Here is the latest news about what has been happening around TBC and with our Old Boys around the world.
Old Boys Events
2017 Dinner
The dinner for 2017 has been set for Friday, September 22nd – further details to follow but get the date cleared! We have 1979 Head Prefect and Rhodes Scholar Rod Gover (1975-9) lined up as our Old Boy of the Year. Since completing his University work Rod has continued a distinguished career in academia as Professor of Mathematics at Auckland University. Guest Speaker is Shayne Currie (1984-88) who is currently Editor of the award winning New Zealand Herald. It would be superb to have a good turn out again, with those from the years around our special guests particularly welcome ….. Get a table of 10 organised now.
Sports Day
The same day as the dinner (Friday, September 22nd) the Old Boys are to test their skills against todays sportsmen in Rugby, Football & Hockey. For the Rugby boys this match will be a good shake down before they head off on their tour. Matches will start about 3 p.m. so dust off those boots & start your weekend early !!!
Staff News
There have been several changes of staff for the second half of the year.
Gary Carpenter (late 70s - early 1980s) has been a long standing member of staff responsible for all of the IT for many years. As of Term 3 there has been an outside contractor involved in providing our IT services.
Regan Ward taught Science at school some years ago and returns to the staff after teaching in Singapore for a number of years.
Steve Honey ( a relatively recent member of both the 1st XV and 1st XI cricket) has joined the staff as a Teacher Aide and to help out at the Activity Centre.
Garth (G.I.N.) Sim, who was the second Principal of Tauranga Boys’ College from 1959-1966, passed away in his 103rd year . Garth instilled a sense of academic achievement and school pride in the new College and was the first Head in New Zealand to employ a permanent Guidance Counsellor. Garth maintained a keen interest in the school until the end and his influence on a significant number of Tauranga’s young men was immense.
Scholarships
Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology (formerly the BOP Polytechnic) has announced a number of elite Sports Scholarships several of which have gone to TBC Old Boys. Overseeing the programme is another Old Boy Mike Dudson with our recipients being Keegan Wiltshier (golf), Tristan Haycock (endurance Mountain biking) and Ethan Holman (athletics).
TBC Sport
Rugby
The rugby season is now half done and the 1st XV has had an improved season over previous years winning 3 successive games in the Super 8 for the first time in some years- victories over Napier BHS, Palmerston North BHS & New Plymouth BHS. The sport is in good heart with 14 teams put out each Saturday.
Leroy Carter has been named as part of the NZSS Rugby 7s team.
Football
The 1st's had a good run in qualifying for the top NZSS competition with 4 wins and a solitary loss to Hamilton BHS. Hamilton were again the nemesis at Super 8 where after pool game wins against Hastings, Rotorua and Palmerston North Hamilton BHS beat us 1-2 in the semi-final and we eventually placed 3rd.
Hockey
We have put out 9 teams for the first time ever in 2017 and with Old Boys Steve Graham and Logan Gemming coaching the 1st's have been showing some good form. Victories have been achieved against St Pauls and Westlake BHS in traditional fixtures while in the local Men’s competition the team emerged winners against the Mount in the 1st round of the competition.
Golf
Our team has qualified for Nationals again in 2017 after winning the local Bay of Plenty championships.
Motocross
TBC riders have been competing in a variety of competitions in Tauranga and Rotorua preparing for the NZSS events during the holidays. Most notable performer was Madoc Dixon who won the North Island Championships in the 12-16 85cc class.
Basketball
Tyzak Rhind has been selected in the NZ Baketball Association’s Under 14 team to play in Las Vegas in July.
Underwater Hockey
The TBC Senior team emulated the Juniors in getting the gold medal at the Northern Regional competition last month. That means both teams have the opportunity to emulate last years effort of becoming top school in the country again this year. Guy Roberts has been selected in the NZ Under 19 Men’s team.
Swimming
Tarquin Magner has won gold as Bay of Plenty Swim Champion at the recent championships held in Taupo. He was named overall best Junior swimmer in the Bay of Plenty.
Canoe Slalom
3 TBC students have joined a number of Old Boys competing at the under 18 ICF World Championships in Slovakia – good luck to Damien Torwick, Josh Bell and Stewart Bloor.
A number of students have been selected in the Under 18 Development squad – Charlie Bell, Hugh Canham, Kieren Washer and Cameron Black.
Officiating
Year 13 Jared Lamberth has been officiating on the football fields of Tauranga for a number of years. His efforts have been rewarded recently as he went to Canberra to referee at the Kanga Cup which is an international tournament hosting Under 9 to Under 18 teams from Australia, South Korea as well as New Zealand.
Karate
Ashton Carter won the Auckland Secondary Schools Kata Division having previously enjoyed success at the Australian National Championships. He is hoping to gain selection in the 9th Commonwealth Karate Champs in Durban later this month.
Biking
Jack Wilson has been named in the New Zealand Under 19 Mountain biking team.
Fergus Hamilton and Matthew Lochhead have been selected in the NZ Cycling Development Squad.
TBC Arts
Super 8
The Super 8 Cultural Festival was held at Rotorua in the past term. TBC performed well with a number of first placings. Group Music where the Jazz Combo Mason Jar beat out the opposition. Fletcher Oxford won the Senior Solo Music and we also won the Senior Theatre Sports and Junior Oratory (Mitchell Sigley). Second place was secured in Senior Oratory ( Fletcher Oxford) and then third places in Senior Debating and Drama.
Smokefree Rockquest
Talented Fletcher Oxford has also excelled in the Smokefree Rockquest winning the solo/duo category in the Bay of Plenty section. He played his own composition called “Down the Line “ and will contest the national title later in the year.
Television
Year 9 student Braden Smith has secured a lead role in an upcoming TV mini-drama series. It will screen on What Now and the show is called Mysteryville.
Production
The 2017 show of Peter Pan played to full houses through most of its week long season in the Graham Young Youth Theatre. The annual shows give large numbers of our students the opportunity to work on their acting skills as well as in a wide range of back stage work including the band.
Old Boys Sports
America’s Cup
Sporting highlight for many in recent weeks will have been the winning of the America’s Cup where Peter Burling showed his star class as skipper. Also on the team around 15 years has been Structural Engineer Andy Kensington - interesting to read in his enrolment notes in 1983 that he “lives for sailing”. A third TBC Old Boy in Greg Horton (Dux in 1987) has been one of the Directors of the America’s Cup team which gave us 3 Old Boys in this very successful campaign.
Rugby
The Lions have come and gone and it was great to see Old Boys Sam Cane and Nathan Harris both in action against them. Jarrad Hoeata has returned from 3 years playing for the Cardiff Blues in Wales. He has played a few games in North Harbour club rugby & will turn out for North Harbour in the ITM Cup rugby competition starting soon.
Cricket
New Zealand’s ICC Trophy campaign ended at the pool stage unfortunately. Skipper Kane Williamson did his part though being 7th highest run scorer despite only batting 3 times (244 runs) with the 4th highest average of 81.33.
Football
The New Zealand Confederations Cup campaign was highlighted by some good performances from TBC Old Boy Ryan Thomas in the All White midfield. At 22 he is in his fourth year with Dutch side PEC Zwolle.
Golf
Kieran Muir has been raising funds to cover the costs for his effort to make the European tour – he is going to Q-school for the second time.
Canoe Slalom
Mike Dawson has enjoyed a successful summer in Europe winning gold at the ICF World Cup Canoe Slalom event in Prague and backed that up with bronze in the extreme event in Germany. Presently the World Under 23 Championships are underway in Slovakia with Old Boys Callum Gibb, Patrick Washer, James Thwaite and Alex Hawthorne all performing.
Sidecar Racing
Robbie Shorter has been competing in the FIM Sidecar World championships in Europe recently for the Remse Racing team from Slovenia. In Germany in May they qualified 11th and placed 9th and 11th in the two races. In June it was Hungary where they qualified 10th and then placed 7th in both races. They are currently 8th in the standings before heading back to Holland later this month.
Old Boys Arts
The Media
The New Zealand Herald featured prominently in the NZME Canon Media awards with the paper winning the publication of the year under the editorship of Shayne Currie while Jared Savage won the Feature Writing award in the Crime & Justice category.
I trust the inclement weather of the recent past has not impacted on you too much. As usual if there is news that you think I should feature in my next update please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Kind Regards,
Rob Leslie.
