The team started the 2021 season off well with a pre-season tournament in Timaru in the April holidays.

We had a range of ages in the team, with three new players all being Year 9. Additionally we had two new coaches, Nick and Hamish Findlay, who were ex-Burnside High players themselves. With the new team we didn’t know what to expect in the five games in Timaru. After a slow start in our first game against John McGlashan College, the team picked it up and won the second match against Shirley Boys High. We finished the pre-season tournament with two very close losses against Otago Boys’ High and Timaru Boys’ High, and got another win against Southland Boys High.

Now coming into the season we wanted to improve on our good start and bring it into the Christchurch SSP competition. During the season we competed well against all the teams in the competition and had very close games, with a 4-3 loss to the winners of the competition, Christ’s College. Our only win of the season came from a close game against Shirley Boys High.

The team was really looking forward to going away to the Rankin/India tournament in North Harbour late August, but unfortunately the tournament was cancelled the week before due to Covid. The team finished the year off with a final game against a team of past Burnside High 1st XI players.

We also want to thank Murray Connor for helping us improve our basic skills massively by having an extra weekly training focused on this aspect.

Finally a big thanks to all the parents and supporters who were able to come down and watch us play, and also help fundraise for the season.

Matthew Wilson

Captain