College Sport: World champions tee off against Australia's best

By JENNI RUTHERFORD

The Rotorua and Hamilton Boys' High teams tee off today in the inaugural transtasman strokeplay championships in Australia.

The two, who finished first and second in the national secondary school championships last year, will meet Australia's top golfing schools - Perth's Ocean Reef Senior High and Queensland's Kooralbyn International School - at the Twin Waters Resort in Queensland.

This week's competition is expected to be world class, with Kooralbyn and Rotorua Boys' having won the world secondary schools title.

Rotorua, who won that title last year, will not be able to defend their crown because the event is no longer run. The team are without world individual schoolboy champion Sam Hunt, who is competing in Malaysia, but will still field a strong team spearheaded by Jae An.

An made headlines at the New Zealand Open in January when at 13 he was among the youngest to make the cut in a professional tournament.

Rotorua have four boys in Australia - An, Brian Lee, Terry Hong and Mark Cooney. They are all two handicappers or better but one of them will have to sit out the tournament.

The Hamilton Boys' team of Mark Purser, Aaron Coveny and Sam Thomas also boast impressive figures. Purser, the captain, is a member of the New Zealand Golf Association's Titleist academy and plays off scratch, as does Coveny. Thomas has a two handicap.

The teams will play 36 holes over two days. Each of the three scores will count.

CROSS-COUNTRY

* Elizabeth Orchard, of Epsom Girls Grammar, scraped home ahead of Ashley Siddall from King's College to claim the senior girls Auckland secondary schools title.

Orchard won the 4km race at the St Kentigern College course in 15m 13s.64, with Siddall 0.23s behind.

Lauren James (St Cuthbert's College) blitzed the intermediate girls field in 14m 40s. Team-mate Camilla Lees was a comfortable winner in the junior girls 3km race, more than 20s ahead of Rebecca Linnear from Macleans.

Terrenzo Bozzone (Rangitoto College) won the senior boys 6km race.

* The Thames Valley cross-country championships will give last year's national secondary school junior girls titleholder, Rebecca Forlong (Matamata College), a practise run for the national secondary school event in Blenheim next month.

Forlong will run in the senior 4km race at Thames Valley today.

At least 250 runners from around the district will compete at the Te Aroha College course, which has an undulating 3km circuit through neighbouring farm land.

Another promising runner, Erin Montgomery, makes her comeback to the sport after a summer break when she competes at the Northland secondary school cross-country event at Whangarei's Tikipunga Park today.

Montgomery, from Dargaville High, is a talented track runner who ran in the world youth athletics championships in Hungary last year.

She was a clear winner in the senior girl's south zone championships last week.

Kelly Bruce, from Otamatea College, is expected to be her biggest threat today. Elliot Cardwell, of Whangarei Boys' High, should be among the frontrunners in the senior boy's 5km race.

NETBALL

* Church College have scored their first victory over Hamilton Girls' High in the Waikato secondary school premier grade competition.

Church College held a slim margin throughout to win 47-46.

Hamilton Girls' High will need to pick themselves up for a tough encounter next week against Te Awamutu College, who beat Waikato Diocesan 48-29.

The match between Hillcrest High and Sacred Heart Girls', Hamilton, is also expected to be tight.

RUGBY

* Kelston's first challengers for the Moascar Cup this season will be St Paul's on Saturday.

Kelston wrenched the trophy off De La Salle College in round three. St Paul's held the cup briefly last year before De La Salle took it south.

After round four of the Auckland premier first XV competition, the table has become congested behind frontrunners King's College and Kelston. St Paul's went down fighting against Auckland Grammar, losing 6-11 on Saturday.

De La Salle proved they are top-four material after downing defending champions St Kentigern College.

Onehunga High School upset Sacred Heart College 10-5, while St Peter's suffered their third loss in a row.

* The Dargaville High first XV went on an 11-try rampage against Otamatea High, winning 64-5. Jonothan MacLeod, Gary Whiter, Jordon Stevens, Henry Foy and Eben Nesbit each scored two tries and Jay Douglas also dotted down. Foy kicked three conversions.

TENNIS

* A courageous effort by Shona Lee of Rosehill College helped the New Zealand under-16 girls team to beat China-Hong Kong in Jakarta.

New Zealand won 2-1 to finish 11th at the Junior Fed Cup Asia/Oceania qualifying tournament.

Lee beat Yee-Ting Lo 7-6, 6-3 to tie the series after Jennifer Poskitt (Mairehau High, Christchurch) lost 6-2, 4-6, 4-6 to Joanne Cheung.

Poskitt then combined with Charlotte Bellis of St Margaret's (Christchurch) to beat Cheung and Evelina Leung 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

This week:

* Today, Auckland: premier boys hockey, rugby league. Counties Manukau: netball. North Harbour: girls badminton.

* Tomorrow, Auckland: premier girls hockey.

* Friday, Auckland: basketball, squash.

* Saturday, Auckland: rugby, netball, soccer. North Harbour: rugby, netball. Counties Manukau: rugby.

* Sunday, Auckland: cycling, orienteering.

* Monday, Auckland: girls rugby, strokeplay golf championships. North Harbour: boys badminton.