4th - 8th September. Hockey, Rugby, Basketball, Football, Climbing.

Hockey

The 1st XI Hockey team travelled to Cromwell on Sunday 4 September to play in the Johnson Cup, Hockey Tournament. This tournament was going to be a huge ask, as six members of the team were Year 9 or Year 10.

The team gathered at school at 8:30am on Sunday. A big thanks to Miss Nesbit for coming along and helping to pack the two vans.

Our first game on Monday was against Rosehill College which we won 5-0. This was a good start to the tournament as the team was now in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Our second game on Tuesday was against Southland Boys High School. The result at the end of full time was 3-3. Both teams were tied on goal difference which meant the winner of this game had to be determined by a shoot out. Even though we managed to slot, three goals this was not enough to win the shoot out.

The quarter final on Wednesday was against Otago Boys High School, which we lost 2-4. We were now playing off for 5th – 8th position at Tournament.

Thursday saw us playing our toughest and most tense game of the tournament against Fielding Agricultural High School. The score at full time was 1-1 which meant we now played drop off, golden goal. Teams reduced to 9 players, no goalie for 5 minutes. Score still tied 1-1. Then reduced to 7 players for another 5 minutes. With 10 seconds left on the clock Keeley Legge does a solo run the full length of the field, passed to Kurvesh Bhaven who scores. Final result 2-1. This meant we were playing Taradale High School at 12pm on Friday for 5th & 6th which was the last game that our seven, Year 13 players would play for Shirley Boys High School. These boys have gained a whopping 489 caps between them.

• Bradley Knight 110 caps
  
• Keeley Legge 97 caps
  
• Kurvesh Bhaven 79 caps
  
• Jonty Teague 63 caps
  
• Angus Jonker 56 caps
  
• Kelly McClure 55 caps
  
• Taylor Keys 29 caps
  

We wish these ‘Shirley Men’ good luck for the future.

Rugby 

On Sunday 3rd September,  the Under 15 Rugby A team, along with five other boys, set off, to Timaru for the annual Under 15 South Island Tournament.  After winning this tournament several times in the past ten years, we knew we were weren’t going to be taken easy by other teams.  In this Tournament, teams such as Kings High School, Nelson College, Christ College, Marlborough Boys and  Southland Boys compete for the title. In our pool we were given Timaru Boys, Nelson College and Kings which was a tough pool, as Nelson are the winners from 2016 and from previous experience Kings and Timaru are strong as well. We had no information on  as Timaru and didn't know what to expect from them.

Our first game was against the home side Timaru, again having no idea what to expect when the whistle blew, game on. We started with a strong five minutes by making metres out wide followed by 5-10 minutes in our so called ‘red zone’, meaning we have to exit or do our basics. Quickly the first try of the tournament was scored and it was to our centre, Ethan Faitaua. We continued to dominate the first half and went into the break with a comfortable lead. The second half was similar to the first as we were dominating the game, scoring some nice tries in the process to the likes of Jayden, Muao, Malele and Jacob. However Timaru had the final say, with a great breakaway try to their fullback. Nevertheless we came out with a comfortable 53-5 win and Jacob Christensen (JC) bagged a hat-trick in the process.

Day Two of the Tournament was against last year's winners, Nelson College,  whom we had defeated comfortably earlier this year. We were not going to be complacent and we were going to let these guys get their tails up. The first 10 minutes were like the last game, quite panicky and the excitement was still buzzing within the team by forcing errors like forcing offloads and passes that weren't on. When we finally settled down, our brand of rugby was played with tries to Alan, Connor, Brodie and an amazing 30 metre solo effort by Jayden.  Next came an intense period of play, as Nelson were within about 5 metres of our tryline. Thanks to rushed hits by the likes of Kiarn and Blake we were able to escape the danger and get back in their half. The boys ended up getting a solid 45-0 victory over Nelson. It was pleasing to see that not only did we rack up 45 points,  we kept them scoreless due to some hearty defence.

Day Three of the Tournament was by far the toughest. We were facing our rivals from down south, Kings who beat us last year by 70 odd points. It's fair to say that the boys were well and truly up for this one right from the get- go with the haka. which contained passion and pride. The game from the start was full of crunching tackles, fierce hit ups and close moments. So close in fact, that going into the half-time break, we were both locked up at 0-0. There weren't many big moments in the first half.  However we all knew we were dominating both possession and territory. In the second half,  first points were scored through the boot of Connor Watherston-Spencer. With around 15 minutes to go,  Kings scored a try. Down 7-3,  we still felt as though we deserved to be ahead so we worked hard to get into their half. After multiple phases of pick and goes and pod runners, hooker Lewis Broekhuizen buried over to score beside the post. Connor converted and we were ahead 10-7,  but the game still had around 5 minutes left. 

After a few unsuccessful penalty attempts and the seconds counting down final play,   Jayden Horgan decided to take matters into his own hands and attempt to boot the ball into the crowd; all he had to do was nudge it over the sideline. The kick ended up going straight up and backwards with a Kings player destined to catch it and run the length to score... he dropped it cold. We come out victors in an intense 10-7 win and a place booked in the grand final.

Here we were, in the South Island Final against Southland Boys who are notoriously strong when it comes to this Tournament. Our bodies were aching and sore from the damage experienced in previous days but we were determined to end on a positive note and claim the shield. Quickly after the whistle was blown we got off to a shaky start with failure to exit our 22 and missing tackles. However we then asserted our dominance by surging up field and managing to score through Ethan, quickly after that Kiarn and myself also went across.  A turning point in the first half occured when Connor was sent to the bin this reduced us to 14 men and we got punished immediately with a try conceded. At halftime the score was 19-7 and with this we knew there was only 30 minutes left of the season so we set the goal to leave everything out there. During the second half we started to put a lead on them with tries to Connor, Kiarn and Pele at 38-7 with five minutes to go a red card to Brodie again reduced us to 14 and yet again they score immediately to make the final score 38-12 a comfortable win in the end for the boys, bringing back the shield.

In conclusion,  this Tournament was thoroughly enjoyable full with great moments and as a team we were proud to bring back the shield. Thank you to coaches Mike Smith, Mr Keats and Mr Skinner for not only the tournament but the whole season and also to Mike Shackleton (Shack) and Tania for managing and helping the team in anyway possible.               by Fin Ocheduszko Brown.

Basketball

The Senior A Team (Sean Kelly, Saint Porter, Hamsa Shire, Joel Jeffrey, Josh Thomson, Loyal Patelesio, Wiremu Waaka, Noah Westwood, Jayden Watkinson, Mona Faitaua-Nanai, and Amit Aryal) travelled down to Dunedin to compete in the Zone 4 – South Island Qualifying Tournament. A top 6 finish at this tournament would allow us to attend the School Boy Nationals in Palmerston North in the first week of the school holidays.

On Day One, our first game was against a solid Nayland College team. They gave us a strong first up game but after some ups and downs we had a good win 76-59. We were led by our two big year 12s, Josh Thomson scoring 22 and Joel Jeffrey scoring 17.

Our second game of the day was against a young Kaiapoi High team. Our experience and depth led to a one sided game win 106-42. Everyone got a good run in this game and all 11 players scored. Sean Kelly led the team in scoring with 25 points, while Wiremu Waaka had 17, Hamsa Shire had 12, and Saint Porter and Josh Thomson both chipped in with 10.

Day Two had us facing off against the two strongest teams in our pool. Coming up against the Canterbury Champions Cashmere in the first game of the day was always going to be tough. The team put up a solid fight and showed some heart in the first half, but Cashmere proved too strong in the second half and the final score was 53-93 win to Cashmere.

The second game of the day against Otago Boys was do-or-die for us. If we lost we would lose our chance to go to Nationals. OBs came out strong at the start of the game and were leading by 9 at the end of the first quarter. Luckily for us over the next 3 quarters we played some of the best basketball we had played all season. After leading comfortably during the last quarter we had a few scares as the Otago guards hit a barrage of 3 pointers, but luckily we showed composure and finished the game off and eventually won 106-99. Sean Kelly played his best game of the tournament and led from the front for the entire 40mins. He scored an impressive 36 points. He had strong support in scoring from our trio of big bodies – Joel Jeffrey (22), Josh Thomson (14) and Loyal Patelesio (10). Hamsa and Saint both played some amazing defence and contributed on both ends of the court aswell. This game was easily our game of the tournament.

Day Three we finished off the last game of pool play by comfortably beating St Thomas’s 96-56. This was another game were everyone played good minutes and all 11 players contributed on the score sheet. Sean led our scoring with 17 points, Joel had 16, Jayden Watkinson had 11, and Josh and Saint both had 10 points.

Our Quarter Final matchup later in the day was against the number one seed from pool A – Rangiora High. This game was important because if we won we were guaranteed a spot at Nationals. The entire team was focused during the warm up and this flowed over into the game. The Spartans put on a dominant performance from start to finish controlling the tempo of the game. Sean Kelly again was the leader on the court setting up our offence, controlling the plays, and scoring regular baskets to keep the pressure on, he ended with a game high 22 points. Our twin towers of Joel Jeffrey (18 points) and Josh Thomson (15 points) converted on many easy baskets around the hoop, and cleaned up all rebounds on offer, while playing some solid defence in the key. Noah Westwood contributed some valuable minutes off the bench. The final score was a hard fought 77-60 win to Shirley.

Our Semi Final match up had us playing one of the tournament favourites Christs' College. The boys came into this game with a lot of belief and were leading 32-30 and the end of half time. Unfortunately we ran out of steam in the second half and the big minutes that our key boys had played so far caught up with us. Silly mistakes and a lot of missed shots, combined with a lift in intensity by College in the second half, lead to a one sided second half. After leading at half time we went down 45-70. Hamsa was our only shining light as he scored a hard fought 15 points for the game.

Our last game of the Tournament was a playoff for 3rd and 4th against Waimea. The Shirley team desperately wanted to come 3rd and came out strong in this game. They didn’t let up the whole game and for the third time of the tournament all 11 players contributed on the score sheet. The game turned into a run away win for Shirley and the final score of 91-47 reflected this. Joel Jeffrey top scored with 22 points, and Wiremu Waaka worked had for his 19 points. Hamsa and Joel both added 10 points.

A successful Tournament for the Shirley Spartans. Everyone involved was pleased with a third place finish in the South Island. Now the boys have the Nationals to look forward to during the first week of the holidays. This will be a great experience for the entire team and should give them an idea where we are ranked amongst the top 24 teams in the country.

A big thank you to the coaches, Mr Howell and Nat Connell who have put a lot of time and effort into this team over the year. Special thanks to Mr Stocks who worked hard to get us into the tournament and who cooked the team some delicious meals while we were away. Thanks to all the parents and family members who helped out with feeding the boys and supporting them in Dunedin.

We would also like to pass on a big thank you to Kavanagh College from Dunedin who gave up their spot in the qualifying tournament so we had a chance to earn a spot at Nationals. 

Football

Our tournament pool play kicked off against familiar opponents, St Bedes'. A strong first half performance had Shirley up 2-0 thanks to goals from Shaun and Aaron, a weak defensive display conceding 3 goals in the second half. (Final score – 3-2 loss). Next was St Patrick’s drawn 2-2 in the late stages of the game but committing to many men forward allowed 4 late goals to go St Pat’s way. Goals for Alex and Conor. (6-2 loss). Wanganui High School was played in slippery conditions conceding 2 stupid goals early on and another before the half. Goal for Aaron. (3-1 loss). Next to play was the top seeded team Rosmini. An evenly contested game finished 2-2 all with goals coming from Shaun and Aaron. Last to be played was Harawera High School winning comfortably 5-0. Goals from Hemi (2) Greg, Shaun and Aaron.

Playing in some of the worst conditions on the Thursday with rain, hail and high winds came a solid dismantling of Wanganui Collegian 6-0. Our final game ending in a 5-1 loss to Rongotai College. A disappointing Tournament for some senior members of the team.  

Climbing

This year we had 17 students competing in the South Island Secondary Schools competition. All of our boys put in all they could and we ended  with some great results. SBHS teams came both second and third in the male teams, these comprised of Alex Dowell, Cole Yeoman and Josh McCaffrey coming second and Phoenix Arrowfield, James Hunt and Aidan Powers coming third. In the individual males competition our top scorers were Alex Dowell who came fifth and Phoenix Arrowfield who came 10th.

A big congratulations to the rest of our competitors this year: Geordie Naylor, Liam Cain, Nick Ford, Noah Harnett, William Brown, Axl Radzyner, Izak Dobbs, Niko Clayton-Jones, Chris Cairns, Max Mauersberger and Patrick McGregor.