Petanque, Hockey, Volleyball.

Petanque  

Despite several days of continual rain and the postponement of the grand opening of the Christchurch Pétanque Club’s new clubhouse and grounds, 95 students from 11 high schools participated in the Christchurch Secondary School’s Pétanque Tournament in Hagley Park at the end of last term. 

The trophy provided by Alliance Française Christchurch was won by Shirley Boys’ High and prizes were given to Christchurch Boys' High (runner up for the trophy) Rangiora New Life School (best team costume), and Otago Girls High/Shirley Boys' High mixed team (best use of the French Language). Prizes were also given out to every student who completed the challenge of finding out information in French about their competitors. Questions like “tu peux toucher ton nez avec ta langue?”, « est-ce que tu es né à l’étranger ? », « tu as déjà vu ‘la Belle et la Bête’ ? » got participants chatting between games. Sébastien from Christ's College said “I didn’t expect it to be this fun. It was a good social event and I definitely got better at playing pétanque.” Ryan from Shirley Boys' High said “it was a great way to meet people from other schools.”

South Island ANZAC Hockey Tournament,  24 – 26 April 2017

In the second week of the April school holidays, 18 boys travelled to Timaru to compete in the South Island ANZAC Hockey tournament. This tournament has been running for four years and is used by teams to expose new members of their 1st XI to the demands of competing in a multi-day, hockey tournament. 

This is the first year the event was held in Timaru, which meant we played two Dunedin schools that we do not normally play against in a season. All five teams from outside Timaru, stayed in Thomas House, the boarding hostel which allowed boys and staff to socialise after games.

Playing in this tournament gave the players an idea of the level of play required when playing top teams, and meant the final result of games did not always go in our favour. 

The game against Otago Boys was the closest of the tournament. Keeley Legge converted a stroke in the last minutes of the game and we defeated Otago Boys 3-2.

The team attended and ANZAC service held in the soundshell at Caroline Bay on  the morning of Anzac Day.

The skill level of the players inproved over the three days and was an important pre-season tournament, prior to the 1st XI playing in the SPL Friday night hockey competition

Volleyball Success

Congratulations to Mana Placid – Volleyball A team Captain and Luke Hulston – A team Assistant Coach (ex student) who were both named in the NZ U20 team to travel to Fort Lauderdale USA in July.

Caleb Taplin, Willem Button Qeyloux Hakaria  have been  named in the South Island U17 team.

We also have many ex students and current students competing in the National Provincial Championships on Queens Birthday weekend - Luke Hulston, Josef Berry, Troy Hulston, Jonah Drye and Qeyloux Hakaria are representing Canterbury U19