Kia Ora Koutou 

It has been an eventful first term for St Bede’s College Sport, sitting down and reflecting on the last few months brings me great satisfaction. It is with no doubt that Sport is an integral part of this college, with a rich history and tradition, it is no surprise that we continue to see results in regional and national levels, what is most satisfying however, is that our boys continue to develop strong values and character traits through positive sporting experiences. These experiences come from the hard work of all our staff and volunteers across all sporting codes, positive parent support and the willingness of the boys to get involved. On that note I would firstly like to take the opportunity to say Thank You to everyone who is involved in sport across the college, without your dedication and commitment, sport would not be in the state it is today.  

Below is an overview of the sports who represented the college in the Summer Tournament last week. Along with that, some individual and team mentions of student achievements across various sports this term.  

Notable Sporting Achievements:  

Rowing: Off the back of an incredibly successful Maadi Cup, congratulations to Matthew Glen, Luke Hickling and Sam Woodgate on their U19 Trial and Josh Hamer, Bede Giera and Thomas Woodgate on their U18 trial.  

Cricket – Congratulations to Ben Trillo and Connor Stewart on making the New Zealand U19 initial squad. Both students will be competing for sports for the next few months to ultimately play in the World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2024.  

Swimming – Congratulations to Olliver Lutton who was awarded the Mako Zonal Emerging Swimmer of the Year at the NZ Swimming Championships.  

NZ AFL - Noah Allison, Cameron Howison, Will Arscott & Max Hammett have been named in the NZ U18 squad who will travel to Melbourne to play Mornington Peninsula Interleague side in late April.  

Golf - Congratulations to Cooper Moore (Clearwater) who has been selected as part of a Golf New Zealand traveling squad to play at the Australian Junior Amateur in Tasmania from April 11 – 14. 

Volleyball – Congratulations to Lorenzo Noa Siaosi on being selected into the New Zealand Secondary School Volleyball Team. They will travel to Thailand for the International Qualifiers.  

Softball – Jayden Potts has made the New Zealand Junior Blacksox Squad.  

Down Hill Mountain Biking -  Luke Wayman won the UCI U19 National Champs. He will get the NZ jersey and wear the national champ sleeve for racing in Europe and North America at the U19 UCI World Cup next month. In August, he will be travelling with the New Zealand team to the world champs in Scotland.  

(Disclaimer: We love to hear about all sporting successes across the college. If we have missed any that you are aware of, please send them through to the sports department sport@stbedes.school.nz)  

Summer Tournament Overview 

Maadi Cup – For the first time since 1991, St Bede’s College hold the Maadi Cup. The Maadi Cup is one of the most prized processions in schoolboy sport. The College is extremely proud of the efforts of all rowers that competed in the 6-day regatta last week. A special mention to our U18 8 who won the Maadi Cup by a mere 0.06 seconds from a flying Hamilton Boys crew. Another special mention to Matthew Glen and Luke Hickling who took home Gold in the Pair, Four and Eight races, something that only a select few have achieved over the history of the regatta. Our Novice Coxed Four also won gold in their A final!  

SISS Touch Champs – Narrowly lost the final to Kings High School from Dunedin 5-6 to finish 2nd. While the team was disappointed with this loss they were still please with making the final, something that we think no other St Bede’s team has achieved. Having beaten both of last years National Touch Champ finalists Otago Boys and Kings they are looking forward this years National Secondary School Champs in December. 

Canterbury Secondary School Golf Champs – We had 12 boys compete out at Templeton Golf Course for the Canterbury Secondary School Champs. The boys did really well and the way they conducted themselves around the course is a credit to both them and the school. A couple of special mentions – First to Cooper Moore who finished in 2nd place in the gross score overall placings. And the team of Cooper Moore, Jimmy Jackson & Max Martin were 2nd place in the Stableford Points Team competition. 

SISS Softball Champs – The St Bedes Softball team competed at the Secondary Schools Championships at Dynasty Park Christchurch. 

Unfortunately due to the terrible week of weather the full scheduled round robin wasn’t possible, instead the teams were broken in two pools. 

St Bedes competed very well in pool play finishing 2nd in their pool which put them into the semi-final series & eventually placing 5th overall. 

Both the coach & manager were very proud of all 12 players efforts, spirit they played the games & the amazing way they represented the college for their first tournament. 

SISS Waterpolo – Both teams had a great tournament. Our Senior A team are the South Island Secondary School champs. Played Boys High in the final and won 8-6. A couple of special mentions from that team – MVP was the team captain Josh Fraher scoring 15 tournament goals including 2 key goals in the final. Most Valuable Goalie – Angus Nevin who is also a key part of the leadership team and saved 2 direct penalties in the final. Congrats boys.  

We also had the Senior B team compete in this tournament. They placed 9th overall which was a great achievement beating Kings High School & Christ College A who are both Senior A teams and they also drew with STAC A.  

SISS Athletics Champs – 3 boys represented St Bede’s at the South Island Secondary School Champs in Invercargill over the weekend. They all represented the college well in tough weather conditions and came away with some great results.  

• Isaac Saywell Barbosa had a solid win in his 800m blitzing the field by 13 seconds, just outside the record, a fantastic run. Isaac also competed in the 400m the following day and finished 2nd, only 0.02 seconds from 1st. A fast start and kept the lead until the line.  

• Charlie Applegarth ran his 200 prelims in the morning qualifying for finals where he placed 8th. Long jump despite dealing with cramp and the rain he placed 4th overall - a little bit off his best but still a good result despite the conditions. The weekend rounded off for Charlie with the 100 metre sprint coming up against some very tough competition finishing up 10th out of 16 with a very close finish .  

• Finlay Neale – straight off the plane from the Kings Bruton Exchange in the UK for hockey Finlay won the U19 Boys Pole Vault with a height of 3.80m – 1.20m higher than the 2nd place getter. Finlay also competed in the Boys Long Jump where he placed 3rd with a jump of 6.05m 

New Zealand Secondary Schools Senior Boys Futsal Champs - 9 boys went and represented the school at the National Secondary Schools Futsal tournament in Wellington last week. The boys won 2 of the 3 pool games to finish second in their pool. They narrowly lost out on first in a 3-1 loss to St Patricks college, who then went on to lose on penalties to the eventual champions Shirley Boys.  

After pool play the boys had a hard road through the top 16, eventually playing off for 15th place and winning. This bodes well for Bede’s future in the competition as most of our students were year 11.  

Being one of the youngest teams in the tournament it was a fantastic achievement. Special mention to Ryan Wilson for receiving MVP of the team 4 separate times.  

SISS Mountain Bike Champs - We had 2 students, Matthew Brady Yr 12 and Oscar Hoban Yr 11, competing at the Skoda South Island Mountain Biking Champs last weekend at Coronet Peak in Queenstown. 

During the week leading up to the event, snow and rain meant the tracks were very slippery and made for challenging riding conditions. The schedule had to be altered and delayed for a day to allow for snow to be removed from the trails.  

Both boys competed in the Enduro event which is a stage race where you are timed on the downhill sections only and not the climbs in between. Conditions were very tough with the odd crash impacting final placings, but both riders had a great time, rode solidly and recorded commendable results. 

Matt also competed in the demanding Cross Country event that proved to be very fast, slippery and a challenge to finish! 

It would be great to see more of you involved in biking events. Road Cycling will be starting in Term 2 and there is a Cyclocross event in July.  Keep an eye on alerts on the School App and read the newsletter and school notices. 

As we now look forward to the winter months, I encourage all our Bedean community to get out and support our boys on the sporting field. Please keep in mind that our coaches and managers are volunteers, and we should always be doing our part to make the sporting experience for all stake holders, a positive one.  

Please take care over the holiday break and we look forward to what will be an exciting term 2.  

Yours Faithfully  

Reuben Spicer  

Director of Sport