Term 3 has once again flown by. As we round up our Winter sports, trials are underway for our Summer sports. A huge thank you to all of our SMC athletes who have weathered the changes Covid has given us on a daily basis.

With the change of levels and uncertainty around games, tournaments and numbers, we are proud to say that Sport has been able to continue in its own way. Thank you to the parents and supporters of all our athletes who have not been able to watch as many games as they would have liked, but have managed to still be a support to their girls. A huge thank you to the team in the Sports Office who have kept their eye on the ball with all the constant changes in the calendar across every year group. With our strong and positive St Margaret’s spirit, we have made it through another term with some great results. We trust you will make the most of the holidays and come back ready to do it all again for Term 4. Happy Holidays from us all here in the Sports Office.

Basketball

Senior A
A nail-biting game was played last week in our SMC gym against Ellesmere, with St Margaret’s College winning by a fantastic margin. The last game of Term 3 played on Tuesday against Burnside turned out to be another tight one. Luckily due to eased restrictions, the team had more supporters and went on to beat Burnside by 8 points. We are so fortunate to have had a Basketball season and even though it has had a different format this year SMC has done themselves proud. We just missed out on the finals, but still finished our season with a great win. We farewell five Year 13’s, Courtney Prebble, Kate Zarifeh, Millie and Sophie Ness and Amelia Parker. Thank you to those girls for leading the way and we wish you all the best for your futures beyond SMC. Thank you to Bernice, our fabulous coach and to our managers Carolyn Robinson and Amanda Hardy.

Intermediate A
Our Intermediate A team has had a fantastic 2020 season finishing first overall with nine wins and only one loss. Thank you to their coach Scott Edwards and their manager Richard Dryden who steered our SMC team to the top of the board. Richard writes;
“Congratulations on a fantastic win against Kaiapoi the other night – 2020 Champions. The final score of 46-36 was a real turnaround from the loss to the same team in the last game of the round 2 weeks ago when we lost 42-41 It has been awesome to watch the team grow both individually and as a team throughout the season.”

White
“The SMC white team was a blast. We were a social team but everyone improved their skills hugely throughout the season. Our team was full of super-competitive girls, making every game full of cheering and SMC spirit. Everyone's positive attitudes along with teamwork and support for one another made every game heaps of fun on and off the court.”

Orange
“We had a lot of fun and with having no training it made it not a massive commitment but something to enjoy on a Friday night with a team of all our friends. Even though we are a social team we were playing competitive Yr 12 and 13 teams some of the time. At the start we were winning every game then started to lose them as the season went on, but we were still really enjoying the games because they were harder and more competitive which made it fun for us to be competitive back.”

Cricket
🏏🏏 SMC JUNIOR SCHOOL CRICKET TASTER SESSIONS🏏Last week our Junior School girls took part in Cricket taster sessions to introduce some new skills and drills as we look forward to the summer season ahead of us. Each year group spent time learning some basic cricket skills and playing some modified games. It was fabulous to see the girls out enjoying a new sport. We look forward to Term 4 and offering a fun cricket skills programme for the girls to continue learning new skills.

Equestrian
It was absolutely awesome to have Maddie Collins ride in our SMC Equestrian team for the Canterbury InterSchools Dressage Competition last week. You may be aware that Maddie has been going through an incredibly tough time, fighting kidney disease. She is currently recovering from having her second transplanted kidney removed as it was poisoning her body due to rejection. Maddie is going through 3 days a week of 5-hour hemodialysis sessions, as with no kidneys she solely relies on dialysis to keep her alive. Regardless of this, Maddie is determined not to allow her kidney disease to define her or stop her from inspiring others to never give up and she continues to raise awareness of organ donation. Maddie has a new pony Dennis who is 10 years old and extremely skilled. He has lots to teach an already talented and versatile rider and their partnership of three weeks is very new. This is Maddie's second pony and she is loving having a younger pony to ride and compete with.

Evie Eaton our Captain writes;
“Last week on Monday, SMC had 3 teams competing in the Canterbury Secondary schools Dressage competition. It was a lovely day and all the girls performed exceptionally well especially Meg Glassey who came 4th and 5th in her classes and Maddie Collins for winning one of her classes. The SMC Red team finished up 4th overall. All of the girls did very well and it was fantastic to have so many girls competing.” 

Get to go Challenge
Adventure racing
Last week eight keen adventurers from Year 9 and 10 participated in the Hilary Outdoors Get to Go Adventure Race. The day involved the team competing against other South Island schools in a range of physical activities that required teamwork to complete. The day was filled with paddling Canadian canoes around a course, paddle boarding, mountain biking and orienteering. The girls experienced their biggest success in the orienteering stage and won that section of the day. The girls demonstrated full St Margaret’s College spirit throughout the entire day with non-stop support for each other. Each activity was completed with a smile and a determined positive attitude. This was the first time St Margaret’s College has entered a team and the group are eager to be involved again next year.
Genna McLaughlin

Gymnastics
Well- finally a Rhythmic Gymnastics Competition to report on!
Lexie Boon Yr 6 defended her Otago Championship Title winning it for the second year in a row! She got 1st in Free, 1st in Rope and 2nd in Ball to gain 1st overall! Her group also gained 3rd against a lot of older more experienced gymnasts so it was a good trip away!

Orienteering
We have two sisters who are keen orienteers. Katherine and Anna Babington both did very well at the Canterbury Schools Orienteering Festival at the weekend. Katherine came second overall and the first girl in the year 10/11 category and Anna was third overall and second girl in the year 9 category. Both girls were due to compete in the NZSS Orienteering Champs in October which unfortunately have now been cancelled.

Skiing
Mari Henderson competed at the New Zealand Junior Freeride competition at The Remarkables last weekend and placed 3rd in the Under 18 Girls Section.
Mari writes; “I had an awesome day down at The Remarkables ski field in Queenstown for the New Zealand Junior Freeride Tour. Usually, there are two more competitions around the country after this one but because of the bad snow year and COVID19, the other two competitions were cancelled unfortunately so we were lucky to go down for this one. The day was really awesome, I managed to ski well and put down a really good run, which landed me 3rd place which I was really stoked about. I have been skiing since I basically could walk and since then it has always been my winter sport and a very big part of my life. I started competing in Freeride because I wanted more of a challenge and there aren't very many girls who ski let alone compete in Freeride (mostly very male-dominated). I hope that I can be an influence on the younger generation of girls. I also love the atmosphere of Freeride. It's very unique when it comes to most competitions because everyone is extremely supportive and friendly to each other and it's a lot of fun to be around.”

Tennis
Fabulous results for our SMC girls at the Tennis NZ U14s Indoor Championships. Good job girls, it looks like you had some tough competition. Ruby Young came 1st in singles. Emma Mason came 1st in doubles, 4th in singles.

Winter Tournament round up
Overall placings:
Badminton
A1 2nd
A2 3rd
A3 3rd

Climbing - 2nd team

Hockey 1st XI - 1st
Hockey 2nd XI - 7th

Netball Senior A - 2nd
Netball Senior B - 1st
Netball 9A - 8th

Netball 10A - 5th

Badminton
Huge Congratulations to all of our Badminton players during the tournament, especially the following two players;
Angel Ni - winner of the Secondary Schools Junior Singles
Hellen Wang - winner of the Year 9/10 plate division
“Over tournament week we had several Badminton teams competing in the 2020 Canterbury Secondary Schools Team Championships and the individual event. In our team’s event, we had all three of our A teams competing. On the first day, the A1’s lost to Riccarton and won against Hornby. The A2’s, unfortunately, lost both their games against Burnside 2 and Bayfield. The A3’s also lost their games the first day against Waitaki Girls and Burnside 1. The final day of the tournament the A1’s played against Burnside and won and lost against Waitaki Girls. The A2’s then played against Hornby and SMC A3’s and won both their matches. The A3’s also played against Hornby and the SMC A2’s, unfortunately, losing both games. All three teams placed third in their categories which was a great result for all the girls. In the individual events, Angel Ni placed 1st in the Year 9-10 girls category and Hellen Wang placed first in the girls Year 9-10 plate category with Lancy Shang Guan placing 2nd. This was a great tournament for the girls as they gained lots of experience competing and had the opportunity to play against some very good competition here in Christchurch.”
Jasmine Russell - Captain

Climbing 
Our SMC team of climbers worked their way up the wall to finish in 2nd place. All of the girls completed over 40 climbs on Thursday and did it all over again with another 40 climbs on Friday. Phew, what an outstanding achievement. There must have been some very sore limbs heading into day two, but the girls did not give up. Fabulous job.
Caitlyn Wickham our climbing captain writes;
“We had a great week at the South Island Secondary Schools’ Climbing competition in Christchurch. Our St Margaret's College team of Anna Babington, Katherine Babington, Mia Cleugh and Siena Cleugh placed 2nd in the Female Team category.”

Hockey
1st XI Hockey Tournament
The South Island Premiership Tournament was run by NZ Hockey as the Federation Cup was unable to run due to COVID restrictions. 11 girls schools competed, providing some tough competition with 4 of the top 10 schools from the 2019 Federation Cup. The competition among all the Christchurch schools was a strong testament to the strength of Canterbury hockey. This was a very new SMC team with 12 new players from our bronze medal at Federation Cup in 2019. They have developed incredibly well through the season and with the guidance of their coach Sunjay Ganda and their recently appointed assistant coach, Felix Rolls, and bought it all together for the tournament. The pool our team was in was very strong so every game was tough; it may have been these consistently high-intensity games that encouraged the development in team structure and performance intensity that ended up being our strength in the final. With wins against James Hargest High School, St Hilda's Collegiate, Burnside High School and Villa Maria, we edged out Rangi Ruru for a finals spot by two goals despite them winning our game. The final was always going to be a tough match against an in-form Christchurch Girls' High School. With our values of trust, respect, encouragement and commitment we worked as a team. The attack scored in the first minutes of the game then again at the start of the third quarter, so it was up to our rock-solid defence to hold, ending up with a 2 - 0 win over a relentless Christchurch Girls team. The week, with temperatures requiring hot water bottles to keep the substitution players warm then ice cloths to cool when off the field, was one our 2020 team will remember as inaugural winners of the South Island Premiership Hockey Tournament.
Jennie Nairn

2nd XI Hockey Tournament
Our 2nd XI Hockey girls took a very chilly dip in the sea up at Nelson!!! So good for those muscles.
Trudy Keys writes;
‘On Sunday 30th August the 2nd XI headed to Nelson for our Hockey tournament. We were in a pool with all first XI teams, so we had some very tough games and also some easy games. The girls fought hard in every game making it hard for the stronger teams to score. We finished in seventh place, the finals were very close with all six teams above us going to shoot outs to decide the placings. Our team had the most field goals scored throughout the tournament, 28 goals in total, 25 field goals and 3 PC goals - a fabulous statistic! The girls performed well both on and off the turf and were great ambassadors for St Margaret’s College. Throughout the week their hockey continued to improve and their performance as a team grew stronger.
Thank you to Ms Shannahan, our awesome coach and also the many parent supporters we had during the week.” 

Netball
Congratulations to our Senior A and Senior B, girls who competed during tournament week last week in our Regional tournament held here in Christchurch. Both teams had some fabulous games during the 3 days and both made their respective finals. 

Our Senior A girls came 2nd to STAC 23-34 in a tough final encounter. Congratulations girls on your effort during the tournament and to your management team of Julie, Helen and Jane.

Mia writes; “On the first day of the tournament SMC Senior A Netball Team played Craighead (sister school rivals) with a victory 47 - 24. In the afternoon of day one, we played Christchurch Girls High School and defeated them 40 - 28.
Day two of the tournament saw the Senior A take another win in the morning against Rangiora 30 -18. The afternoon game was against Villa Maria College where we won with a score of 43 - 33; this placed us in the final against STAC.
The final was played at 2pm on day three of the tournament, however, after a rough start we had to play catch up netball for the majority of the game and SMC lost to STAC 23 - 34.
Overall we had a really enjoyable tournament and considered ourselves lucky to have a tournament under level 2 conditions. It made for a sweet end to the netball season.”
Mia Allison Senior A Netball Captain.

The highlight of the tournament was our Senior B, girls in their close-fought semi-final tussle with CGHS which went into overtime. Such an intense but amazing game for the girls to be a part of. They then carried their winning form through to the final and beat Darfield High School A 26-20. A fantastic result for this hard-working group of girls - congratulations to you all and your coaches Lily Marshall and Miss Priest. Your hard work throughout the season is paying off as you also managed to take out the win on the final v Burnside in the 2nd grade Christchurch Netball Centre competition. Congratulations girls.

Congratulations also to our Yr 9A and 10A girls who competed in the Junior Regional tournament last week. Some tough games and some great wins - the ups and downs of sport. Our girls finished 8th and 5th respectively and can be super proud of how they represented St Margaret's College. A special thanks to Miss Lloyd, Mrs Baker-Sherman and Dee for guiding and supporting these girls throughout the tournament!
Congratulations to all our girls - we are so proud of each and every one of you.
Our Head of Sport sums up this tournament beautifully,
“Despite the uncertainty of tournaments even being held and then being held in a very different format this year and with limited or no spectators, you have been wonderful role models for SMC. Your efforts are commendable and the pride and the passion that you compete with are a tribute to not only your coaches, managers and your families, but to yourselves as amazing young women.
He aha te mea nui o te ao, he tangata he tangata he tangata.
What is the most important thing in the world, it is the people, the people, the people.”
Helen Belcher