A busy year of sport at Rangi Ruru is drawing to a close. While for most students, senior sport finished two weeks ago, Years 7-10 students have been keeping busy.

The third week in November has increasingly become known as Junior Tournament Week on the school sport calendar. This week we have had students participating in Rugby 7s, the Canterbury Junior Tennis Championships and the SISS Junior Volleyball Championships. Check out the reports below.

Shout out to our Senior Super Touch Tahi team who finished the term this week, placing 3rd in the Canterbury Secondary School Competition, with a win over Villa Maria, 3-1. Nice mahi team!

A final thank you to all those who have supported sport this year – whether it be coaching, managing, helping with transport, being a positive sideline supporter, ngā mihi nui to you all from the Sports Department.

Junior Tournament Week

Rugby 7s
Our Years 9-10 Rugby 7s team participated in the inaugural Rugby 7s Festival on Monday, 20 November at Hoon Hay Park.  The team started the day with a great win against Christchurch Girls' High School followed by two matches against St Andrew's College and Rangiora High School. Our final match of the day was against Rolleston College for 5th place, which we played with gusto but didn't come away with the win.  The team had a great day and their skills improved each game.  A big shout out to our coaches - Ross Kennedy and Trisha Hopcroft.

Tennis
It was a great couple of days for our junior tennis players, contesting the Canterbury Secondary School Junior Tennis Championships at Wilding Park.

There were some tight matches across both singles and doubles competitions, with all players doing themselves and Rangi Ruru proud. Congratulations to Elena Evans and Bessie Barry who were runners up in the Year 10 Girls Doubles, and to Elena Evans for coming 3rd in the Year 10 Girls Singles. Annabel Skinner and Bessie Barry came 5th in the Year 10 and Year 9 Girls' Singles respectively. Millie Vink played exceptionally well on her debut at Secondary School Tennis.

Shout out to the whole team for the way in which they represented Rangi Ruru and the progress they all made throughout the tournament: Elena Evans, Annabel Skinner, Millie Vink and Bessie Barry. A final thanks to Katie Potter who supported the team throughout the tournament.

Volleyball
Our volleyball team have been in Dunedin competing at the South Island Secondary School Junior event. After a top 6 placing at the Canterbury Secondary School Junior Championships, the Rangi Ruru team claimed a spot in the Division 1 competition for South Islands. A tough first day saw the team fight hard, with some close set scores but we couldn’t quite get a win. Day 2, the team fought hard, with every game going to three sets before finishing the day with three wins from three games. The team played Nayland College for 9th/10th spot, finishing 10th overall – 3rd placed Christchurch school and our highest placing at a Junior South Island competition in several years.

Congratulations to the team and coach, Spencer Lindsay on their achievements.

New Zealand AG Show 2023

Held on 15-17 November, this was a great success for Rangi Ruru competitors. We had seven top riders competing in prestigious events with Sonya Benison, Laura Kelso, Kate Geddes, Liv Mehrtens, Ellie Jones, Everley Gilmore, Alice Murfitt all competing across the entire range of sections such as: inhand showing, ridden showing, RTR hunter, dressage and show jumping.

We sponsored two Round the Ring Pony hunter classes, and the Rangi Ruru Open Hunter which is the pinnacle jumping event in the main arena, quite a spectacular with hunter horses jumping large walls, wire fences, brush jumps, and being judged on style and clear rounds, of course. I was fortunate enough to present the awards in these classes with dress rugs and wide sashes and trophies for the winners.

Four student helpers also assisted ChristchurchNZ, collecting contact details from visitors to the show at the entrance gates, to be contacted for a post show survey.

The riders all performed extremely well, all winning or being placed in their sections against fierce competition from riders across the South Island.

The following riders won one or more championships, including multiple trophies:

Ellie Jones - Champion Part Bred Gypsy Cob, Champion Pinto Pony and Reserve Champion Novice Pinto Pony & Hack.

Alice Murfitt - Champion Open Saddle Hunter Pony, Champion Paced and Mannered Saddle Hunter Pony and Supreme Paced and Mannered Pony

Everley Gilmore - Supreme Ridden Welsh Pony, Champion Preliminary Dressage Pony, Champion Novice Dressage Pony, Champion Welsh, Champion Pony Breeders and Second in the Branston Unity Cup.

Olivia Mehrtens - Champion Working Pony Hunter, Rangi Ruru Pony Hunter, 2nd & 3rd place, and Champions Pony Hunter Spring Series.

Laura Kelso - Ballantynes Open Pony Hunter- first place and Champion Pony Hunter overall for the show.

Yr 7/8 Sport Update

We finished our year with an In-House Summer Tournament this week. Students were put into random teams and played a series of summer code games/challenges. It was bright, colourful, and fun, all students did such a great job with their outfits and participating in all the games. We held a prize giving the next day with team Farah Palmer taking the win on points, Mana Wahine took the win for their creative outfits, Te Koraha for fair play and teams Rossall and Elizabeth Reid placing 2nd equal. Well done to all and we look forward to next year.

CAIMS Athletics - Thursday, 23 November

Well done to Everley Gilmore, Lucy Peoples, Daisy Fitchett, Eden Peti, Maddie Ericson, Zoe Hurring, Anya Patel, Stella Toon, Suraya Johnson, Emma Bennett and Zoe Clements who all participated in the CAIMS Athletics yesterday. Congratulations to Lucy Peoples who came 3rd in the Year 7 1500m race, Suraya Johnson coming 4th in the Year 8 high jump, Zoe Hurring for the impressive 2nd place in both Year 7 long jump and 60m sprint and our Year 7 relay team who came 5th.

Tuesday, 28 November: Please continue to wear PE uniform to school and can all students please bring their togs to school, as we will be using the school pool during P5/P6.

Meri Kirihimete me te Tau Hou

Nicole Sinclair
Head Year 7/8 Sport 

ADVANCE NOTICE

WE ARE LOOKING FOR BILLETS FOR SUMMER QUAD TOURNAMENT 2024: SUNDAY, 25 – TUESDAY, 27 FEBRUARY.

Summer Quad Tournament will be hosted by St Margaret’s College in 2024. The sports which will be involved are Premier Tennis, Senior A Volleyball, SuperTouch Tahi and Cricket 1st XI.

To support the event, Rangi Ruru will be responsible for billeting 65 of the visiting athletes from Columba College and Craighead Dioces, so this is an early call out for assistance with billeting!

Billeting is a special part of the Quad experience, but all schools are aware that it can be a challenging or anxious experience for students who may not have been billeted before. To help ensure the experience is a positive and safe one for hosted students, the key expectations of billeting families are outlined below:

Ensure that students hosted in your home are kept safe during their stay
Ensure students hosted in your home have privacy to get changed and use the bathroom
Provide visiting students with their own bed for the duration of their stay
Provide visiting students with meals for the duration of their stay
Safely transport visiting students to and from St Margaret's College or the playing venue
Provide Rangi Ruru with a list of the names and date of birth of all people within the billeting household for the duration of the tournament.

If you are able to assist with billeting, please complete the form via this link and we will be in touch with more information.

Thank you in advance for opening your homes!

Celebrating our wāhine

Brooke Robertson (Year 9) & Issy Carr (Year 10) – Touch Canterbury U16 representatives
Lara Clough & Sally Clough (Year 13) – Touch Canterbury U18 representatives

In this issue

2024 Term Dates