Three teams in with a shout

Three Wairarapa teams will be bidding for premier division grand final spots when the semi-finals of the Wellington secondary schools hockey competitions are played at the National Hockey Stadium in Newtown tomorrow night.
In the boys competition top seeds Wairarapa College will be up against fourth seeds Wellington College while in the girls competition will be top seeds Wairarapa College playing fourth seeds Wellington East and second seeds St Matthew's Collegiate up against Samuel Marsden College.
The Wairarapa College boys will going into their semi-final hard on the back of an impressive showing at Rankin Cup tourney where they finished with a seeding of seventh.
There was no disgrace in losses to Auckland Grammar, who have won the Rankin Cuop something like 20 times in the last 25 years, and defending champions Westlake Boys High and there were strong wins over Rangitoto, Marlborough Boys and, in the playoff for seventh and eighth, Palmerston North Boys High.
Interestingly enough Wairarapa College were due to play tomorrow night's opponents, Wellington College, in the last of their preliminary round games a fortnight back and Wellington College defaulted.
That might suggest Wellington College were keen to keep something up their sleeves for the semis but if the form book counts for anything they will be hard put to measure up to a Wairarapa College side boasting such exciting talent as skipper Bryden Henson, Trent Lett, William Annear,. Mitchell Blackwood and Benedict van Woerkom.
Both the Wairarapa College at St Matthew's girls team contested the Federation Cup national tourney in Wellington last week and had every reason to be proud of their efforts, Wairarapa College finishing with a seeding of eighth and St Matthew's ninth.
The toughness of the draw for Wairarapa College was illustrated by them fronting up to the teams who eventually finished first, second and fifth yet they were never beaten by more than two goals. And they also posted the highest score of the tourney with their 7-0 thumping of Kirsten School from Auckland.
Five of the Wairarapa College side are Wairarapa under-18 reps-Libby Noema, Chloe Stevens, Maddisen Frederiksen, Kelsie Governor and Georgia Burton- and seven more are in the Wairarapa under-16s, Katherine van Woerkom, April Campbell, Shannon Campbell, Megan Hull, Felicity Reidy, Olivia Van der Veen and Jess Watson.
Captain Jess Lucas has made the Manawatu under-18 side and the Central Districts under-21 team, goalie Loren Hartnell was the team's most valuable player at Federation Cup , Shakira Baker was their highest goal scorer there and is, of course, a star Wellington NPC rugby player and Jaimi Stewart and Anna Keen have only recently returned from contesting a national soccer competition.
A win over Wellington East tomorrow night is no foregone conclusion for Wairarapa College but they will start warm favourites, unlike St Matthew's whose battle with a powerful Samuel Marsden line-up should go right to the wire. As it did the last time they met when a draw was the end result..
St Matthew's were victims of the vagaries of tournament play at the Federation Cup as they ended up ninth despite losing just the one match and securing five wins along the way.They too have several Wairarapa age group reps in their side, including one of the stars of the Dalefield senior women's squad this season in Amanda Pottinger The Anderson twins, Jenna and Kristy, should provide punch up front and others likely to shine include goalkeeper Catherine Taylor, Jade Foreman, Ashleigh Marfell and Morgan Percy.