Over the weekend of Term 1, Week 6, our brothers represented us at the annual Bishop Lyons Shield competition.

It is a competition that is held between all the Catholic colleges in the Christchurch Catholic Diocese. Bishop Lyons consists of numerous competitions, debates, impromptu and prepared speeches, scripture readings and more! And on behalf of our school, we’ve had brave people who put themselves out there to compete and represent us.

This year’s competition was held at Marian College. Mr Kennedy, Mrs Shields, and old boy, Daniel Fogarty were there to help take care of us. Aside from our school, many schools were competing in this as well, St Bede’s, Villa Maria, Marian College, Catholic Cathedral College, John Paul II College, and Roncalli College.

The very first competition held at Bishop Lyons was the impromptu speech. Our brother, Keegan Verster was brave enough to take on this task: he only had two minutes, just two minutes to come up with a whole speech, which is insanely impressive. What’s impressive was that Keegan came first for the impromptu speech! It was a well-deserved trophy.

Another competition that was held was the debating. We had our most wonderful team prepared for it: Felix Bargh, Nick Harris, and Sam Amaris. Despite Felix and Nick having a go at debating for their first time, we actually won the first round of debating against John Paul II College. Absolutely well done to these guys!

On the second day of Bishop Lyons we competed in both Junior and Senior prepared speeches. For our Junior prepared speeches, we had our brother Euan Agomaa up, representing our school and his Filipino culture in front of a huge crowd. Props for Euan for being brave and having a go for the first time.

The second event held on that same day was the Senior Prepared speeches. For our senior prepared speeches, we had our brother Gabe Kennedy representing us. While being a busy leader, he took this opportunity and took his time to write a speech for the Bishop Lyons competition. The speech was funny and mature from start to finish, it was an incredibly well-written speech, especially for his first time doing this competition. Huge props to Gabe for that.

On the last day, we had our final two competitions, Te Reo Scripture Reading, and Religious Questions. Early on Sunday morning, our brother Tainui Pauling competed in the Marian College’s Chapel for Te Reo Scripture Reading. It was an emotional and moving win for our school, it was lovely to see his great aunty sing for his accomplishment as well. Amazing performance from Tainui!!

The last competition for Bishop Lyons was religious questions, we came prepared with our brilliant team, Matthew Aguilar, Preston Kubiak, and Jacob Rolleston. The energy these guys gave at the competition was contagious, these guys were confident, enthusiastic, brave, and fun to talk to. Well done to these guys who worked so hard to represent our school, also it was the first time for all three of them to do this as well.

Over the weekend we celebrated Bishop Lyons through a large dinner with every other College, and a Mass. Aside from the competition, the main thing was that everything else from the shared meals, dinner and Mass; it was all new and exciting for everyone. We all had fun playing games and talking with people from other schools, and a lot of new friendships were made that day. The most important thing at Bishop Lyons was to all have fun, through new experiences, and making the most out of the opportunity to be there!!

All of this wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for our amazing coaches: Mr Kennedy, Mrs Shields, Matua Ru, Mr Baker and Daniel Fogarty!

Our wonderful supporters: Mr Hart, Mr Biggs, Mrs Kennedy, and especially all of those brothers who came along to watch and support us at Bishop Lyons over the weekend. It meant a lot to us all.

We thank you sincerely for everything you’ve all done to make this happen! Can we please give them a huge round of applause?

Anyone is more than welcome to audition for Bishop Lyons. If you think you got what it takes for Debating, Te-Reo Scripture Reading or Speeches, come sign up for next year’s 2025 Bishop Lyons at St Bede's!!

· EJ Pacatang, Culture Captain for 2024

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