Dear all TBC Old Boys' Association members,
Term 3 is well under way and there has been a large amount of activity with the Old Boys since my last update. We have hosted functions prior to the very successful TBC show of Spamalot as well as in both Auckland and Wellington. As always it was good to catch up with some of you and especially good to see a number of new faces fronting up at these events.
Our Annual Dinner is fast approaching - Friday September 11th - at which Old Boy and Member of Parliament Todd Muller will be the Guest Speaker as we recognize Bill Holland as our Old Boy of the Year. Bill’s support of the school and the Tauranga community has been immense over a long period of time and this most fitting award has been recognized with his being awarded one of five Tindall Foundation awards for Outstanding Community Service. Bill’s leadership in driving the Acorn Foundation since 2003 has seen $200 million promised for philanthropic purposes to the Community for which he was recognized by the Governor General at Government House.
The Annual Winter Tournament week begins August 31st and as usual we have a significant number of students scattered around the country. The boys would appreciate your support if you are able to get along to see any of them.
1st XI Football - NZSS Championships in Nelson
1st XI Hockey - Rankin Cup in Auckland
2nd XI Hockey - Galletly Cup in Blenheim
U 15 Hockey - Tanner Cup at St. Pauls Collegiate, Hamilton
Under 15 Rugby - National Tournament in Dunedin
Under 14 Rugby - Colqohoun Tournament in Palmerston North
Senior Basketball - Regionals at Rotorua
Junior Basketball - NZSS Nationals at Rotorua
Indoor Bowls - NZSS Nationals in Wellington
Underwater Hockey - Senior & Junior Nationals at Henderson, Auckland
Cycling - NZSS Individual Champs in Auckland
Swimming - NZSS National Championships in Hamilton
STAFF NEWS
The TBC Staff will lose an Old Boy next term as Andy Turner heads south to Dunedin to take up the position of Deputy Rector at Otago BHS. Previous Deputy Principal Richard Hall went back to his old school as Rector last year and Andy’s departure continues the drift south. He will be a significant loss to TBC as he has been involved in coaching both the 2nd XV rugby and 2nd XI cricket as well as being second in charge of the English Department.
TBC ACADEMICS
University Results
Results have recently been released by Waikato University for their Stage 1 papers and 24 of our students have passed their courses. Our Academic Captain James Thwaite topped the whole University with an A+ in Economics and also got an A+ in Calculus while James Opie, Liam Ransley and Tyler White all had A+ grades in Statistics.
Otago University Maths Competition
A number of our Junior students sat this exam recently with considerable success. At Year 9 level Jason Hong was top student in the whole country while 3 others were placed in the top 100 competitors. At Year 10 level 3 students were also in the top 100 place getters.
TBC CULTURAL
Tama Tu Tour
A group of 28 students enjoyed the trip of a lifetime over the last holidays as they traced the steps of the 28th Maori Battalion through Crete, mainland Greece and Italy. All of the boys had ancestors who had been part of the Battalion and it was highly emotional for them as they found the graves of those who had given their lives for their country so far from home.
Super 8 Festival
The 8 Super 8 schools contested this year’s Arts Festival at Rotorua BHS and TBC were at the forefront of awards in many categories. In the Visual Arts our Junior entry Charlie Bell – Printmaking – and Senior entry Lino Ah-Honi - Painting – both were awarded top place. Scott Murray-Corrs was placed first in the Junior Solo Music and Anaru Palmer won the Junior Oratory section. Our Junior Theatre Sports team was also placed first. TBC also had placings in the Drama, Senior Music Solo, Senior Oratory and Senior Theatre Sports. Ten placings in the fourteen events contested was an excellent result for TBC.
Mooting
TBC entered a team in the Waikato Mooting competition and were awarded the prize for the top new school in the competition.
Speech Making
TBC’s student representative on the Board of Trustees Grahame Woods competed in the Lions Club Young Speechmaker competition. He performed to such a high level that he was automatically put through to the National Finals.
Manu Korero
At the recent Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools Manu Korero competition Hunter Eagle won the Junior English section.
Sheliah Winn Shakespeare Festival
After regional success in this event Peter Burman and Adam Herbert have been selected as 2 of the 48 students from around the country for the national Shakespeare Schools Production. From this group 24 will be selected to perform at the Globe Theatre in London later in the year.
Brass Band
Daniel Jeong recently returned from the NZ Brass Band Championships where he won the award for best Junior Euphonium player. This result meant he was in the competition for Champion of Champions where he was second meaning he is the second best Junior Brass player in the country.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Our 60 Form classes divided up into the 6 different houses ( Freyberg, Rutherford, Ngata, Ngarimu, Halberg & Hillary) compete against one another in a wide range of different ways. As part of Community Service the different Houses donated 140 banana boxes of food and bathroom products for the Tauranga Foodbank.
OLD BOYS ARTS
Old Boy poet Te Kahu Rolleston is off to Canada to participate in the Banff Centre Indigenous Writing Programme supported by Creative New Zealand. Te Kahu, of Ngai Te Rangi descent, has just completed a B.A. Honours degree at the University of Waikato double majoring in Maori and Pacific Development and Maori and Media Communications. He is the national spoken word champion and last year won the Aotearoa National Poetry Slam competition.
OLD BOYS SPORT
Rugby
TBC is well represented with 8 ex-1st XV players involved. They are Carl Axtens, Nick Evemy, Nathan Harris, Dan Hollinshead, Sam Kane, Aidan Ross, Jeff Thwaites and Te Aihe Toma. ,
Cricket
Kane Williamson has been named to Captain a depleted New Zealand Cricket team for their ODI & T20 matches in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He is one of the top ranked players on the New Zealand roster and now the contracted players for Northern Districts have been announced we have Joe Carter, Daniel Flynn, Brett Hampton and Bharat Popli all named as well.
Squash
Ben Grindrod has just competed in the North Island Championships here in Tauranga where he was a beaten semi- finalist.
Mountain Biking
Harrison Mudgway was at TBC last year and has just been selected in the Under 19 3 man New Zealand Cross Country team to compete in the World Championships that will be held in Andorra in September.
Canoe Slalom
Callum Gilbert has had his best result since joining the Senior ranks making the semi finals in the 3rd World Championship event in Slovenia. Olympian Mike Dawson did the same after earlier placing 9th overall in the 1st event in Prague. Ben Gibb also nearly made the semis finally placing 35th.
Yachting
Sam Meech has had his best result ever at the Laser World Championships in Canada coming 7th while Thomas Saunders was 27th.
Meanwhile in Denmark Jason Saunders along side Gemma Jones was 4th in the 2015 Nacra 17 mixed double hull event which will be sailed in the Olympics for the first time next year.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have just won the 49er regatta on the Olympic course in Rio.
Rowing
New Zealand rowers are competing in the European season in preparation fro the World Championships in France in August and in the most recent regatta at Rotsee secured 11 medals and were the best rowing nation. Mahe Drysdale was back to his best in winning the single scull while Adam Ling picked up a bronze medal in the lightweight single sculls.
Charlie Rogerson has competed in Australia at the Under 21 level placing 2nd in the pair and 1st in both the four and the eight while Jack Gilpin was part of the NZ University squad which won the trans-Tasman competition.
Hockey
National League squads have been named with 2 Old Boys picked to play. Ex-Blackstick Steve Graham is back playing competitively again and is Goal keeper for Midlands while Tom Lysaght has been picked up by Southern as one of their keepers. Our top player – Andy Hayward - continues to play League Hockey in England and will not return for the NHL.
Sidecar Racing
Robbie Shorter has fulfilled a long held dream of racing the legendary Isle of Man TT races. Riding the Carl Cox Motorsport F1 sidecar Robbie and driver Colin Buckley set a New Zealand record time averaging over 174 kph in competition moving up from 24th to 11th position. After the success this year plans are already being put in place for a return in 2016.
TBC SPORT
Squash
Our squash team has just competed in the Secondary School National Championships where they ended up losing to Westlake BHS in the final. TBC had been 3 times national champions but in a very tight final lost 2-3 to their northern rivals. Three of the team – Jamie Oakley, Alex Revington and Tyler Ranger – were named in the NZSS Squad who will contest the trans=Tasman series later in the year.
Volleyball
Over the last holidays several of our students have been in California representing New Zealand in international competition. Ryan Forlong, Daniel Kilpatrick and Luke Carter all competed in Under 19 beach volleyball competitions while Josh Dumper and Daniel Kilpatrick played for the New Zealand Junior volleyball side.
Hockey
The representative season has seen a number of our students selected to play for different rep sides. Denym Clarke, James Puchner and Wade Bennett were all members of the Midlands Under 18 side that came second in the national tournament. At the Under 15 level the Tauranga team of 16 includes 14 TBC players while the Development team at that level contains a further 6 TBC students. There were 45 Year 9 students sign up for hockey this year so the game is in good heart.
Rugby Tour
A group of 48 of our rugby players leaves for their tour to the United Kingdom shortly which will see the team watch the All Blacks play Georgia at the Millenium Stadiumon October 2nd in Cardiff as well as play matches against a number of schools.
The boys play several matches as outlined below and if you are keen for more information email Manager Ben Ormsby This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. nearer the time they are near you.
21/9/ Dulwich College , England 4.30 p.m.
23/9/ Cranbrook School, Kent
25/9/ Ballyclare HS, County Antrim 4 p.m.
28/9/ St Michaels College, Dublin
3/10/ Match near Cardiff
Wrestling
Alan Latham has won his grade at the NZSS Wrestling Championships and been selected in the New Zealand squad for the Down Under International Championships.
Underwater Hockey
TBC had both Junior and Senior teams at the northern zone Regional Qualifying Championships. The Juniors placed 2nd while the Seniors were 4th with recent Old Boys Ben Richards and Keegan Thompson helping with the coaching.
Cross Country
A clash with Senior assessment meant that our Seniors did not compete in the Waikato Cross Country teams championships however our younger runners performed strongly with the Juniors placing 1st and the Intermediate team picking up the bronze medal in their division.
That is all for now. It is always great to get your feedback and especially any news that you think may be interesting to our Old Boys. If you haven’t already done so check out TBC Old Boys on Facebook (over 1000 members) for more regular Old Boy news.
All the best till next time,
Rob Leslie.
