Equestrian: Personal high
Carolyn O'Grady, a Year 12 student at Tauranga Girls College, recently travelled to O'Dea Honda's Egmont A&P; show in Hawera with her mount, The Dreamer.
They took part in the two-fence challenge, an event in which the rails are progressively raised and you must clear the jump to move on to the next round, and they cleared the highest jump, set at 1.60m.
For this achievement they were presented first place by the Topp Twins. This competition was a big challenge for both The Dreamer and Carolyn as neither had jumped higher than 1.35m before.
Carolyn now has her sights on a new challenge, with the recent purchase of Blazing Haze, a 16hh grey gelding who she plans to compete in young rider classes (1.35-1.45m) and horse grand prix.
She plans to keep him while she studies veterinary science at university, and eventually would like to represent New Zealand in show jumping and compete at world cup level(1.40-1.60m).
Archery: Golden battle
Last weekend two members of the Tauranga Archers competed in the One Tree Hill Cup held at the Auckland Archery Club.
The competition is restricted to 15 Recurve and 15 Compound archers. It is an open division so juniors and seniors are all in together. The first day's shoot consists of 2 x 720's (72 arrows fired from 70m for recurve bows and 50m for compound bows). Both our archers shoot recurve bows. After the first day Trevor Kennerson was fifth and Mykel Turner seventh.
The following day was non-elimination matchplay.
Trevor first came up against the archer ranked 12th, then on to the fourth-ranked archer, and in the semifinals he shot against the top-ranked archer, and he beat them all.
Mykel also won three matches against the 10th- and second-ranked archers, and in the semifinals the third-ranked archer.
So both Tauranga archers fought it out for the gold in the final matchplay.
Mykel, a junior, had never been in a medal matchplay before but pushed Trevor all the way to the end. The match was even after five sets so it went to a one arrow shoot-off, with both of them shooting an eight, but Trevor's arrow was closer to the centre of the target which meant he won.
A good day for Tauranga Archers. Well done to them both.
Rugby: Hohneck injury
Super Rugby champions the Chiefs have signed prop Pauliasi Manu for next season to replace injured Steamers prop Josh Hohneck.
Hohneck badly damaged his ankle in a farming accident while drenching cattle.
The extent of Hohneck's injury and the predicted rehabilitation length means he will not be fit to play Investec Super Rugby for the 2013 season.
"This is hugely disappointing for us and Josh," said coach Dave Rennie. "He's a top man and made a big impression on us last season. However, we have found an excellent replacement in Pauliasi Manu."
Manu had initially signed with the Melbourne Rebels but through their medical processes was thought to have a previous neck condition. Further investigations and multiple opinions by Manu's ITM Cup doctor, Chiefs' doctor James McGarvey, and the NZRU medical director Dr Ian Murphy, have cleared Pauliasi completely fit to play.
"After Josh's injury we were in the market for a prop and to get one with his experience was ideal for us," said Rennie.
"Different organisations have varying medical processes, but we are very comfortable with the high level of investigations that have taken place in New Zealand, including that of a spinal specialist which have all cleared Pauliasi fit."
Manu is a member of the Auckland ITM Cup team and played for the Blues in 2011 and 2012.
Softball: Weekend wrap
In the men's games on Saturday, what was unofficially billed as the possible top game of the day between the two unofficially top-ranked Te Whanau Rangers and Tauranga City Stealers teams proved to be rather low scoring.
Both team's pitchers managed to shut down the scoring. There was some promise early for Rangers when they led 3-0 at the bottom of the fourth innings. However, the promise was not fulfilled and although the game went the distance there was no further score and Rangers won 3-0.
In the first men's game, Tauranga City Stealers v Cardinals ended up 7-7.
What turned out to be the top games of the day were the two women's matches of top-ranking Cardinals, who twice looked well beaten but then dramatically turned the tables.
In their first game, Cardinals were up against middle-ranked Otepou, who took an early 2-0 lead. At the bottom of the fourth innings Otepou had what looked like a possible winning 6-1 lead.
However, by the end of the fifth, Otepou's lead had been reduced to 6-5. In the seventh innings Otepou supporters could only watch in disbelief as Cardinals went on a scoring spree taking advantage of every Otepou error to win 12-6.
In their second game, Cardinals were up against highly ranked Tauranga City Stealettes, who took an early 1-0 lead and increased it to 4-0. Once again the Cardinals began taking advantage of every error of Stealettes - the dropped catch, mishandled ball, ball thrown to wrong base, fumbled tag, and themselves sneaking bases, serving up rocket-fast base running, and tightening up their pitching and fielding. The Cardinals ended up winning 8-5.
In other men's games, the Te Kahu Braves v Te Puke proved to be fairly even with the score 6-6 at the top of the fourth. But Braves had a slight edge which they put to good use to win 12-10.
In the Te Whanau Rangers v Te Puke men's game, Rangers took an early 7-2 lead but Te Puke put up a good fight and scored a few runs with vociferous spectator support. Rangers in the end did have a fairly decisive 13-7 victory.
In other women's games, there were a group of easy victories when Rangataua beat Ngati Kahu 16-1, Otepou beat Te Puke 14-1, and Tauranga City Stealettes beat Te Puke 14-0.
Western Bay of Plenty Senior Softball Competition Dec 8
Men: Cardinals 7, Tauranga City Stealers 7; Ngati Kahu Braves 12 , Te Puke 10;
Te Whanau Rangers 3, Tauranga City Stealers 0; Te Whanau Rangers 13, Te Puke 7.
Women: Rangataua 16, Ngati Kahu 1; Otepou 16, Te Puke 1;Tauranga City Stealettes 14, Te Puke 0; Cardinals 12, Otepou 6; Cardinals 8, Tauranga City Stealettes 5.
Seven internationals are scheduled for the upcoming season.