KEY POINTS:
Days after they had seen their hopes of a second successive senior rugby championship disappear, Mt Albert Grammar lost their netball crown as well.
Pitted against long-time rivals EGGS, MAGS came up short in both the premier and senior A finals at the Auckland Netball Centre.
After beating EGGS in round-robin play, MAGS, coached by stalwart Te Aroha Keenan, went into the final as slight favourites but quickly found themselves playing catch-up.
Aleesha Coulter led the EGGS charge from goal attack and her combination with goal shoot Bethan O'Brien was a very effective foil against the height and experience of MAGS defenders Katerina Birkett and Lesley Simone.
EGGS coach Trish O'Brien gambled on her youngsters Abby Barry and Chonaire Huriwai in mid-court and was justly rewarded with their tireless work. Down 13-15 at halftime, MAGS made changes introducing young shooter Tia Maria Armani and switching Darrell Leota to wing attack.
O'Brien countered that by making changes of her own with Rebecca Robinson going to goal defence and introducing Mareta George at goal keep. Making the most of the turnovers they then created, EGGS raced to a 26-18 lead going into the final quarter.
A flurry of changes worked well for MAGS who closed to 26-29 with three minutes to play but EGGS, playing smarter netball, refused to panic and went on to win 32-28.
In the earlier game, EGGS took the sometimes scrappy senior A final by a comfortable 39-32.
The EGGS defensive pairing of Kayla Pratt and Taylor Matthews proved too strong in the MAGS shooting circle while on attack Anne Staub ended the game with a high shooting percentage to assure EGGS of the title.
It was a good workout for both schools ahead of this week's Upper North Island champs at Papakura.
Cycling
New Zealand's next generation of Olympic cyclists may well be putting their wheels on the line at the national secondary schools championships in Auckland this week.
The annual event, which is decided over three disciplines - time trial, hillclimb and criterium - has unearthed some of New Zealand's best including Julian Dean (Waihi College), Tim Gudsell (Te Awamutu College), Peter Latham (St Paul's Collegiate, Hamilton) and Sam Bewley (Rotorua BHS) who all rode at the Beijing Olympics. This quartet were all winners at the championships with Dean taking the junior title in 1990.
Olympic triathlon top-10 finisher Debbie Tanner (Diocesan) won the senior girls titles in 1999 and 2000 following other Olympians Susy Pryde (EGGS), in 1991, and Sarah Ulmer (Diocesan), in 1992, as a winner of that championship.
Given the success of riders from outside Auckland - especially in the boy's races - locals may again struggle.
The championships have attracted 423 cyclists from 55 schools.
They will race either a 4km or 8km time trial on Friday, face the daunting 800m climb up Mt Wellington on Saturday and head to East Tamaki on Sunday for the always-exciting criteriums around a 1.5km circuit.
Indoor bowls
The inaugural championships brought instant success for Avondale College with brothers Andrew and Simon McMillan winning a keenly-fought pairs title.
The pairs, which followed the singles championship and was hosted by the North Wellington Association at their Titahi Bay headquarters, attracted 20 teams from around New Zealand. The victory was some compensation for Andrew who had been beaten 11-9 by Ashleigh Eden (Tawa College) in the quarter-finals of the singles.
Five teams qualified for sudden-death post-section play in the pairs with the McMillan brothers beating Aleisha Davidson and Alex Pasco (Roxburgh Area School) 10-3 in the semifinals.
The second semifinal was much closer with Helene Stuart and Stephanie Gailey (Wanganui HS) sneaking home 7-6 over the Newlands College pairing of Kyle Waldron and Teri Anderson.
The final was another one-sided affair for the Avondale College pair. They beat Stuart and Gailey 9-3.
The singles championship was dominated by 14-year-old Anderson.
She was hardly tested in sweeping through section play and then beat Eden 14-4 in the semifinals and Katie Burnley (Sacred Heart Lower Hutt) 14-6 in the final. The victory capped an outstanding year for Anderson.
Rugby
Auckland champions De La Salle are just two wins away from being crowned national champions for the first time.
The Brian Evans-coached first XV are through to this weekend's top four play-offs in Rotorua where they will face Wellington College on Saturday. The winner of that game will meet the winner of the second game between St Bedes, representing the Crusaders franchise area, and Chiefs' representative Hamilton BHS.
Evans is certain of one thing: the game against Wellington College will be a far sterner test than last Saturday's 105-0 romp against northern hope Kerikeri High.
In their only previous appearance at the national finals, De La Salle finished third in 2003.
* www.asbcollegesport.co.nz
