My last report for the year and as there are 25cm. of snow here in the middle of Kent thoughts of returning to the summer in Tauranga in just over a month are most inviting.......

As you can see by what follows there has been a considerable amount going on with sport at the school as well as the priority of external exams in Term 4.

Senior Prize-giving

• Kevin Park was named Dux & thus winner of the Norman Clark Trophy after finishing in 1st place in Physics, Statistics & Calculus.

• Proxime Accessit was Stephen Bell who was the top Commerce Scholar for the year.

• Head Prefect Toby Cunliffe-Steele was awarded an Arrow Foundation Leadership Scholarship - one of only 8 awarded through the whole of New Zealand.

• Te Matauenga Kawha was the inaugural winner of the Monte Ohia Trophy awarded to the Year 13 Maori student exhibiting academic excellence & a full commitment to the wider life of the school. The trophy recognises the huge contribution to education of this Old Boy who was a Prefect, 1st  XV member & House Captain of Batten House in 1964.

• 23 students were recognised who had the minimum of A- passes in papers taken at the University of Waikato through the year. Most outstanding was Wayne Tsai who gained A+ in Economics & Calculus, A in Philosophy & A- in Calculus & Physics while Neal Burghardt was 1st in the entire Economics 1st year course.

BOP Sports Awards

This annual event featured  a considerable number of TBC pupils and ex-pupils

• Nominations in the Secondary Sports Team of the Year included both the TBC Sailing & Bowls teams

• In the Secondary Sportsman of the Year runner Michael Sutton was nominated while Thomas Saunders, our NZ champion sailor, won the title.

• Old Boys Brad Kendall (golf) & Sam Kane (rugby) were nominated as Junior Sportsmen of the Year.

• At Senior level Kane Williamson (cricket) & Tony Lochhead (football) were both nominated in the Sportsman of the Year category.

Old Boy Sport

• Dan Braid has just returned from the highly successful Grand Slam tour with the All Blacks and will now be preparing for the  2011 Rugby World Cup.

• Kane Williamson followed up his first ODI century earlier in the year with a magnificent 131 on debut in his first test against the Indians. He became only the 8th Kiwi to score 100 on debut and is the youngest to accomplish the feat.

• The TBC cricket programme has certainly produced some excellent talent recently as is evidenced by the BOP team which has contested the Fergus Hickey ND  competition. The BOP team to compete in this competition included 9 Old Boys -  Peter Drysdale ( younger brother of rower Mahe), Richard Rice, Brett Hampton, Dan Hill, Mitch McCann, Dane Sorrenson, Ben Christiansen, Matt Drake & Dale Swann.

• Olympic sailor Peter Burling has been competing in the first qualifying regatta for the 2012 Olympics. The 49er sailors finished 4th in a competition which included 17 of the top 20 competitors in the world and since then placed 2nd in the Australian championships.

• This week Kieran Muir  leads the BOP Golf team in defence of the Interprovincial teams title. He is joined by Brad Kendall who was at school in 2009.

TBC Sport

• The TBC Sailing team was one of the top 3 NZ schools competing against the top 3 Australian schools in the Interdominion championships. NZ were victorious with the TBC team 2nd to Kerikeri when lack of wind saw the last day of sailing canceled.

• A team of 9 Clay Target shooters headed to Christchurch for the National Secondary School Champs where they placed 3rd in the NZSS Postal Shoot & 5th in the NZSS Points Score Teams event. Individually Scott Verran was 1st  in both the South Island Single Barrel & SIngle Rise while he won the NZSS Single Rise, Brody Clark was 1st in the NZSS Single Barrel competition.

• The Motu Challenge Multisport event involves 170 km. of mountain biking, cross country running, road cycling & Kayaking in some of the most rugged conditions in the country. After trailing defending champions Hamilton BHS for most of the event TBC finally pulled ahead on the last kayak leg to win by 15 minutes in 7 hours and 48 minutes.

• The basketball team headed to Nationals in Palmerston North as the only BOP representative and were disappointed to place 19th out of the 24 teams competing.

• Jese Offner competed at the national Rockclimbing competitions and won both the national & Oceania titles in both the Difficulty & Speed sections. He was awarded the overall Oceania Champion title.

• The 1st Cricket XI has had a number of impressive individual & team performances. An early season fixture against Kelston BHS was won comfortably with Sean Davey most impressive in scoring 98 not out in a total of 261/8.  Gisborne BHS were beaten in a bowl off after rain interrupted the Gillette Cup qualifying fixture. Shaun McCarthy had scored 101 out of 205/8 but then with GBHS 69/1 rain intervened & the bowl off determined our continuing in the competition. Rotorua BHS were also defeated with McCarthy scoring 100 not out in a winning total of 225/1 chasing Rotorua's total of 224. He has since been named in the ND U 17 Indoor Cricket team. These team performances would have seen TBC qualify for the Gillette Cup finals in previous years but NZC has changed the rules & defeat at the hands of Hamilton BHS meant we will not contest the national title in 2010.

• Andrew Carter has been named in the NZ U 17 football squad while Dean Styles & Thomas Probert have been selected in the U15 team.

• Max Schroder, Joseph Winstanley, Burton McAdam & Tom Mabbot have all been picked to compete for NZ in beach volleyball in Australia in January.

• Year 10 Haydn Reardon competed in the surf ski Takapuna to Rangitoto return King of Rangitoto event and placed 3rd in the U 19 division.

• The Junior Waterpolo yeam got bronze at the North Island SS championships beating Auckland GS, Mt. Albert GS & Hamilton BHS along the way. Cameron Hayes was named as one of the outstanding players of the tournament.

• Ben Grindrod has been selected in the Junior Boys Squash team for the World Championships in South Korea in 2012.

• The Touch Super 8 competition was held in Gisborne. TBC won twice on Day 1 but then lost to National Champions Hamilton BHS in the semi-final before going down to Rotorua BHS 4-5 in the play-off for 3rd. RBHS had lost the national final in 2009 so this was a very good effort from our lads.

I hope you all enjoy a safe and Happy Christmas and that 2011 is a great one. If you are looking for a New Years resolution, how about checking out details on our website www.tbcoba.org.nz & becoming a financial member of the Old Boys Association to support your old school.......

All the best for now,

Rob Leslie