Bishop Lyons Shield

10 nervous St Thomas’ students and their coaches headed to Villa Maria College for the start of the annual Bishop Lyons’ Shield competition. This is the only time in the year that the seven Catholic Secondary schools of the Christchurch Diocese – Villa Maria, Marian, St Bedes, Catholic Cathedral College, St Thomas, John Paul II High School (Greymouth) and Roncalli College (Timaru) – gather together for a weekend of competition and, more importantly, socialising and having fun.

The Competition started on Friday evening with the Impromptu Speech Competition. Daniel Fogarty, in his third year of competing in this event, gave a very original speech on the topic of 3 keys to a happy life. The audience thoroughly enjoyed the speech and the Adjudicators rewarded him with a first place.

The Debating team of Oscar-Sergel Stringer, Cormac Gallagher and Anaru Shadbolt in their first debate against Villa Maria College argued in favour of a marine sanctuary in the Kermadec Ocean. Despite some doubts about where the Kermadecs are located they impressed the judge with their arguments and were victorious. In their second debate against Marian they argued strongly against limiting the amount of international visitors to New Zealand – the judge was again impressed with their arguments but decided that Marian were slightly more convincing and so that was a defeat. Despite this they were placed third overall in the debating competiton.

Our two Prepared Speakers were the next competitors. Brooklyn Heather, Junior Speaker, gave a powerful speech on “One punch, One kill” which gave a strong message to the young people in the audience about the dangers of resorting to violence to settle an argument – he was placed third. Our Senior Speaker, Jacob Brown, spoke on the need to be positive in a pessimistic world. He got a great reception from the audience but was unfortunately not placed.

On Sunday morning Tahuora Himona-Burcher represented us in the Scripture Reading Competition. This was an historic occasion as it was the first time the readings were delivered in Te Reo. Tahuora read fluently and with great sincerity and was rewarded with a fourth placing.

At this stage Marian were already winners of the Shield but four schools, including us, were all tied for second place. It all hinged on the Religious Questions. Our team of Pawel Gall, Romek Gall and William Topham showed a deep understanding of Pope Francis’ encyclical which was appreciated by the audience but they were not rewarded with a placing.

The coaches, Maureen Gaffaney, Stephen Kennedy, Keri Campbell and Margaret Guerin, and the team would like to thank the staff, students and parents who came along to support us over the weekend. You were very much appreciated!

We also thank Villa Maria for their wonderful organisation and hospitality. Looking forward to next year at Catholic Cathedral College.