College Sport: MAGs sets out to recapture glory days

MAGs under-15 novice 8 Sane-Va Ginnen (L), Sam Perry, Adam Callander, Liam Ferguson, Felix Drissner-Devine, Jed Bradley, Todd Martin, Jarvis Palmer and Eddy Canning. Photo / Sarah Ivey

For almost a quarter of a century, Mt Albert Grammar School has barely made a ripple in Auckland rowing.

But, after watching their teams at the forefront of netball, rugby and soccer in recent years, the MAGS boys and girls are again dipping their oars.

Headmaster Dale Burden admits his school is a long way from the glory days when they won eight Maadi Cups and 13 Head of the Harbour titles but the all-important first tentative strokes have been taken.

"There is a lot more to rowing than just putting a boat in the water and rowing," said Burden. "We are right behind our pupils and their parents who are keen to revive rowing at the school.

"After 1986 it seems rowing just disappeared. I don't know why. It is a sport with a lot of tradition and history at the school. There was real magic in the past and the old boys have thrown their support behind the efforts to rekindle interest."

The rebirth started with a group of novices last year, with another intake this year. With support from the West End Rowing Club, they are slowing building on the initiative begun by old boy Bret Beavis who rowed at MAGS in the 1970s and later won national titles with West End.

He chairs an "establishment committee" but stresses it is very much one small step at a time in an ambitious return to one of New Zealand's glamour school sports.

The committee has recruited Will Maling from Kings College to oversee the programme and this weekend will have crews at Lake Pupuke for the annual Bennett Shield regatta. The programme is initially aimed at the novices with the hope over forthcoming years they will remain in the sport and eventually return to the glory days of the 1950s when, under coaching legend Eric Craies, they ruled the water.

Unlike rugby, netball and soccer, the costs associated with rowing are mind-blowing.

"There has been no investment in plant at this stage," said Burden. "And there is no rowing academy as such. In pitching it at the under-15s [boys and girls] they have gone for the right age. To make it successful we need the right infrastructure and so far they have been building that."

Maling is enthusiastic about being part of the programme which depends so much on parental support.

"We are not wanting to be a small club and punching above our weight. We want to be a big club getting the results we should."

AWARDS

Steven Ramlose was one of the first winners on the stage at the ASB College Sports awards. The Year 11 student was the popular winner of the Athlete with a Disability award.

He gave the 1200 pupils at decile three Alfriston College, the staff and their supporters something to cheer about. The 16-year-old earlier won the Special Olympians trophy at the college's awards ceremony.

Despite having dyspraxia which affects his cognitive thinking and speech, Ramlose throws himself into his sport with gusto.

"I have watched him grow from an unco-ordinated 6-year-old into a top Special Olympian who competes in swimming, athletics, basketball and soccer," said Alfriston College's Special Olympics co-ordinator Louise Hemmingson. "He is now a confident, capable young man who is readily accepted among his rugby mates and has one of the biggest smiles in the school's grounds."

The 10 to 12 Special Olympians at the South Auckland school compete on a regular basis. Among the more popular sports are basketball and tenpin bowling. Ramlose shines in both, and in swimming where he competes at club level.

His identical twin bother has the same condition and lives with his father in Rotorua. Ramlose's grandfather Alan plays the major role in supporting his sport and one day could well watch with real pride if his grandson gets to compete at the Special Olympics.

CRICKET

AUCKLAND:

Restricted to just first innings wins in final round matches, perennial frontrunners Kings and AGS have shared the premier two-day championship.

After posting an impressive 275 on the first day, Kings held the upper hand in having WBHS struggling at 21/2 in reply at the close of play. Westlake turned up the second day determined to bat stubbornly and eventually reached 177 with Daniel James (31) leading the resistance. Kings had to content themselves with first innings points.

Chasing the 135 scored by St Peters on the first day and resuming at 119/4, AGS wasted little time in taking a first innings lead before sending St Peters in for a second time.

Led by useful knocks from Temapare Hodson and Nathaniel Bearman, St Peters reached 175 as Josh Anthony and Jacob Reilly picked up three wickets each. Chasing an unlikely 151 to win outright, AGS were never in it despite 33 from Jamie Hayes and ended their second innings at 71/7.

St Kentigern went into day two with a mathematical chance of securing the title but they too were thwarted and had to settle for first innings points after a solid Rangitoto fightback.

Resuming at 86/5, Rangitoto were desperate for an innings-saving knock. That came from Michael Jerram (51) with Kyle Lagerwall (31) and Matthew Trent (31) providing the support as they batted for a good part of the day in scoring 197.

St Kentigern piled on a quick-fire 100/5 to leave Rangitoto a target of 147. They were never in it and ended at 60/7 as Warren Barnes completed an excellent match double with a nine-wicket haul.

The only final round outright win came in the premier plate competition with Sacred Heart securing a comfortable innings win over KBHS who failed to reach 100 in either innings.

Resuming at 104/3 - and already 25 runs in credit - Sacred Heart went on to 194/7 in their first innings before declaring.

Batting a second time, Kelston fared little better in being dismissed for 97 to hand Sacred Heart outright victory by an innings and 18 runs.

Resuming at 31/2 in pursuit of the 211 scored by Rosmini, Macleans had some hope as Varun Narula and Tyrone Glencross reached 40 but neither went on to a really big score and the innings ended at 168 and the players went home.

Plate leaders MAGS wasted no time in taking a first innings lead over Avondale in a low-scoring affair but they then had to hang on to avoid outright defeat as their chase for the 165 needed for victory teetered at 91/9 when the match ended.

WAIKATO:

Keen to make the most of what appeared favourable conditions in the 1A division match of the round, St Peters sent Matamata into bat under heavy skies.

The Matamata openers helped themselves to 31 runs from the first four overs. That soon slowed however as a number of batsmen got starts but failed to go on with it.

Only Brad McKenzie (36) got beyond 30 as spinners Jonathan Whitley and Alex Lunn picked up five wickets between them from their 20 overs in restricting Matamata to a modest 163 in their 50 overs. The lower order partnership between Manie Senekal (24no) and Taylor Green (18) added some much-needed respectability.

Mitchell Green (2-21) gave Matamata some early hope but their chances of an upset win disappeared on the back of a 123-run partnership between captain Jarrod Mongston (85 not out - including three sixes off successive deliveries) and Tom Smith (32).

St Peters won by seven wickets to retain the Dave Hoskin Trophy.

St Paul's captain Angus Harris did his best but in the end his unbeaten 117 was not enough to lay a winning foundation in the semifinal decider with St John's College.

St Pauls batted out their overs but there was not enough support for Harris and they had to content themselves with a still respectable 206/7.

In reply St Johns posted 207/5 hitting the winning runs off the fifth ball of the penultimate over with Sam Cooper falling an agonising six runs short of a century.

The match of the round produced almost 500 runs before HBHS Development XI got home by nine runs with the last Cambridge HS pair just failing to get them home.

A handy 36 from opener Devon Singh laid the foundation from which Jonty Keaney went on to the attack. He smashed his way to 112 as HBHS posted 246.

Cambridge were kept in the chase with half-centuries from Nik Boyle, Jono Feast and Mitch Kirkbride but with none able to go on and post a really big score they came up short as Hamilton medium-pace bowler Matt Wallbank bagged 4-42 from nine overs.

Average run rates were needed to sort out the top three positions in the 1B division as Morrinsville College, HBHS Emerging and Hillcrest finished round-robin play on equal points.

Hillcrest had the easiest win beating Melville High by eight wickets in a low-scoring affair. Batting first, Melville had no answer for Adhish Achary's wizardry. He bagged 5-10 as Melville crashed to 75. Led by 53 not out by Seb Curry, Hillcrest cruised home with 38.3 overs to spare.

It was a similar story for Morrinsville as they hit off the 138 runs they needed to beat St Peter's 2nd XI by six wickets.

Matt Joubert batted resolutely to thwart the Morrinsville attack to anchor the St Peter's innings with an unbeaten 36 but their 137 runs were never going to be enough. After rain in the lunch break threatened to wash it out, the weather turned for the better and in the end Morrinsville shrugged off the testing conditions to reach their target in 21 overs with six wickets in hand.

After being dropped first ball, Clayton Stewart went on to anchor the Te Awamutu College innings with a sparkling knock of 81. He lacked support however, with the 39 extras being the only other notable contribution in their tally of 174.

After a flying start - they reached 119 from the opening 19 overs - HBHS Emerging were pegged back by some tight Te Awamutu bowling before reaching the target in the 40th over with four wickets in hand.

The finals and play-offs in both grades will be played on Saturday to wrap up the season.

VOLLEYBALL

There was plenty to celebrate as Orewa College and Mangere College ended three days of intensive play to claim the junior secondary schools boys and girls titles

The exciting boy's final was a replay of an earlier pool encounter with Orewa reversing their loss to De La Salle College. De La Salle won a closely-fought first set in which nerves got the better of both teams in front of a packed crowd at the Otara Recreation Centre.

Orewa hit back to claim the second set after some big hitting from Jacob Walkinshaw and Nick Fuller. With the momentum now with Orewa, they put De La Salle under a lot of pressure, eventually winning the third set 15-9 to snatch the title.

The girl's final was a one-sided affair with Mangere College successfully defending the title they won last year, beating surprise finalist One Tree Hill College.

With great hitting power from Sitoga Pulemau and Foalalo Ioasa, Mangere over-powered the One Tree Hill defence to win in straight sets 2-0.

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