Bloody Marvellous! And so begins the planning conversation with Nick Terry (Custom Fencing) for the inaugural FCANZ NZ Secondary Schools Fencing Competition.

It takes a village to enter a fencing competition and we feel it's a city to actually run one. The eyelashes get a workout as Team Leader (Sarah Foley-Smith -Geraldine High School Primary Industry Academy PIA) begins the quest for materials. It was a stroke of luck that on visiting Andy at Point Lumber to show a copy of the last Wired edition that he offered all the posts for this competition and an unsuspecting contractor who was fortunate enough to happen to be at Point Lumber at the time of our visit found himself at Geraldine excavating our competition lines for us the next day - high 5 Jamie Wratt Fencing!

Back in the day, watching the 2023 Golden Pliers Final in Hamilton and the Bouskill Royalty in action, Team Leader had a light bulb moment: “Let's do a school kids competition”. So, PIA is universally known as being very very good at making stuff happen and 2023 started a storm. We found another gear, forcefully made a few friends and hit the ground running.

The end result was a bit of a stitch-up with the Team Leader promoting the competition to her class as a great way to get experience, to trial our competition in front of all the posh contractors and industry reps, and to troubleshoot & change as needed - kind of a final run through before launch, no stress. Students clamboured for a spot and 7 teams were duly entered. A bright spark noticed on the FCANZ page that our competition was called the NZ Secondary Schools' competition. Hmmm a bit more posh than we anticipated and we all enjoyed some team bonding in a kind of caught in the headlights moment.

“We’ve got this!”, Team Leader declares - she has worked long and hard to instil an appropriate amount of fear in her students and no one is brave enough to speak up! 5 of the 7 teams now have 10 days to learn how to competition fence. We have a joyous fortnight of lunchtime, class time and after-school fencing; fortunately, it is no longer dark at 5pm. The mighty ranger gets a workout dropping students home and it has rained so last year's class G.O.A.T in the form of Quinn Foley-Smith is able to help with valuable coaching.

We have 14 teams from GHS, MacKenzie College, Rangiora High School and Akaroa Area School entered, specifications have been checked by our posh people at FCANZ, and materials sorted: Massive thankyou to Point Lumber, Strainrite, Bayonet, Gallagher, Stockade, Farmlands & Terrain Northland.

Nick Terry enjoys being on standby for a raft of questions from Team Leader which could be interpreted as casting doubt on a male’s organisational ability! He upgrades his mobile plan.

How to fit gear for 7 teams on the trailer? Including 7 wheelbarrows, 10 Jennys, the intermediate posts and extra sets of everything for other schools. Every strop in Geraldine has been used and the end result produces the feeling that if fencing doesn’t work out we could venture into transport - it’s good to have options.

There is a lot of pressure for this competition to run smoothly and for the GHS students to see how they go up against their peers. We have been entering the Adult U31 Young Farmer and Silver Staples U21 cadet competitions for a wee while and this is a defining moment. Is what we've been teaching any good?

It's a cracking day at the Rangiora Showgrounds, we finalise the materials on each line and set up. Team PIA spots Tim Garrick & Phil Cornelious in the distance and skips over to re-acquaint themselves - nothing quite like being on a first-name basis with the President & the current champion!

Our teams have 2 hours to erect a 3-wire electric fence with 2 Y posts on either side of 1/4 round, plus figure 8, crimp, inline tensioners attached 3 different ways and parallel electrics. The have-a-go category is the same excluding digging in the intermediate post. Our first-off-the-line team comes in at 1:35 with Akaroa 1 minute behind and most teams finishing within the allotted time. Phil and Tim work a sweat up judging although they have to be reminded to “crack on” and that they have “one job”!

All our competitors have done themselves proud, putting themselves far outside their comfort zone in front of industry experts. In particular, our first-time schools have been super awesome and we are so appreciative of their support in entering and helping to make the day a success.

NZ Secondary Schools Fencing Competition Results

1st Tom B & Lachie O'C

2nd Cayden H & Cullen B

3rd Lachaidh S and Mason Ro - Akaroa Area School

4th Jackson M & Cullen G-W

Best Quality Tom B & Lachie O'C

First off the Line Tom B & Lachie O'C

Have a go category

Best Quality Althea S & Isabelle A

Best Termination Knot Althea S & Isabelle A

Best Posting Althea S & Isabelle A

Best Breast Block Innes M & Alex H

We are so pumped that FCANZ trusted us to get this competition off the ground and are so grateful for their support and expertise - Particularly Nick Terry for all his technical expertise and in setting up the day - Jeanette Miller, Donna Upton & Jaime Bigwood for keeping us on track and providing fantastic support; our Judges Tim Garrick & Phil Cornelious - job well done; Noksee and Struan Moore for all your mentoring over the years and Wiggy for taking every chance to promote us. Thank you!

To my students: Bloody Well Done! I am super proud of what we have achieved. While the results were nice it is the fact that we have made something big happen and the sense of achievement in a job well done. “We’ve got this”, has become, “We did this”.

Highlights

Tim Garrick is fencing royalty - he knows us!
We can fit 9 strainer posts inside a minivan - Our posts at school have certainly seen better days and despite requests, Team Leader was too tight to buy any: all our dreams came true as we watched the Point Lumber truck exit the showgrounds leaving all their posts behind. Luckily we knew someone who wanted them. It was one of those “No post shall be left behind” moments.
Team Leader is not a hugger - ever!
Team Batty & O’Connell breathe a sigh of disappointment on discovering the above.
So what was your driving force behind wanting to enter this competition? “Sarah made me”
“It was good” does not a speech make! Our winning team has some points to work on.
“The sense of achievement in doing a good job, and being proud of what I have accomplished makes it all worthwhile”.

Finally from the lads, “We would like to thank FCANZ and all the contractors in general who are all so generous in giving time and resources to a bunch of school kids. When we started school we never would have dreamed of achieving what we have. We have been lucky to get some amazing opportunities and our advice to other students is to never give up, and ask for help - there is heaps of it out there. Learn how to bat your eyelashes and smile nicely”!

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