 3km for senior boys down to 1.8 km for the junior girls.

The winning times should all be around 15 minutes with slower runners taking up 30 to 35 minutes or longer if they lose their way. For students new to the sport it introduces them to it in a safe environment where it is difficult to become lost, just disoriented.

The maps are drawn to International Orienteering Sprint standards and electronic timing is used so competitors are able to compare split times for each leg. This allows the students to evaluate their route choices through their split times. The skill of the sport is in being able to read the map while running through unfamiliar terrain at speed.

Each zone will hold six weekly events until the end of March when a two-race Champion of Champions (in locations to be announced) will be held on the last two weekends before the end of term one. The top six from each zone will go through in each of the grades four grades.

Following these sprint races, the more serious championships (usually on farmland or in forests) start with the NISS in Taupo, the AKSS in the Woodhill Forest and NZSS, this year in Dunedin.

ROWING

Living up to expectations, the under-18 boys' and girls' singles sculls produced some of the most exciting racing at the 75th Head of the Harbour regatta at Lake Pupuke.

The regatta attracted huge fields from as far afield as Whangarei, Hauraki Plains and Cambridge.

They were greeted by overcast skies and a strong headwind but that did not deter the hundreds of oarsmen and women who produced some close, exciting racing.

In the much-awaited boys' single sculls, Campbell Rhodes (St Peters) was pushed all the way but showed his class and good form heading into the business end of the season by leading virtually from start to finish to hold off spirited challenges from Edward Baddeley (Whangarei Boys High) and Cambridge High's Hamish Carter.

The girls' race produced one of the closet finishes of the day as Rosehill's Kayla Wolfenden held on after threatening to blow her handy lead at one stage. With 75m to row, Wolfenden mistimed a stroke which almost slowed her to a stop, allowing Melissa Niemandt (TGS) to close the gap before Wolfenden rallied and finished a bow ball ahead of Niemandt to reverse the order of their last clash.

The rivalry between AGS and WBHS in the under-18 pair and four has been strong all season but this time both were won by AGS.

The boys' under-18 quads produced another exciting finish with St Peters taking the honours but behind them there was a stirring battle for the minor placings, with Kings narrowly edging AGS who were just ahead of TGS.

As predicted, TGS were too strong in both the girls' under-17 and under-18 quads and they will now have to wait for the stronger competition expected at KRI3, the NISS and Maadi Cup to see how they will fare.

By the time the big races of the day rolled around the crowd on the embankment built to almost standing room only and became more and more vocal.

A proud King's College haka was performed to their eight as they pushed out on to the choppy lake while a lone bagpiper sent the St Kentigern crew out.

The under-18 boys set off at a hectic pace with several crews in the running. But in the end, AGS got home from St Kentigern and WBHS.

It was the first time this season WBHS did not win at least one of the under-18 sweep oar disciplines so there is sure to be some hard training for their crews ahead of the remaining major regattas.

The under-18 girls' race was dominated by the strong Baradene squad who finished first and second ahead of Kings.

For the second straight year TGS claimed the trophies for the most points on the day for both girls and overall top school. AGS were rewarded for their strong performances throughout the day by taking the trophy for most points for boys.

ON THE WEB

www.asbcollegesport.co.nz