This year's team was ably coached by parent, Mike Rakowitz, and Sam Bennett, with the help of Physio parent, Sean Wilson and Mr Christeller as Manager.

After finishing 2nd in the CPL last year, the Hockey Boys 1st XI came into this year's season with high expectations. With the loss of crucial members from last year's team, the boys took a while to adjust and suffered several shock losses during the Christchurch Championship. This resulted in a far from desired placement coming the end of the season. 

We then turned our focus to Rankin Cup where we faced a death pool including STAC, Napier Boys High and Hamilton Boys High. Finishing 4th in our pool we came up against Lindisfarne in a do-or-die match where the loser would most likely be relegated. After starting slow and going down 2-1 at half time, the boys had a chat and looked to improve in the second half. Lindisfarne opened the scoring of the second half and looked to stay on top for the rest of the game. With 8 minutes to go, the boys turned on the burners and scored a quick 2 goals, followed by another Lindisfarne goal leaving the scoreline at 4-3. The dying seconds of the match saw a clutch final-ditch effort take place in which a penalty corner was rewarded. From this a stroke was earned and our skipper slotted it in the bottom corner leaving the full time score 4-4. The game was then sent to extra time and after the full 10 minutes both teams were yet to find the net. This was followed by a shootout where the boys took the cake after a 4-3 win in sudden death, securing the comeback of the century.

 A big thanks to our coaches Mike and Sam, our manager Mr Christeller, our physio Sean and our token mother Hilary. The season wouldn’t have been such a success without you.

Flynn Marshall