KEY POINTS:
Bay of Plenty schools hit the water with a splash and left their Auckland counterparts all at sea in the Northern area underwater hockey championships.
Three of the four titles headed south. Only Howick College's 3-1 win over Otumoetai College in the senior open final prevented a clean sweep for the Bay schools.
Tauranga Girls' College were outstanding at the West Wave Aquatic Centre. Inspired by their most valuable player, Alix Robinson, Tauranga beat Diocesan, led by Sara Chamberlin, 2-1 to take senior girls' honours in a replay of last year's final.
Tauranga were dominant throughout. They breezed through pool play, scoring 35 goals and conceding just one, then continued that form into the semifinals where they beat Macleans 4-0.
The championships attracted 300 competitors, in 33 teams, from nine schools. Each team was allowed a 12-player roster, with six in the water at one time. Games were played over two 10-minute halves in a two-day schedule.
Otumoetai College won both junior championships. Their boys took the junior open title with a convincing 7-0 win over surprise finalists Avondale College. Glendowie College beat Northcote A 7-1 in the third-fourth play-off.
The Otumoetai junior girls won by the same 7-0 margin as their boys over local rivals Tauranga GC. Defending champions Howick finished sixth.
Howick College, led by their MVP Nick Lowther, repeated their 2006 success in beating Otumoetai in the senior open final 3-1. The goal they conceded in the final was the only goal scored against Howick who were in rampant form, scoring 45 en route to the final.
The top four teams in the four grades qualify for the Secondary Schools Championships in Christchurch from August 30-September 2.
ARCHERY
With their strongest possible line-up, King's College reversed their run of losses and scored a decisive win over two strong Auckland Grammar teams in the 72-arrow outdoor match at Nicholson Park.
Led by an impressive 649, of a possible 720, from John Zhang, King's won comfortably from AGS B, who upset the AGS A team, pushing them back to third in the seven-team competition.
Newcomer Alex Colibaba (with 582) led the second-string AGS team into second place in an event in which teams could use any combination of bow-type - compound and open or novice recurve. The distances ranged from 15m-50m.
The next event, on Tuesday, will feature the term two indoor finals with the division one match between King's, AGS, St Peter's and Onehunga HS in a 15m, 60-arrow match at Nicholson Park.
BASKETBALL
The match of the season ended in heartbreak for Auckland Grammar.
Level 94-94 with Kelston Boys, AGS' hopes were dashed with 6s to play when Thomas Lose beat the buzzer in sinking a three-pointer to give his team their 97-94 victory.
It was an intense affair throughout, with Kelston's Houston O'Riley dominant. Scoring a match-high 34 points, he was well-supported by point guard Paaka Hakaraia and new centre Nicholas Pierce. With equally solid back-up from Shane Schwalger, Moon Jung, Vani Toelau and Lose, Kelston loom as a team to beat.
Westlake Boys High had an easier-than-expected 107-64 win over Avondale. Lucas Watt (26 points) and Robert Loe (16 points and 14 rebounds) led Westlake's charge against an Avondale team who ran into foul trouble after a couple of starters were forced to the bench.
Despite not being as strong on defence as coach Sherrol Paalvast would have liked, Massey were still too strong for Epsom Girls Grammar in premier girls' action. Massey, led by 33 points from Mesha Blair, out-scored EGGS two-to-one winning 92-46.
CURLING
Heavy ice again made conditions difficult and kept the scoring down over the opening ends of fourth-round matches.
Kelston Boys Fiery Red edged Massey High Ramrod 5-3 after scoring on the first and last ends.
The early ends were a shambles before Birkenhead Boys II beat Birkenhead Boys I 7-4. The No 2 team were penalised two points when one of their players arrived late. The next two ends were blanks, with neither team getting any stones into the house. Leighton Henderson then led the revival for No 2 as they scored four on the fourth end after Simon Edwards accidentally removed one of his own stones.
Led by Lee-Ande Hill and after scoring one on the first end and two on the second, Baradene I beat Auckland Girls' Grammar 26-4.
The fourth game was won by Long Bay Mixed who beat Birkenhead Mixed by default after only one Birkenhead player turned up at Paradice Avondale.
NETBALL
Rangitoto and Mahurangi had comfortable wins in North Harbour's Collegiate I competition but Westlake Girls scored the day's biggest win to stay within four points of the lead.
Westlake beat Pinehurst 49-15 but Carmel, the other team in the top four, found it more difficult as they overcame a slow start to beat Kristin. Their 32-21 winning margin in the end denied Kristin a bonus point.
After a run of losses, Long Bay won for the second time this season, beating winless Glenfield 39-20. In the closest match of the round, Takapuna Grammar beat Orewa 30-28, but the bonus point Orewa earned meant they ended the round one point ahead of TGS, in sixth equal place with Kristin.
It is even closer at the top of the Auckland premier championship, with Mt Albert Grammar, Epsom Girls, Howick and St Kentigern all boasting four-from four starts to the season.
Epsom Girls dominated their game with Onehunga, winning 37-20 by constantly denying Onehunga the chance to get the ball to their shooters.
Howick had the biggest win, beating bottom-placed Pakuranga by 21 points.
Auckland Girls, who had been within sight of the leaders, lost ground when upset 41-36 by Baradene.
RUGBY
In one of the biggest days in Auckland schools rugby, Tamaki had their day in the sun, scoring a historic first win over Auckland Grammar.
Elsewhere, Mt Albert Grammar upset leaders De La Salle, Sacred Heart held on to second place with a hard-fought win over St Paul's, St Peter's had their first win of the season and Kelston Boys romped away to beat Papatoetoe 52-12.
Spurred on by an enthusiastic home crowd, Tamaki came from behind to win 14-11. Auckland Grammar opened the scoring with a penalty but almost immediately Howard Silioto scored from close range. Semisi Ahoafi's sideline conversion earned Tamaki a 7-3 lead.
The home side then relaxed on defence allowing AGS to hit back with a Nathan Vella try and the lead. Again Tamaki rallied quickly, with Sam Foini going in under the posts. Ahoafi's conversion took his team to a 14-8 lead, reduced to 14-11 with a second AGS penalty just before halftime.
There was no scoring after the break as the Tamaki defence, well-led by Sione Sa, kept the visitors at bay, leaving the Glen Innes faithful plenty to celebrate.
The difficulties De La Salle and MAGS have had in winning this encounter at home continued.
Despite going into the match as clear 1A championship leaders and warm favourites, De La Salle were soon trailing when a Carl Perry penalty found its mark.
Late in the first half the home side did go ahead when they scored an unconverted try.
From a powerful lineout drive early in the second half, MAGS regained the lead through an unconverted Daniel Faleafa try. The visitors continued to attack and were rewarded with an Aaron Collins try wide out, giving MAGS their 13-5 victory and taking them to into third place - two points from the lead and one behind Sacred Heart.
Given a rollicking start when young lock Ronald Raaymakers broke from a ruck and scored in the corner in the opening minute, Sacred Heart went on to beat St Paul's 22-15 in a physical encounter, picking up the Brother Marcel Jubilee Cup and Hiberian Shield in the process.
The visitors continued to attack and increased their lead with two converted tries before St Paul's clawed back some of the deficit when Nafe Seluni scored an unconverted try.
A second Seluni try, also unconverted, closed the gap to 19-10 before James Semple drop-kicked a goal for 22-10, which was closed to 22-15 when Afa Saumani scored a third unconverted try for St Paul's.
A penalty goal in each half from Ben Louis was enough to get St Peter's home 6-0 over Tangaroa while King's College built on their 13-0 halftime lead to beat St Kentigern 21-10.
In North Harbour action, Takapuna Grammar had a dream start when winger Brendan Pickerill scored an outstanding intercept try in the opening minutes against Rangitoto.
The only remaining points came from penalties as Takapuna held on to win 8-3 and take four hard-won points.
Wesley College romped to a 77-0 win over James Cook HS in Counties Manukau play. Linford Hanipale scored three of his team's 13 tries while Vuga Tagicakibau had an outstanding game.
SOCCER
Mt Albert Grammar were given the workout they wanted ahead of Sunday's Chatham Cup clash with northern premier high-flyers Central United when they had to twice come from behind to beat St Peter's 4-2.
Even with home advantage, Mt Albert took time to settle and quickly fell a goal behind when Rory Kelly gathered well and beat goalkeeper Macrae Sloper.
After Milosh Nikolic had equalised, St Peter's hit the front again in the 21st minute when Kelly pounced on a poor ball from Ryan Elder and fired in a cross, which Mt Albert left back Skye Parmenter steered into his own goal.
With Mt Albert still trailing 2-1 at halftime, coach Kevin Fallon replaced Matt Killip with Mark Withers. The urgency soon returned and it was tied up 2-2 in the 68th minute when Nikolic slotted. Three minutes later he had his hat-trick when, again from a Malcolm MacRae cross, he headed home for 3-2.
The scoring was completed in the 75th minute when Kelly turned a ball played in by MacRae into his own goal.
Co-leaders Auckland Grammar also had to battle for a long period before taking control and going on to beat King's 4-1.
Ken White gave AGS their 1-0 lead but that was clawed back just before halftime. The second half belonged to the visitors, with Nick Branch, Aaron Bawdekker and, five minutes from time, Jacob Matthews scoring.
Rosehill College continued their domination of the Counties zone of the girls' competition.
Their 6-0 away win over Waiuku College continued their perfect start to the season. Led by Ashley Nevey's hat-trick, Rosehill were never in danger of losing. Taylor Day (2) and Narindarjit Kaur added the other goals as Rosehill completed round-robin play with four from four, scoring 16 goals and conceding none.
TABLE TENNIS
There is no place for faint hearts in the run-up to the play-offs in the Auckland Secondary Schools premier A championship.
Going into the last round, the top three teams are separated only by the number of games won. Macleans A hold the barest one-game advantage over Mt Roskill Grammar, with both teams having five matches. Auckland Grammar have also won five times but trail Mt Roskill by three on the countback.
Auckland Grammar lost some ground when they were held 4-3 by St Kentigern. Phillip Xiao won his two singles for AGS and combined with Oliver Scarlett to win the crucial doubles.
Lingnan Kong won his two singles for St Kentigern while Scarlett and Matthew Lowe (St Kentigern) won one singles each.
