Maadi Cup: Gutsy NBHS eight pipped at the line

It came down to half a metre between creating history and becoming history for Napier Boys' High School at the weekend.

Needless to say, the sport of rowing would have been richer for it had Napier Boys' High School created history but it was not to be on Saturday at Lake Karapiro.

Alas, the under-18 senior eight crew of Russell Dodd, Max Williams, Edwin Laver, George Sproat, Pat Nichol, Mat Kitchin, Liam Kitchin, Luke Kitchin and coxswain Peter Holt had to settle for silver in their bid to become the first NBHS team to win the Maadi Cup in the battle for secondary schools' supremacy.

Hamilton came from behind in the final 100m to clock 5:54.76, just ahead of Napier who finished in a time of 5:54.95. Westlake Boys' High School were third.

In the world of Davids and Goliaths, head coach Doc McDonald and assistant Jock Mackintosh would have been part of Bay folklore had they hung on to the finish line.

"It would have been a fairytale ending if we had won," Mackintosh said yesterday.

"It was thrilling and the crowd was behind Napier Boys."

Mingled with the disappointment, though, is a sense of pride and achievement for eight schoolboys in just their second year of rowing for NBHS.

There's always next year at Lake Ruataniwha, Twizel, from March 24-30 when five of the eight boys will return.

"The average age of our crew is only 16 so we were coming up against boys older than us."

Bay's Mackintosh, who was in a winning cup team for Wanganui Collegiate 25 years ago, has watched many cup finals but nothing like this one.

"I can't recall a race ever being that close in the history of the Maadi Cup."

He lauded McDonald for moulding the NBHS crew to coming agonisingly close to doing the unthinkable in rowing circles.

"For Doc to craft a crew in the way he has and for it to push above its weight as it did is a stunning coaching effort."

Hawke's Bay Rowing Club captain Ross Webb said it was a very good week at a regatta involving 2000 athletes and 48 events.

"Almost all our athletes did personal best times and experienced a variety of conditions from pristine conditions where the lake looked like a sheet of glass to the whitecaps and wind experienced on Tuesday where boats drove their bows through waves and racing was delayed to allow the weather front to pass through," Webb said.

"It was a great race and the lead changed hands a number of times through the struggle. While sad at the result, the crew and coach can be proud of their achievement as most Maadi winners come out of a campaign that is built over a number of years and Don McDonald and Jock Macintosh reached the podium in one year."

NBHS U18 coxed four crew of Dodd, Williams, Laver, Liam Kitchin and Holt claimed bronze in the Springbok Shield, behind Hamilton and Auckland Grammar.

Lindisfarne College's Tom Mackintosh and William Sabiston, also Macintosh and McDonald's proteges, won silver behind Whakatane High School in the boys' U16 double sculls.

Woodford House single sculler Hannah Bailey won another gold on Saturday when she added the U17 title to the U16 won on Friday.

"This was edge-of-your-seat stuff from a girl who showed us last year at Twizel she would be a force to be reckoned with," Webb said.

Coach Rohan Condon had prepared Bailey (8:01.37) thoroughly for the U18 single scull race but Kavanah College (Dunedin) pupil Zoe McBride prevailed.

Ashlea Quirk, Napier Girls' High, came from fifth to clinch bronze (8-01.56).

Bailey, Quirk, Dood and Laver have been invited to the New Zealand Juniors trials.