On the 27th of August, both the Boy’s and Girl’s 1st XI hockey teams traveled up to Greymouth to participate in the Tier 4 Hockey Tournaments.

The Boy’s had a very successful tournament, not losing a single game and eventually taking out the gold medal position for the second year in a row.

During the pool stage of the tournament, we managed to beat West Coast Combined 8-2, Kaiapoi High School 9-0, and Hillmorton High School 7-1, which comfortably placed us in the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, we were matched up against James Hargest College, who were always looking like they were going to be tough opponents. We conceded around the middle of the first half and then managed to sneak a goal back late on in the second quarter. In the third quarter of the game we scored twice and managed to go without conceding for the rest of the game, with the scoreline finishing 3-1 to us.

That game put us through to the final, in which we were to play against Rangiora High School, who had cruised past the West Coast Combined team, beating them 5-0. This game was already going to be tough, and it was an important game for us as a team as it would be our last ever game with our year 13’s, Loek van Broekhoven, Solly Armstrong, and Taisei O’Sullivan-Naito, as well as our captain and the tournament's top goalscorer, Kieran Black. Right from the onset, the Rangiora team proved more difficult than all the other teams we had played, but after the first half, we had managed to get a one-goal lead due to an amazing piece of individual skill by Micah Duckles. Heads held high, we played a good third quarter and got the benefits of it through another piece of individual excellence by Micah. We held onto our 2-goal lead until there was about 6 minutes left to play when the Rangiora forwards finally managed to get a shot past our goalkeeper, Solly Armstrong. Our slender lead held on for the remaining time, and we finished the game with a 2-1 victory.

Throughout the tournament the Girl’s team showed great support towards the Boy’s team during both the games and all the downtime that we had around the campground. As well as that all of the Boy’s really enjoyed cheering on the Girl’s team during their games.