St Kentigern's Carli Davis plays against St Cuthberts during the A grade finals at Scarbro Tennis Park. Photo / Steven McNicholl
Judges have settled on their long list of finalists in the sporting categories from which the two overall winners for the ASB College Young Sportsperson of the Year will be selected.
The judges have whittled down nominations in more than 35 sports along with the allrounder and athletes with a disability categories but still have around 200 finalists in contention.
Joseph Edwards and Scott Scranton from the victorious St Kentigern College 1st XV are joined by Lolagi Visinia (KBHS) as the three rugby finalists. The boys soccer award promises to be a close battle between three members of the New Zealand under-17 World Cup team - Luke Adams (AGS), Jordan Vale (MAGS) and Stephen Carmichael (Sacred Heart).
Jared Panchia and Michael Ritchie from the Kings College 1st XI and George Muir (Rosmini) are up for the hockey award.
Kings' cricket captain Simon Hickey and Ben Horne join Robert O'Donnell (WBHS) in a three-way battle.
Jessica Bourke carries Marist College netball hopes in going up against Tera-Maria Amani and Erikana Pedersen (MAGS).
The closest vote may be in tennis where Carli Davis (St Kentigern), Chester Espie (WBHS), Danielle Feneridis (WGHS) and Mikaela Davis (TGS) will battle it out.
The awards will be presented at the annual dinner to be held at Eden Park on November 24.
CRICKET
The return to the two-day championship for the first time since term one pitted the top teams against each other as Kings hosted WBHS.
Kings captain Simon Hickey won the toss and sent the visitors in. That call proved decisive with Westlake struggling at 26/4 after 13 overs. Simon Middleton then anchored two productive partnerships before Harrison Nash returned to the attack after lunch and soon found himself sitting on a hat-trick. Through all the carnage, Middleton batted on to reach a well-deserved half-century as the innings folded to end at 117 with spinner Ben Horne claiming 3-43.
Kings' much-acclaimed batting line-up was ripped apart by Jordan Sussex who wasted no time in bagging key wickets leaving the innings in tatters at 7/3.
Luke Williamson then joined Hickey and they produced the best batting of the day to wrest control from Westlake.
After adding 81, the pair were separated giving WBHS much-needed hope. At 100/6, Kings were not safe and it was left to Conor Rea and Sam Klippel to ensure a first innings lead which by stumps had extended to 54 runs with one wicket in hand.
At Auckland Grammar, St Kentigern knew they had to attack right from the outset to push for the outright victory they needed to get back into the championship race.
They were frustrated by the home side as James Parslow and Shikar Chaturvedi batted cleverly before being dismissed.
Left-arm spinner Nick Kelly picked up five wickets for St Kentigern as the AGS innings reached 169 to which the visitors replied with 64/3 to leave the match in the balance.
Led by a majestic 103 from Vaidak Raj, the MAGS run machine produced another big total at Sacred Heart. Supported by 49 from Matthew Vercoe Curtis, Raj saw MAGS through to 229/8. They then turned the screws on the home side by claiming 29/5 by stumps with some excellent bowling from Randell and Beck.
Waikato: The start of the term four championship featured the local derby between reigning [term one] champions and the Dave Hoskin Trophy-holders St Peter's School.
The Town Challenge Trophy was also at stake.
St Peters won the toss and batted first with Doug Bradley (39) and Sam Pulis (14) piling on 62 for the opening wicket before falling within four balls of each other.
Tim Seifert needed just 43 balls for his half-century before being well caught by Nik Boyle at point to leave St Peters on a handy 130/4. Cambridge fought back strongly with some fine bowling from Mitch Kirkbride (3-32) and Kieran Carling (3-34) as St Peters, aided by 51 from Ben Schilt, reached 201 before being dismissed in the last over.
Both teams kept an eye on the weather as Cambridge began their chase. Again much rested on the shoulders of the ever-dangerous Nik Boyle but he, on 20, was the first wicket to fall as Cambridge reached 28/1.
Jason Thomasen, with 4-38, led the St Peters charge as they restricted Cambridge to 160 in the 48th over. Kirkbride completed a good double with 44 but his only support came from Nick Bateman with 37. Cambridge were eventually all out for 160 in the 48th over.
The game between St Paul's Collegiate and St John's College was abandoned with only one ball being bowled in the second innings. St John's batted first and made 133 in 39 overs in a match reduced to 45 overs.
At Matamata College, and faced with a heavy outfield, the Hamilton BHS Development XI opted to bat first and piled on a respectable 237/7 led by Matthew Lowe's 106. His stunning maiden century included five sixes in an aggressive display of power hitting. He shared in good partnerships with Maison Carstensen (50) and Shaan Singh-Parhar (24). Matamata spin bowlers Hayden Waugh and Joe Freeman bowled well without much reward.
The Matamata reply never got any momentum and finished in the 45th over at 122. A depleted HBHS bowling attack performed well with Carstensen completing an excellent match with figures of 4-27 from 10 overs. Nick Reddish (3-13) finished the innings off well with the HBHS spin trio all pressuring Matamata's batsmen. Nick Perring (30) and Joe Freeman (27) batted well for Matamata in a tough situation.
CURLING
The Henderson High School team of Waverley Taylor, Maria Anderson, Nicola Duncan and Shelley Addison-Bell capped an outstanding year when they won the New Zealand SS title. Their win in the best-of-three final against EGGS reversed last year's result and completed a hat-trick for the Henderson team who had previously won the Auckland and North Island titles.
In the boy's championship, Otago BHS successfully defended their title. Avondale College finished third.
Although unchallenged in defending their mixed title, Birkenhead College were worthy winners of a NZSS championship. Adviento and Heath will again represent their country as members of the New Zealand mixed team at January's Winter Youth Olympic Games in Austria.
ROWING
Marc-Oliver Klages has joined Takapuna Grammar as their new director of rowing.
Klages, from Berlin has already started work with his new crews.
Klages was head coach at the Montreal Rowing Club in 2007 and 2008 and has had a number of roles as head of rowing in secondary schools.
SOCCER
A move by some schools to increase the number of teams in the premier division of the Auckland SS championship failed to get much support at the association's annual meeting.
While some schools, notably St Peter's College (represented by their first XI coach Brett McMurdoch) pushed for an increase saying "the league is too small for those schools wanting to compete at higher level", others, including Sacred Heart and Auckland Grammar, felt the eight-team format with 14 home and away rounds "was the envy of other codes".
AGS headmaster John Morris said a 10-team competition had been tried in the 1980s but had not been successful.
Sacred Heart headmaster Jim Dale also spoke against the need for change pointing out that his school had been promoted from the A3 grade to win premier status. The motion pushing for a change was lost 14-4 with one abstention.
It was agreed that before May 1 each year all schools in the premier grade will submit a list of up to 35 players and in senior A1 and A2 grades 25 players.
Under the ASSFA disciplinary code, and player sent off for serious verbal abuse aimed at a referee or assistant referee will cop an automatic two-match suspension.
From next season all teams in the premier, A1, A2, A3 and A4 grades will pay an entry fee of $100 (up from $50) and the honorarium paid to the association's secretary/organiser will increase by $2000 to $6500.
TENNIS
In a famous first, St Kentigern scored the senior double at the Auckland SS team's championships.
The girl's team, led by Carli Davis, crushed St Cuthberts 7-0 without playing the last two matches whereas the boys had to come from behind to edge WBHS 5-4 in a cliffhanger which went to the last match.
Some matches in the junior finals were played but other matches in the intermediate grade were postponed and are expected to be played midweek.
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