Hero photograph
Basketball
 
Photo by SMC

Sports News

SMC —

As our winter sport continues, we are heading towards semi-finals and finals. Our girls are working hard to get their places confirmed leading up to these. We also have various tournaments coming up where our girls get to travel with their respective teams around the country.

These tournaments offer great opportunities for our girls to showcase their team sport, as well as have some good bonding time with each other. Both coaches and managers enjoy this time where everyone comes together, away from their usual routines and are able to concentrate on their chosen sport. Having fun and getting a good balance of game time and downtime is essential to the smooth running of tournament week.

This is, of course, all balanced with the usual run-up to exams and internals, not to mention ski days and formals. Our girls are always so busy and always striving to do their very best across all aspects of SMC life. We are so proud of you all.

As always please contact us in the sports office with any sporting news you would like included in our next newsletter - louise.eder@stmargarets.school.nz

A special mention to Anna Turner for kindly supplying us with some fantastic photos of our girls over the last couple of weeks.

Badminton
Our Badminton girls are having a great season. Captain of SMC Badminton, Kate Baird says she has noticed a huge improvement in all of the players. She believes it is due to both Coach Desmond and herself putting in a lot more time as they work with the girls, developing their skills. In the Wednesday competition, the Division One team remains undefeated which is fantastic and the Senior B and C teams are both ranked in the top two in their Wednesday games. The junior teams continue to learn and master new skills and are enjoying their game time.

At the CSS tournament, we had our Senior A, B and C teams enter, with the Senior A team being placed second in Canterbury. The games were very close and ended up coming down to sets. Congratulations girls that is very exciting!

Basketball
We are proud to say we have 20 Basketball teams this season at SMC. Our Senior A team who are off to Nelson for the SISS Tournament in Nelson, our Senior B team, our Intermediate A team who are off to Dunedin for Tournament, ten social teams who have been playing some great Basketball, two Y10 teams, two Y9 teams, two Y7/8 teams and one Y 5/6 team.
I asked the girls for some feedback from their season so far.

Charlotte Haycock Year 10 Orange Basketball Team writes:
“Our team has played really well this season and have developed heaps of new skills. We went from not being able to shoot that well to getting heaps of our shots in. We have really progressed throughout the season.”

Emily Young Year 12 Red Basketball Team says:
“We have had an outstanding season so far. We have improved our skills greatly. We take pride in our teamwork and team play on the court. Can't wait for the rest of the season.”

Skye Turner Year 12 Pink Basketball Team explains:
“Our Pink Basketball Team has been going strong and keeping up the fight. For our last few games, we have had some good comebacks to win. We always have a laugh and music playing to keep our games positive and fun.”

Hazel Montgomery Y13 Boarding Ballers feels sad their three-year run is coming to an end:
“The Balling Boarders, made up of a group of Year 13 boarders are going strong in our third year playing together. We have had a lot of fun playing over the years and are sad to say we only have a few games left together. Have a look at a couple of photos from our first game together to our most recent!”

During the last holidays, Ivy Brown Y9 and Karereatua Williams Y10 played in the U15 Waitaha Red team and were placed 3rd at the U15 nationals in Tauranga. Great work girls.

Our Year 7/8 Basketball team has been going great guns. In their Friday competition, they have won all their games so far. It is so awesome to see how under the guidance of their coach, every single girl has improved hugely. Their confidence has grown immensely over the season and at the end of last term they had a very tight and exciting game against STAC, winning by one point. This meant that they qualified as the Independent Zone Representative, earning themselves a place in the Canterbury Primary Schools Indoor Tournament.

The CPS Indoor Tournament was held at Pioneer in the second week of Term 3. Our Y7/8 team, Chloe McNeill, Hannah Wareing, Evie Leeson, Lia Jenkins, Poppy McNeill, Charlotte Coughlan, Sophie Wilson, Amy Jones and Rosa Turner, once again won every one of their games. Unfortunately, they lost in the final to Kaiapoi who proved to be a solid and well-drilled team. However, our fabulous group of girls were soon cheered up by a trip to McDonald's on the way home. Keep up the good work team and good luck for the rest of your competition.

Our youngest members of Basketball, Y5/6 are improving each week under the watchful eye of our older students. We have had one hugely exciting draw which was great for the morale of this team. They are getting better and better, learning to be more assertive and confident. Their shooting is also improving. Thank you to both Sophie Lightbourne who goes to the games and Courtney Prebble who has been helping with their training. The girls are loving it and always show great sportsmanship. Most importantly of all, they have realised how much fun basketball can be as a sport. Let’s hope we see them all back on the court next season.

Equestrian
Huge congratulations to Fabriana McQuarrie (Y9) for being the highest placed secondary school competitor in her category for dressage, eventing and cross country at the 2019 NZ Pony Club Eventing Championships. Fabriana and her horse, 'Yippee Ki Yay' won the MT secondary schools award. The NZ Pony Club Associations describes the competition as the pinnacle of the Pony Club calendar and to win a place shows exceptional ability and dedication. Well done Fabriana this is a huge achievement and we are so proud of you.

Hockey
Congratulations Anoushka Chiswell (Y13) and Fran Williamson (Y12) named in the New Zealand U18 Hockey Squad. Awesome effort and very well deserved.

http://hockeynz.co.nz/latest-news/

Also in hockey news, we have had Rachel McCann helping us here at school with our first XI Hockey team. She has also been working with and motivating our Sports Accelerator girls. She has just received some fantastic news after a tough eighteen months of being out of the Black Sticks. Rachel is back into the team and is off to Japan for their next tournament. Whilst Rachel was working with the sports accelerator programme here at school, she has had to be the epitome of resilience and hard work. She has lived and breathed hockey and with sheer determination has worked her way back up and into the Black Sticks. We greatly admire Rachel - it is awesome to see that hard work does pay off. What a good role model for our girls.

Honours
A huge congratulations to these four outstanding students. They each received their red blazer in the Honours Assembly held last week.
Kate Baird - Badminton
Jordie Plunkett - Hockey
Sophie Calder - Hockey
Anoushka Chiswell - Hockey
Wear them with pride girls, you have earnt it.

Netball
Our SMC Netballers are moving into the business end of the season.

SMC U - Yr 6
Our Year 6 Owls have had a fabulous season under the watchful guidance of Maddie and Emily. Just recently they also participated in the Rainbow Tournament held at Hagley where they had a fantastic day of netball. Great to see the progress these girls have made.  

SMC T
Our Yr 7/8 C team girls have worked hard on their skills this season and have shown huge improvement. They are working well as a team and playing some great netball.

SMC H
Our 11A team have had some mixed results during the season but they have shown great fight and worked extremely hard and their efforts are paying off. Their performances as a team keep improving and they are getting across the line regularly! Great work girls, super proud of you all.

SMC Limes
Our Limes team are working well and have played some good netball this season. This round they are 1 from 3 but continue to play hard. Great to see the girls enjoying their time on the court.

SMC B
Our B team girls had a fantastic game on Saturday toppling UC C 26-14. A great performance by the girls giving them lots of confidence as they fight for their semi-final spot in the coming weeks.

SMC R
Yr 7/8 A are an enthusiastic bunch of netballers who are developing well as a team. They successfully qualified for the upcoming CPS Tournament after finishing second behind STAC. Good luck for this tournament girls on 22 August. The girls are also preparing for Koru Games in September!! Keep up the great work girls.

SMC E
Our Senior E girls are playing in U19 Div 2 in the Saturday competition. They have had some tough games to date but continue to work hard and be very competitive. They are working well as a unit and are enjoying their netball under the expert guidance of Pippa and Georgia.
The season end is fast approaching as teams fight hard to qualify for semi-finals.
A huge thank you to all of our wonderful coaches, managers, staff and umpires who help with each of our teams each week. Your time and effort is greatly appreciated by us all.
Wishing all of our team's good luck for this weekend’s games!!

KIWI WHISTLERS - Congratulations to Ashlee Tacon for passing her Silver award

Softball
Trinity Mackley-Flutey Y10 was named in the New Zealand U15 softball team who travelled to Brisbane in July to play in the International U17 friendship series. Trinity was presented with the NZ number #23 jersey and wore it with pride. The NZ team played amazingly and proudly finished 2nd which is absolutely awesome as they were competing in a U17 tournament. 

Tennis
As reported on the website ….#We Are Canterbury, Abby Mason has featured once again for her amazing Tennis accomplishments.
Abby Takes Down Top Seeds,
“St Margaret’s College Year 11 Abby Mason has recently returned from Singapore where she won her first International tournament, beating the 18-year-old top seed from China 6-1, 7-5 and then the 17-year-old 3rd seed from Lithuania in the final.
Abby will now represent New Zealand at an upcoming Oceania Junior Tennis Championship in Lautoka, Fiji, August 12 – 16.

The tournament is a Grade 2 / B2 (Grades go from 1-5 with 1 the highest) and Abby will compete against players from Australia, the Pacific Islands and Asia. Describing her build up Abby says “I am very excited for this event as I have never played a Grade 2 ITF (International Tennis Federation) tournament before, and I get to travel as a team with other players from New Zealand so it will be heaps of fun.”
Enjoy Fiji Abby and we look forward to hearing how you get on. What an amazing opportunity. 

Winter Quad
As tradition has dictated for as long as we can remember the Winter Quad has been running this week in Timaru. St Margaret's College along with Columba College, St Hilda’s Collegiate and Craighead Diocesan all had their top teams for hockey, netball, badminton and debating competing against one another. The competition across all four was extremely close this year. A special congratulations go to Kate Baird (Badminton), Anoushka Chiswell (Hockey), and Lina Pale (Netball) for gaining the Effort, Fairplay and Team Spirit Award. Also to Lucy Jessep (Debating), for achieving the Best Speaker Award.

Badminton;
Third Place
Kate Baird
Alex Baird
Gem Krairiksh
Jasmine Russell
Nonny Panyarachun
On day one, Kate Baird, Gem Krairiksh, Nonny Panyarachun, Alexandra Baird and Jasmine Russell had two very close and competitive games against Columba and St Hilda’s. After their matches, it was three all and the decision had to go on countback. They then played Craighead finishing in third place. The team were accompanied by Kate and Alexandra’s parents. Badminton runs in their family as their father is the West Coast Chairman of Badminton.

Debating; 
Second Place
Hattie Compton-Moen
Lucy Jessep
Lydia Munro
Lucy Jessep gives us an insight into the debating, she writes,” On Sunday, Hattie Compton-Moen, Lydia Munro and I travelled to Timaru with the other Quad girls to compete in the Debating section of the tournament. We debated a variety of topics, ranging from the importance of promoting NZ values in the school curriculum, whether we should restrict free speech to combat hate speech and whether the human species has a bright future. The competition was fierce and close however the team debated well finishing on 2/3 wins to place 2nd.
We’d like to thank Ms McLaughlin for supporting us in Timaru and all the other sports faculty, including Helen and Sharon, who helped to organise this really valuable experience for all the teams.”
Jenni McLaughlin adds, “St Margaret's debaters have another successful Quad tournament, finishing second overall.
Our team consisted of Lydia Munro (Year 13 Head of Debating), Hattie Compton-Moen and Lucy Jessep (both Year 12s who attended SS Debating Nationals in May). These girls performed extremely well and had convincing wins against Craighead and St Hilda's. Unfortunately, they lost narrowly to Colomba College who gained 1st place in Debating and in this year's Winter Quad tournament as a whole.
Well done girls you are all amazingly confident, articulate and strong debaters”

Hockey;
An outstanding performance by our 1st X1 girls led them to a finish in First Place.
Congratulations team -
Sophie Calder
Anoushka Chiswell
Olivia Dyer
Isabella House
Meg James
Molly Leckie
Kate Marfell
Gaby McKellar
Niamh McKenzie
Olivia Paterson
Jordie Plunkett
Lucy Roberts
Issy Story
Emelia Surridge
Francesca Williamson
Chelsea Parrett

Netball;
The first two games produced two very close losses with only a couple of goals in it. Fortunately, due to gaining two valuable bonus points it enabled the Senior A team to finish in second place.
Laura Mann
Lina Pale
Liyah ieti
Caroline Wells
Emma Parker
Mia Allison
Georgia Reed
Karrereatua Williams
Jess Milne
Ellie Withers

Zone Tournament Friday 26th July
On Friday 26th July, our Year 5-8 SMC girls took part in the Independent Zone Tournaments for Hockey and Netball. As a result of this our Year 7/8 A Netball team have qualified to participate in the CPS Winter Tournament at Hagley Park on Thursday 22 August. Great job team.
A special thanks go to all of our student coaches and staff who accompanied their teams and our student umpires. As you can see from the photos the weather was cold, damp and foggy, but then it is winter sport!!

Results for Year 7&8 Hockey
A Grade - 6th SMC A
B Grade - 2nd SMC B, 7th SMC C
Results for Year 5&6 Hockey
4th Magic, 6th Wizards
Results for Year 7&8 Netball
A Grade - 2nd SMC A, and qualifying for CPS Tournament 22 August
B Grade - 1st SMC B, 4th= SMC C
Results for Year 5&6 Netball
3rd SMC