College sport: Hamilton emerge as first cricket cup contenders

Hamilton Boys High School are into the finals of the Gillette Cup cricket competition after a closely-fought win over Tauranga Boys at Tauranga.

The home side reached 128, the top score coming from Daniel Flyn with 63. Hamilton pace bowler Johno McNeil took six for 30.

Hamilton reached the required runs for the loss of eight wickets in 27 overs.

Keir Beattley was the top scorer on 48 not out.

Hamilton are the first school through to the Gillette Cup finals.

Other schools playing for positions in the top four secondary school competition to be held in Palmerston North in early December are Kelston or Whangarei, Southland Boys or St Andrews and Wellington College or Wanganui Collegiate.

In local Waikato cricket, St Peter's of Cambridge and Hillcrest High School are unbeaten after two rounds of the 50 over competition.

VOLLEYBALL

The junior girls Waikato volleyball competition proved to be closer than in the past, but once again a Hillcrest team came through with the title.

Hillcrest A finished on 26 points ahead of Church College, 21. Te Aroha A were close behind on 20.

Hillcrest dominated the junior boys, finishing first and second with a display of superb volleyball.

The A side finished on 20 points, and the B team lost only twice, each time to the A team. Te Aroha were third.

The Waikato region will host its first ever junior interprovincial volleyball champs in Morrinsville on December 12-13. Teams from Northland to Taranaki are expected to take part.

TENNIS

Auckland Grammar beat defending champs St Kents in the final of the Auckland Secondary Schools Tennis competition, staging a comeback in the final to eventually win six matches to three. Auckland No 1 Kiril Tcherveniachki came from 5-7 down to beat Matt Simpson in a tiebreak.

Rade Radinovich was 2-7 down before fighting back to defeat Kevin Jay.

The Auckland team consisted of some of New Zealand's top tennis talent, many of whom play Caro Bowl: Tcherveniachki, Radinovich, Peter Grimsley, fourth former Matthew Lyon, Marin Markovich and Max MacKay.

St Kents, the current New Zealand champs, were missing the Statham brothers Rubin and Oliver (now in the United States), but still had plenty of highly ranked players such as Simpson, Jay, Waikato's Matthew Stark and Martin Colenbrander, Mark Devcich and new student Yuko Hirano from Japan.

AWARDS

Significant international results helped Rosehill College student Andy Williams win the Junior sportsman award.

Williams is ranked 23rd in the world junior cycling rankings and was the best-placed Kiwi at the world junior champs in Melbourne in August. He won two national junior titles and excelled in senior racing as well.

Boardsailor Anna Eason took away junior sportswoman ahead of a strong field. Eason, from Macleans College, was sixth in the World Youth Champs and first in the team championships.

Manurewa High School girls badminton team won the junior team of the year after a season undefeated in the Counties Manukau region and taking second place in the national Secondary Schools champs.

Two of their players, Cara Lee Moore and Jenna Clark, were selected to represent the Northern Region in Sydney this year.

Helen Marx, Hayley Van Bellen and Amelia Tatolu make up the remainder of the side.