Hi all,
This update was written before the tragic events that occurred in Christchurch last week. On behalf of the Old Boys Committee and all TBC Old Boys we stand together with our southern neighbours and fellow New Zealanders. We are united irrespective of religion or race and will never tolerate the kind of hate that led to last week's atrocity.
The TBC Old Boys Committee has met for the first time in 2019 and is looking to build on the great efforts made in supporting the College last year. Initiatives such as:
- providing 60 iPads for the use of disadvantaged students at TBC, which is now a Bring Your Own Device school,
- providing funding for the Leavers Lunch for Year 13 students,
- assisting to finance a number of trips, items of school uniform and lunches
This support has helped provide a more positive school experience for some of our young men. The committee this year is:
President: David Altena
Secretary: Caleb Standen
Treasurer: Nigel Lowe
Other committee members: Robert Mangan (Principal), Rob Leslie (Staff Representative), Alan Neilson, Rawiri Walker, Ben Rickard, Wayne Brill, Richard Craven, Kerry Ross
Message from the President
I too wish to express my solidarity with the people of Christchurch and in particular the muslim community so deeply affected by last week's attack. On behalf of the Old Boys' Committee and I'm sure I speak on behalf of all Old Boys' when I say that the values we learned through our time at TBC stand on the side of tolerance and love for our fellow New Zealanders, and all people, regardless of race or religion.
Here we are in March and I’m finding myself resisting the urge (finally) of saying "happy new year" to those people I haven't caught up with so far this year. Yes, another year is going by very quickly already!
I've actually felt like that since I was appointed to the role of President back in August last year, immediately followed with the 60th Jubilee, then the run in to Christmas/New Year and now here we are.
We have started the year as a committee asking the question of ourselves "what are our members looking for from the Old Boys' Association?"
When you step back and look at it our membership consists of a wide range of men. We're talking 16-years old right up to around 80 and we fully appreciate across these age brackets reasons for membership will differ greatly.
In the next month to 6-weeks we will be asking this question of members by way of a short survey. This will cover how you like to receive information about the work the Association is doing, social invites, updates on school events and news, Old Boys' achievements and some other things. We will also provide an update on planned events for the year, specifically the annual Old Boys' Dinner.
I'm certainly very happy to hear from any of you if you have ideas or are looking at how you can work with the Old Boys' Association. Please feel free to email me or the committee directly - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Best wishes,
David Altena
Staffing
Logan Gemming
The College Community was shocked by the tragic death of Old Boy and staff member Logan Gemming in a kitesurfing accident at Ferguson Park on January 20th. After an impressive College career Logan had returned to TBC as a staff member teaching PE, outdoor education as well as being a Dean and making a huge contribution to the TBC hockey programme through the years as 1st XI coach and manager. The measure of Logan’s contribution to the school was the huge turnout at his funeral held in the College gymnasium. Footage of the funeral can be seen on the TBC Old Boys Facebook page.
Other Staff News
After more than 25 years on the TBC Staff Gary Patterson retired at the end of last year. As well as being Head of the humanities department Gary made a large contribution to rugby at the school and served as Staff Representative on the Board of Trustees for a decade.
Staff members returning from time overseas this year are Mike Guttormson, who has just finished 7 years teaching maths in the United Arab Emirates and Andrew Frederickson back teaching science after two years in Rarotonga
There are three Old Boys who have been appointed to the staff for 2019. Shaun McRoberts takes up a position in the english department having lived in Japan for the last 3 years. Paora Ranui worked at the school as a reliever last year and now takes up a position in the food tech department, while 2012 Head Prefect Hautapu Baker will be working in the Aronui having completed his masters degree in indigenous studies.
Academic Success
Scholarship Results
TBC continued to dominate the scholarship results in the Bay of Plenty in 2018. 21 students gained a total of 31 scholarship passes and 6 outstanding scholarships across 10 different subjects. Of those 21 students 5 were Year 12 students. One of those, Morgan Hatch gained 4 scholarships and at our scholarship assembly was awarded the Garth Sim Memorial Scholarship awarded to the top Year 12 student for his university studies.
School Leaders
Thirty prefects for 2019 have been named with the following selected in leadership positions:
Head Prefect: Jack MacManaway
Deputy Head Prefect: Ryan Bossellman
Academic Captain: Josh Tisch
Sports Captain: Quaid Forbes
Arts Captain: James Power
OLD BOYS SPORT
Cricket
Kane Williamson’s test team has continued to perform well with series victories over Pakistan and Sri Lanka this season to boost their ranking to second in the world.The final tests of the summer will see them take on Bangladesh. Their biggest major trial before the ODI World Cup in England in June/July saw them outplayed by favourites India. Kane, along with Tom Latham & Henry Nicholls have been selected in the 2018 test team of the year.
Two more Old Boys have debuted for their new major Association teams this year. Both sought more opportunity several Black Caps have moved to the Bay of Plenty with Tommy Clout making his first class debut (player # 600) for Otago and Tom MacRury playing Supersmash T20 for Canterbury.
Former 1st XI player Ben Rapson has played club cricket in Christchurch for a long time and this year, after having a player/coach role at the Riccarton club, has been appointed coach of the Canterbury Magicians side.
EVENT: Two teams of Old Boys battled away using a 25 over format last month at Neil Craig’s lovely private ground out at Matapihi. The closely contested match came down to the last ball where Neil Howard needed to score 2 to win but was run out going for the second to make the result a tie on 154 runs each. Features of the occasion were the great work by Graham Young and Max Heimann on the BBQ and the fact that there were 5 of my 1st XI of 1979 (Peter White, Colin Reilly, Tim Blake, Rhys Heagren & Paul Kane) in attendance.
Canoe Slalom
New Zealand’s greatest male canoe slalom exponent Mike Dawson has decided to retire from international competition after 15 years including 2 Olympics and 11 World Championships. He will continue to explore the more remote parts of the world and this will begin with his involvement with an Antarctic Heritage Trust trip to Antarctica, which will include Sir Edmund Hillary’s grandson.
Meanwhile Canoe Slalom New Zealand has announced its teams for 2019 which includes a number of Old Boys:
Senior: Ben Gibb, Patrick Washer, Callum Gilbert
Under 23: Patrick Washer, Stewart Bloor, Callum Gilbert, Jack Dangen
Sailing
Sam Meech recently gained a silver medal in the 2019 Hempel World Cup Series Laser class in Miami.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have announced they will contest the 49er class at the Tokyo Olympics while looking to advance their America’s Cup campaign.
Jason Saunders/ Gemma Jones have just competed in the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta, placing first in the Nacra 17 class with Trent Rippey & his partner coming 3rd.
Rugby Sevens
Te Puna Rugby Club won the BOP Premier Men’s Division in November, which qualified them for the just completed National Club Sevens. The side was coached by Lance McDonald, Hamish Boyce & Barry Ririnui and performed strongly to place 3rd in New Zealand. Old Boys in the team were Te Aihe Toma, Will Ngatai, Gordie Lloyd, Josh Honey and Sonny Hirini.
2013 Head Prefect of Mungo Mason has been included in the Scotland 7s squad for 2019 after playing Major League Rugby for San Diego Legion in the USA.
Strongman World Champs
Old Boy Marc Thomas is a Royal New Zealand Navy fitness instructor and will compete in the lightweight (80 kg) Strongman World Championships in the United States against 30 other contestants. After school Marc studied sport and recreation at the BOP Polytechnic before joining the Air Force. From there he transferred to the HMS Canterbury as a fitness trainer.
Lawn Bowls
Alex Reed has continued to be very active in bowls tournaments around the country since he left school, with his improvement recognised by his selection in the New Zealand Development Squad.
Mountain Biking
Tristan Haycock continues to be in the top 5 Under 23 long distance riders in the world, but in recent times he has worked hard to develop other riders in the local area. He has begun a Mountain Bike Youth Academy where he coaches some 70 local athletes while studying sport and recreation at the BOP Polytechnic.
Rugby
Old Boys Leroy Carter and Cole Forbes have just been selected in a 50 man squad for the final trial to select the New Zealand Under 20 team for the Under 20 World Championships later in the year in Argentina.
Old Boys Academic
2017 student Kieren Lander has just completed the first year of a Bachelor of Product Design in Applied Immersive Game Design at the University of Canterbury. He has been successful in being awarded the Omokoroa & Districts Pakeke Lions Club Scholarship of $1,500 to assist with a year of tertiary education.
Old Boys Arts
Television
1984 Head Prefect Erik Thomson was back in New Zealand in December for the filming of a 6 part mini-series of Eleanor Catton’s 2013 Man Booker winning book “The Luminaries”. Erik will play Dick Manning in the show, which will screen on TV1 & BBC2 later in the year.
On Stage
The Civic Theatre in Auckland has featured the spectacular musical “Aladdin” and Old Boy Adam Murphy has played the role of Jafar in the show, which has played from January 3rd to March 3rd.
Art Exhibition
The Underwater Collective (which features Old Boys Glen Leslie & Jared Benfell) have collaborated in another show of their paintings that opened at Flamingosaurus Rex, Bruntsfield Place in Edinburgh last week. The show “ Country Punching Bag” will feature 20 something new works and lasts till the end of the month.
TBC Sport
Cricket
A number of our players have been involved in their sport above club level through the last couple of months. Success for Tim Pringle and Ben Pomare for Northern Districts has resulted in their selection in the New Zealand Under 19 team, which will tour Bangladesh in April. Pringle and Niven Dovey have both competed in the National Under 17 tournament for Northern Districts.
Summer Super 8
Volleyball
TBC dominance of the Super 8 volleyball competition continued this year with our side losing just the one set as they marched to the winning of the Super 8 shield. TBC has won this title every year since 2005!
Tennis
Our tennis team had a big clean out of senior players last year, so coach Wayne Merritt was not expecting a great tournament as the replacements for 2019 are only Year 9 or 10 players. The team performed well to qualify for the top 4 but lost the semifinal against Hamilton BHS before taking sweet revenge against the Hamish Forbes coached Palmerston North BHS in beating them 4-0 to take a very creditable 3rd place.
Cricket
TBC hosted the tournament this year and went through pool play top qualifier beating Napier BHS, Palmerston North BHS & Gisborne BHS. After a great start to the tournament TBC were outplayed by Hamilton BHS in the final, who won the Shield for the 7th successive time. Impressive individual performances were completed by Tim Pringle (101*) and Niven Dovey (84) while Rhys Donaghy (4/19) and Josh Bartlett (4/7) had top bowling figures.
Golf
This competition was hosted by Napier BHS with the format being teams of 4 with best 3 scores counting. The A team competition was gross scores while the B teams played stableford. Conditions were not the best with wind and rain early in the tournament but that improved for finals day when the A team came third and the B team 4th despite being down to only 2 players! Best player for TBC was Dohyun Lee with a 75 while Jake Broadmore was the top individual in the B team competition with 47 stableford points from a round of 84.
Canoe Slalom
The TBC programme continues to turn out top class performers and the recent announcement of the New Zealand team sees Oliver Puchner and Charlie Bell both selected for the Junior World Championships.
Surf Lifesaving
The Mount Monster is a 24.5 km test of a wide range of surf skills requiring competitors to run, swim, ski and board around the Main Beach area. 2018 Year 13 student Declan Dempster became the youngest ever winner of the event held in December.
As always it would be great to have readers provide extra information for later editions.in the year. Please email me on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Kind Regards,
Rob Leslie
