Another extremely successful day with glorious weather for the sports followed by a record number along for the dinner in the evening. The boys were more competitive on the field this year with the hockey 1st XI victorious 6-4 and the basketballers also winning 78-71. The Old Boys won though with victories in volleyball (2-1), rugby (46-24) and football (7-5).

Record numbers at the Annual Dinner saw businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist Tom Roper recognized as our Old Boy of the Year.  Royce Willis entertained the large crowd with his story from TBC to All Black and then Japan before coming back to his home town as a physiotherapist. The large numbers ensured a healthy profit which will be invested back into the school. 

 

I will be in Wellington with a group of Year 10 students the first week of December and will continue with the successful get togethers held there over the last 3 years.  I will have the first drink and some finger food for any Old Boys who are able to join me at the Blend Bar, 122 Wakefield Street for a catch up about what has been going on at TBC this year. I look forward to seeing you there   ………. 

Our rugby and squash/tennis groups are leaving for tours to the United Kingdom and California respectively in the next few days and would appreciate your support if you are anywhere near where they are playing. Check out the following itineraries ……..

 

September 29th @ 2 p.m.  v Cranbrook School @ Cranbrook, Kent

October 1st        @ 7.30 p.m.   v Hampton  School , London

October 3rd       @ 3.30 p.m.  v Morgannwg  @ Cardiff Arms Park

October 5th       @ 7.30 p.m.  v Bridgend College @ Brewery Field, Bridgend

 

September 27th @ San Francisco Club  Squash from 9 p.m. / Tennis from 2 p.m.

September 29th @ Bay Club Santa Clara (formerly Santa Clara Decathlon Club)

October 2nd @ Santa Barbara Club v SB High School @ 3 p.m.

October 6th @ LA Athletics Club 431 W 7th ST., L.A. @ 2 p.m.

 

Large numbers of our students scattered around the country to compete in a range of sports the first week of September …

 

The team had a very successful tournament coming 6th in the country with a highlight being the defeat of MAGS for the first time in many years. Youngsters Dylan Morris and Luke Johnston have been selected in the NZ Under 15 team.  Since tournament, the side has won the Waikato/BOP Federation  League 2 competition.

 

As defending champions the team of 2013 performed extremely well beating Palmerston North BHS 5-0 in the semi-final and then accounting for Westlake BHS 3-1 in the final. 

As a result of this superb performance Josh Oakley was picked in the Senior Trans-Tasman team while Alex Revington and Jamie Oakley were selected for the Junior Trans-Tasman team.

 

The 1st XI travelled to Wellington for the Rankin Cup and placed 9th with a 5 win, 1 loss record. The loss came to eventual runners-up Westlake BHS in pool play but the team placed 3rd on goal difference & so the best they could do was 9th despite beating Wellington College who came 4th. 

The 2nd XI only lost one match at the Woolaston Trophy where they took on 14 other 1st XIs and ended up placing 3rd after losing to Pakuranga College in the semi-final.

Our Under 15 team headed to Tanner Cup in Hamilton to compete against 11 other sides from throughout the country & despite a number of our best players being with the 2nds they came 6th.

 

The surf team was also national champion in 2012 but this year ended up 3rd at the competition in Raglan.  Best performer was Taine Craig-Ranga who placed 3rd in the Under 14 division.  Jordan Griffin was also a member of the side and is off to compete in the World Longboard Championships in Peru later this year.

 

The team finished 3rd at the Templeton Course near Christchurch with Charlie Hillier being the overall individual winner in the whole contest.

 

Josh Saywell completed an impressive double by winning the NZSS singles championships and then pairing up with Nash Smith to claim the doubles title as well.

 

The Under 14 team ended up winning the Colquhoun Trophy at their tournament in Palmerston North despite losing one game to Hastings BHS 15-16. The Under 15s had differing fortunes at their tournament in Auckland where a last match win allowed them to avoid the wooden spoon.

 

TBC Rowers performed strongly at the recent BOP Rowing Association competitions. Relay teams won trophies in 4 different grades including the Under 15, Under 15 novices, Under 17 and Under 17 novices.

Our cyclists recently competed in the NZSS Championships and the Under 15 team placed 3rd. Theo Wright was top performer winning the Under 15 Hill Climb title. Theo’s excellent performances have seen him selected in the NZ U 17 Development Road Cycling Squad.

A team has been selected to compete in the Under 19 World White water rafting championships that features largely TBC pupils. The team is coached by Old Boys Rob & Ray Sperling and includes Pat Washer, Dan Munro, Luke Robinson & Jack Dustin and also Old Boys Andre Sperling and Cole O’Connor-Stratton.

The season ended with several of our runners competing in the North Island Relay Championships. Daniel Hintz, Luke Bradshaw and Haydn Reardon joined others from the Waikato/BOP region to come second in both the Senior and Intermediate races.

Mitchell Bodnar has been selected in the New Zealand Under 20 Indoor Cricket team.

Both the Senior A and Junior A sides won their respective BOP titles. The seniors compete in nationals the first week of the coming holidays.

Students who have achieved Excellence in any of their Internal Standards have been recognized in school assemblies.  Around 375 boys have achieved this in 1 or more subjects and hopefully the good work will continue come exams in November.

Our Year 10 team has just competed in the Bay of Plenty Championships and claimed the title from schools participating.

TBC students produced some excellent work in this regular competition with Alexander Blakeway gaining 1st place in the Junior Secondary Technology competition and TBC also placed 2nd. In the Senior Secondary Science competition Devon Whitmore placed 3rd.

Finals night for our annual speech competitions was held last week in the Graham Young Youth Theatre with a very high standard making the job of the judges a difficult one.  Elijah Taula was first in the Junior division while in the Seniors Brad Hemingway took out the title.

Aljezeera journalist and Old Boy Wayne Hay was in the news recently as he was on assignment in Cairo and ended up spending a number of days in jail, courtesy of the local authorities. Before taking on the Asian-based role Wayne worked on the TV 1 Sports Desk.  Wayne has since been released.

The men’s national cross country championships have recently been held in Hamilton with a number of Old Boys performing. Best result was that of Glenn Hughes who was 7th followed by Kyle McDonald (14th), Iain McDonald(26th) and Angus Bell (28th).

Jamie Fitzgerald & Kevin Biggar have followed up their latest TV series outlining early New Zealand explorations by publishing a book of the series …..

Shane Cortese and Erik Thompson are back on our screens in their respective TV dramas.  Shane is back as Mac in Nothing Trivial while the popular Packed to the Rafters has just begun its final series with Erik starring as family patriarch Dave Rafter.  Meanwhile Blair Cashmore, who is an auctioneer with the Tauranga Bayley’s real estate office, will make his TV debut by auctioning off one of the four houses from the television series The Block. 

Old Boy Ryan Nicholas, who left New Zealand to pursue a career in Japan after a successful time with the Highlanders, has just become the first player in the Japanese Rugby top league to total 1000 points. Ryan has played for the Suntory Sungoliaths for 8 years and represented Japan at the last Rugby World Cup.

Olympic silver medalist Peter Burling has recently competed against 9 other teams in the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in San Francisco.  His team was victorious with the AC 45 crew including other TBC Old Boys including Jason Saunders and Sam Meech. Burling is now in the United Kingdom and back with team-mate Blair Tuke to try and win the 49er World Championships. 

Kane Williamson has just signed up with the Yorkshire County as their overseas professional for the 2014 season. He has been there on a short term contract for the last few weeks scoring 388 runs at an average of 48.5 in preparation for the Bangladesh tour which begins shortly. 
 

 

That’s it for this term. As per usual thanks to those who have passed on news for me to publish. I have added a number of  new emails to the database in the last couple of months but would really appreciate it if you have sons, brothers, fathers or uncles who are TBC Old Boys and who you don’t think are on my lists please pass on those details.

 

All the best for now,

Rob Leslie