2023 TSNZ Inter-Secondary Schools Inter-Island Match

On Sunday September 10th the 2023 TSNZ Secondary Schools Inter-Island Match was held at 6 venues across New Zealand. This is an annual competition where teams of 3 from schools across the country compete against each other by shooting 3 scoring cards, for a maximum individual score of 300.30, and a maximum team score of 900.90. Darfield High put in two teams, Darfield #1 (Ryan Booth, Blake Woolley & Rylan Youngman) and Darfield #2 (Seth Wright, Jack Cleaver & Jayden Hugh), who shot against 31 other teams across the country. Darfield #1 came 10th with a team score of 844.29, and Darfield #2 came 20th with a team score of 823.15. The two teams shot in Christchurch with 4 other teams, and for many of the shooters there it was their first time at that range. This can affect their performance, with different lighting and other unusual conditions. Despite this, all 6 shooters from Darfield performed well and maintained a good average across their cards, and were up against some tough competition. Thanks to Jack who was called in at the last minute as an emergency, and performed well.

After the first three cards are shot, the top 10 individuals, plus 2 additional reserves, from the North and South Islands respectively are chosen to compete in a North vs South competition, where the competitors would shoot another two cards for a maximum score of 200.20. Ryan was chosen as one of the South Island representatives to shoot against the North Island, and shot the highest score for the South Island team with a score of 196.11 out of 200.20. Blake narrowly missed out on making the team, ranking 13th overall in the South Island and missing out by only 1 point.

Blake instead was Captain for 1 of 5 teams that shot the Plate match, which is shot by all other shooters who weren’t in a North vs South team, and his team “The Urinal Snipers” placed 4th with an average score of 179.89. Seth Wright shot for the team “Roadkill”, which came second in the competition.

After the North vs South competition, the top 10 competitors, plus 2 reserves, are chosen to shoot in the New Zealand team. These teams are chosen based on the competitors combined Schools and Island match scores, and Ryan was chosen to compete in the team of 10t, and shot the third highest score for the team of 197 out of 200. This is an international match against the top 10 competitors in the UK from their secondary schools competition, however the UK will not shoot their match until early next year.

This was a long day for our competitors with an 8am start, but they still enjoyed themselves with board games and food provided for the day.