Hi all,

The months are flashing by and winter sports season is rapidly coming to a close. There will be 194 of our sportsmen at Winter Tournament this week, so check out here where you can get along to support our lads:

• 1st XI Football NZSS competition in Napier from September 2nd to 6th
• Under 15 Football Hillsdene competition in Tauranga from September 2nd to 5th
• 1st XI Hockey Rankin Cup in Christchurch from September 2nd to 7th
• 2nd XI Hockey Galletly Cup in Oamaru from September 2nd to 6th
• Under 15 Hockey Tanner Cup at St Pauls, Hamilton from September 1st to 4th
• Under 15 Rugby Invitational in Napier from September 2nd to 6th
• Under 14 Rugby Colquhoun in Palmerston North from September 2nd to 4th
• 1st XIII Rugby League in Papakura from September 2nd to 6th
• Basketball Senior A NZSS Premier Zone 2 tournament in Rotorua from September 4th-7th
• Basketball Senior B NZSS Schick Cup in North Shore from September 5th to 7th
• Basketball Junior A NZSS Premier Zone 2 in Rotorua from August 31st to September 3rd
• Underwater Hockey NZSS UWH in Wellington from September 4th to 8th
• Motocross NZSS Endure Cross Country in Palmerston North September 6th
• Climbing NZSS at Mount Maunganui September 2nd & 3rd
• Table Tennis NZSS at Memorial Hall, Tauranga from September 2nd to 4th
• Indoor Bowls NZSS Titahi Bay, Wellington from August 31st to September 1st

School Event - Gemming Turf Naming - Saturday 14th September

After signposting in the last newsletter that our hockey turf will be officially named to recognise the huge contribution of Gill Gemming to the TBC Hockey programme, and in memory of Logan, who died tragically at the start of the year, I can now provide more specific details of the plan.

Meet at the Turf at 10.30 a.m. on Saturday, September 14th for speeches before the official naming of the Gemming Turf and then a match featuring the 1st XI and the Old Boys. This will be followed by a BBQ with refreshments. If you would like to join us for this historic event please RSVP on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by September 7th.

Staff News

Things have changed in the School Office over the last while, with Lyn Cosgrove retiring from her Principal’s Assistant job at the end of Term 2. More recently, Sue Sowman has left after 33 years of service in the office – her sons Cam & Brad are both Old Boys of the College.

TBC Academic

Our Year 13 students who study university papers have recently had results with 16 different lads getting A passes. Top performances were achieved by Ben Kang who got A+s in Physics, Biology & Calculus, Quaid Forbes who had A+s in Biology and Legal Studies & Morgan Hatch A+s in Physics & Calculus.

Jialan Campbell-Luo has just been to the International Economics Olympiad held in St Petersburg, Russia.

Young Innovator Award

Year 9 student Christian Stark has been selected to compete in this 2019 competition with his “Kiwipeel “ which will cut kiwifruit more quickly, safer and easier than current utensils.

Mathsmind

Our Junior mathematicians just competed in the annual Mathsmind competition and made a clean sweep of the awards with shields won for Best Year 9 team, Best Year 10 Team and Best overall School.

Chess

The TBC team has recently competed in the BOP championships where they placed 2nd. MVP of the side was Mark Dela Rosa, who was unbeaten in all of his 6 matches.

TBC Sport

NEW ZEALAND REPRESENTATIVES

Students awarded their NZ Representative ties in assembly recently included Stan Rust and Harry Donald, selected in the Under 19 football side, and Tim Pringle who has just completed a tour to Australia with the NZ Under 19 cricket side. He has also been training with the Northern Districts Senior squad at the Bay Oval.

Squash

The NZSS National Teams Championships were recently held in Tauranga, with 32 boys teams competing. TBC A performed strongly and were beaten in the Final by Mt. Albert GS, having defeated Christchurch BHS in the Semi. The TBC B team were impressive too, gaining 6th place overall while A team stars Taylor Bettelheim & Joe Smythe were selected to represent New Zealand against Australia.

Surfing

The NZSS championships were held at Raglan recently in huge surf conditions. TBC gained 5th place in the teams event with best performer being Luke Griffin who was Under 18 champion as well as winning the prize for the best manoeuvre. Luke has already been picked to represent New Zealand in the World Junior Surf Championships later in the year.

Rugby

The 1st XVs season has been rejeuvenated in the past fortnight, with wins over Rotorua BHS (by first try after a 23 all draw) & New Plymouth BHS 15-9 to give them a place in the Top 4 in the country if victorious over Hamilton BHS this weekend. Earlier they had placed 5th in the Super 8 after wins over New Plymouth & Gisborne BHS. Team members selected to be in the Chiefs Under 18 training camp were Kaharoa Takuira-Mita, Melino Fotu, Josh Bartlett, Lucas Cashmore, Curtis Palmer & Veveni Lasaqa.

Table Tennis

Our school players have just competed in the BOP Championships and ended up team champions as well as the individual titles.

Basketball

Our team has just taken out the BOP Championships for the 2019 season. Landon Marks has been playing in the Under 15 Tauranga City rep team that came 4th at the Nationals and was named in the tournament team.

Cricket

A group of 17 of our cricketers completed the most ambitious tour the school has ever attempted last holidays, when they spent almost 3 weeks in the United Kingdom and Paris. The boys played a mix of formats in their 10 matches and managed 7 victories as well as seeing the Black Caps play England at Chester-le-Street in their worst performance of the Cricket World Cup. That disappointment was balanced by the excitement of watching the final in Trafalgar Square about 10 days later.

Judo

The National SS championships were held recently, with several TBC students to the fore. Joshua Preston won gold in the over 81kg and open events, Do Hoon Lee won gold in the under 50kg division, while Binew Illangamadige took bronze in the under 45kg event.

Football

Our 1st XI has been performing strongly through the season and won the Super 8 title for the first time since 2007 a couple of weeks back.

Hockey

The 1st XI contested the Gemming Cup in our annual quadrangular tournament early in the term and shared the trophy with Westlake BHS after drawing with them 2 all. Earlier beating Palmerston North BHS 4-2 & St Pauls Collegiate 6-0 meant the last match of the event was effectively a final. The 2nd XI won the Division 1 title -the Peter Stafford Cup- by beating Otumoetai College 3-1 in the final. This week the Colts team will contest the Division 2 title in the Final against Bethlehem College 2nd XI.

Clay Target Shooting

Our top shooters have recently competed in the South Island SS championships. Shaun Gwillim and Thomas Box were placed 3rd in the 2 person skeet team, while Thomas was 2nd in the single barrel competition.

Canoe Slalom

Oliver Puchner and Taylor Harris have both been in Europe in recent weeks where they competed in the Junior World Championships in Krakow, Poland.

Cross Fit

Year 13 student and 1st XI Hockey player Oli Rasmussen has shown his versatility in winning the New Zealand teens cross fit competition recently.

Underwater Hockey

Three TBC students have just competed at the World Championships in the New Zealand team, where they won the gold medal.

TBC Arts

Kapa Haka

The combined TBC/TGC group Te Tauranga o Nga Waka qualified to appear in next year's nationals in recent competition. Individual awards went to Poutiiao Pihama, who was 1st In Whaikorero and Te Kirirakau Blake was 2nd Kapa Haka leader. The group performed in assembly last week and the show was perhaps the best live performance I have seen in 40 years of TBC assemblies. They were superb!

Big Band

The TBC Big Band completed their first overseas tour since 2006 when they toured Australia in the last holidays. The band competed in an International Music Festival in Sydney, as well as participating in workshops and sightseeing.

Big Band 1 and Big Band 2, as well as a Guitar Ensemble, competed in the Hamilton Music Festival at the weekend, where both bands were awarded gold and the guitarists silver .

Hip Hop

Year 12 students Tai Hemana and Orinn Fairlie have both competed as part of a 9 man crew (Swagganauts) at an international competition in Arizona, where they won the gold medal. Both boys had been selected for this group after the success of the TBC group Apollo.

Film Making

Junior students Byron Bunning and Lucas Hearn took out the BOP Vista 48 Hours film award as Best Team with their film “Karma’s a Witch“

Old Boys Sport

Rugby

The representative season is underway and there are good numbers of TBC Old Boys displaying their talents at a higher level. The BOP Steamers have had a good start to the season and boast a TBC front row in Aidan Ross who is also captain, Nathan Harris and Jeff Thwaites. These 3 are joined by Aaron Carroll, Dan Hollinshead, Leroy Carter and Cole Forbes. As well as these 7 players Dan Ross (King Country) and Angus Lindsay (Mid Canterbury) will play in the Heartland Championship.

The BOP Development team has just been named, with Te Aihe Toma as captain joined by 2017 TBC #8 Gordie Lloyd and former captain Mungo Mason, who has returned from time in the Scottish sevens set up.

The Premier club championship in the BOP went to Te Puna over Tauranga Sports in their centennial season. There was a large former TBC contingent, from the coaches: Aidan Kuka, Lance MCDonald and Barry Ririnui, and then players: Hamish Boyce, Te Aihe Toma, Mitch Holton, Turoia Kuka, Pomare Pearson and Gordie Lloyd

2010 Cranbrook Gappie Ruaridh McConnochie  has made great strides with his rugby since playing fullback for Rangataua in his year at TBC. Most of his rugby has been in sevens with a silver medal at the Rio Olympics to show for his efforts. He switched back to the 15 man game with Bath about a year ago and has now been picked by Eddie Jones in the England squad for the Rugby World Cup.

The All Blacks season leading up to the Rugby World Cup has seen Old Boy Sam Cane lead the side for the 3rd time in the match against Argentina.

Surfing

Former NZ surf champion and TBC Old Boy Matt Hewitt features in a spectacular photo on the cover of the latest New Zealand Surfing magazine.

Cricket

The Cricket World Cup In England saw 2008 Head Prefect Kane Williamson provide further proof of his great skills in the 50 over format. Kane led New Zealand to the finaln which we lost in a thrilling final, after which he was named as Captain of the Tournament Team as well as Player of the Tournament.                                                                         

Sailing

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have been back in the 49er at the 2020 Olympic test event in Tokyo. The pair showed no ill effects after their time off with America’s Cup commitments as they won the event.

Old Boys Arts

Music

Last time I featured Regan Diggelman and David Morgan it was as members of the successful Melbourne-based group Bonjah. From performing the pair have moved on to promote the next generation of Australian music stars through their Lemon Tree Music company. Their stable of artists includes Tones and I and Tasha Sultana.

Art

Renowned artist Mr G (Graeme Hoete) has just unveiled his latest public work at the upgraded Tauranga Airport. It is a portrait of aviation pioneer Oscar Garden, who was the first New Zealander to fly from England to Australia in 1930.

Movie Making

The Eryn Wilson directed movie Dog’s Best Friend has been one of the films featured at the 2019 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.

Military

Old Boy Major Bevan Elmiger has been recognised by the NZ Defence Force for his outstanding contribution to New Zealand’s training mission in Afghanistan. He received a Chief of Defence Force Commendation for his role as a key member of a multinational mentoring effort at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy near Kabul. The Academy is considered the premier officer training establishment developing junior leaders and has trained more than 4,200 Afghan Army officer cadets since 2013.

Parliament

Last year’s Head Prefect Anaru Palmer has just been one of 120 young Kiwis to be part of the 2019 Youth Parliament. MP Anne Tolley had selected Anaru to represent the East Coast as part of this unique experience.

Hope the remaining months of the year go well for you as another year rapidly comes to a close.

Kind regards,

Rob Leslie