KEY POINTS:
Hockey continues to attract big numbers and with that an increase in the world class facilities across the city.
Growth in the sport in the past decade has been staggering.
The long-established facilities at Auckland Grammar, Mt Roskill Grammar, Avondale and Rangitoto are now complemented with turfs either in use or being planned at King's, St Cuthbert's, Diocesan, St Kentigern, Westlake GHS and Kristin School.
Many open/premier school games are still played at Lloyd Elsmore Park, Crown Relocations Stadium or Pukekohe.
The more established schools have again shown out in early rounds and seem set to play in the keenly contested inter-city competition which starts in July.
Reigning champions St Cuthbert's continued their winning start to the season when they slammed home seven second-half goals to beat EGGS 9-0. Strong defensive games from Katarina Jones, Rebecca Crump and Leah Chamberlin and goalkeeper Sarah Mathews held St Cuthbert's to just two goals at halftime. In the end, the floodgates opened, Stacey Michelson and Lucy Barber leading the charge with good support from Ashleigh James and captain Jamie Wiles.
In the surprise of the round, MAGS held Diocesan to just 2-0.
ARCHERY
St Peter's College sprang an early surprise with their win over close neighbours Auckland Grammar in their opening round clash of the indoor six-match series at Nicholson Park.
Led by top individual Carl Bekker (with 394 of a possible 450 points), St Peter's beat AGS by more than 150 points.
Westlake BHS made a welcome return to the sport after linking with the Shore Club who are providing equipment and coaching.
They had instant success, with an 85-point win over AGS C in their division two clash.
Eight teams are competing in the two performance divisions.
BASKETBALL
Newcomers Papakura beat defending premiers KBHS 84-78 on the back of a 24-point haul for Dennis Tawhiti.
In a fast and furious encounter AGS thumped WBHS 92-46 and followed that with an equally impressive 74-47 win over Northcote on Monday night. MAGS beat Northcote on Friday and KBHS three days later while Rangitoto, 80-78 winners over Dilworth, also made it two from two with their Monday night win over giant-killing Papakura.
CYCLING
Mt Wellington cycle shop Avanti Plus Waipuna (in Levene Place) will give a new inner tube to any cyclist who punctured during the Sunday raced 10 days ago. They are also prepared to give new tubes to any cyclists who puncture a tyre in remaining races this winter.
Vouchers will be available at the second race on Sunday week. These can be swapped for a tube at the shop.
RUGBY
As the only team with three wins - two with bonus points - MAGS have a four-point lead over old rivals AGS who are joined on 10 points by De La Salle, Sacred Heart and KBHS with St Pauls and St Kentigern, who too have won two of their first three.
Attention now switches to fourth round action with games scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
Most interest will be at De La Salle, where last year's beaten finalists are at home to AGS, with the winner set to move into second place behind MAGS provided they overcome Otahuhu College.
KBHS, beaten for the first time - going down 16-10 at King's - should bounce back to winning form in their away game with Tamaki College.
King's, narrowly beaten in the first two rounds, have the chance to move into the top half of the championship race but will need to win at home against Sacred Heart, who have bounced back from their first-round loss to St Paul's to beat AGS and Otahuhu College.
Many of the North Harbour grading games have so far been one-sided affairs, although Rangitoto and Takapuna Grammar played out a thriller before Rangitoto got home 16-15 with tries to Jamie Winks and Bjorn Battaerd and two Richard Mills penalties while Ben Blucher kicked five penalties for TGS.
Fullback Tom Elton scored five tries and Jamie Foster two as WBHS overran Kaipara College 110-0. Chris Winks scored 40 points, including two tries.
After leading 28-0 at halftime, Massey beat Mahurangi 34-0.
Orewa scored a solid 29-0 win over Kristin with Ethan McGuire leading the way with two tries.
There were also some big scores in Counties Manukau, with Wesley 1st XV beating their 2nd XV 55-0 and Manurewa beating Rosehill 58-0.
SOCCER
MAGS have jumped to an early lead in the Senior A1 championship but will be well aware they can lose that advantage when they meet second-placed AGS in the feature fourth-round game, at MAGS, on Saturday.
While MAGS prepared for the always keenly anticipated clash with a solid 5-1 away win over WBHS, AGS were held 1-1 at home by a spirited Macleans side.
St Peter's jumped into third place with their first win of the season, beating Rangitoto 5-3 away.
TABLE TENNIS
Of the record 170 teams in this year's North Harbour interschool champs, 56 will represent WBHS.
Westlake's top team is spearheaded by national junior reps Hanson Ling and Jackson Chu. They are joined by former national junior champ Mitchell Barker and Ben Jung.
* With Queen's Birthday, the next College Sport will be on June 11.
* www.asbcollegesport.co.nz
