4th and 5th June.

Surfing

The surf in Dunedin looked great when we pulled up to St Clair in the mini-van. 

As we emptied the van of surfboards and wet-suits and watched the waves, we decided on an order of surfers to compete and agreed on the rules for our tag team event. 

Each school had five surfers and each surfer got three scored waves with double points for one wave. 

I was first out for Shirley. As I walked down the steps in head-to --toe neoprene with my board under my arm, a set rolled through out back and psyched me up. The water was so cold when I put the only exposed piece of skin (my face) in. My first wave I paddled into was a set, but as I stood up the nose of my board was buried into the face of the wave and I went over the falls. 

My second wave was a little bit smaller and it was on my back hand, I rode it to the end and started paddling back out. 

Unfortunately I got stuck in the impact zone for the rest of the time and came in after my 15 minutes to send the next SBHS surfer out. 

 The Kings team eventually prevailed in their home conditions but we came home happy after a great trip south with some great memories.  The final score was 48-29.

Thanks to all those that made the Exchange possible. 

Josh McCaffery.

Rugby

Four teams travelled down to Dunedin to play Kings College in  a school Exchange. 

I was a part of the rugby team that went down. 

Once we got to Kings HS, we were billeted out to players from the respective Kings team we were playing and went off to stay the night. 

The next day  we had our game.  We ended up losing, although it was a hard-fought battle as we had expected. The first half score line was 12-10 to us but after the half Kings took the lead making it 35-12. 

The boys rallied home to only just lose 35-27 from there, a good effort and turnaround in attitude. During the first ten minutes of the game we unluckily lost our captain with a suspect red card, meaning we were a prop down for the rest of the game. 

This made it harder on defence and scrumming, having people playing out of position and there was an extra hole in our defensive line. During the game we also had a major injury as one of players dislocated his shoulder and was taken to hospital. 

Post-match, Kings provided Subway for all the teams,  and then we made our way home. 

The trip was long.  However it was a good time  to reflect on the game, thinking about what went wrong and why we lost hurt but we showed plenty of fight and have other positives to build on. 

A big thanks to all the staff  who made the trip possible and to all the Kings families who took us in to make the  annual exchange a success.

Junior Basketball

The boys assembled and played together for the first time in Dunedin.

They started well and played well in patches but ultimately lost 80-60 against a competitive and skilled Kings side.

Jamie Ehau top scored for Shirley with 18 points.  Lachie Watson and Archie Washington-Brown were the other large contributors for Shirley.

Senior Basketball

The Senior A Basketball team  played  a relatively-unknown Kings HS Team. 

Undermanned with only seven members travelling down, the Shirley team the game was a real test. 

Starting off slowly, the disciplined defence of Kings HS tested Shirley during the early stages. However, led by the hot shooting of Kaleb Chamberlain and athletic prowess of Greg Rodger, the Spartans began to pull away during the third quarter resulting in a  tough 97-79 win over Kings High School. 

Loyal Patelesio and Kaleb Chamberlain top scored with 24 points, Greg Rodger had 18 and Anaru Walker pitched in with 14.