College sport: Enthusiasm rules as teams take to the ice

Stones, grippers, sliders and brooms are becoming the norm for the enthusiastic group of curlers who have taken to the ice at Avondale's Paradice Rink.

The sport, obviously riding on the breakthrough qualification of a national team for next year's Winter Olympics, has attracted 23 teams (girls, boys, mixed) for their weekly competition that continues until mid-October.

This year's event started with six novice teams taking to the ice. With limited ice time available (between 7pm-9pm Thursdays), each division will play a series of round-robin pool games with play-offs at the end of the season.

The opening round matches, involving novice players, were close with two games decided by the last stone. Rangitoto Sliders beat Long Bay junior boys 8-5 and Corelli School edged Papakura A 4-3 on the back of a late comeback.

And in a game much closer than the score suggests, Rodney College beat Massey Frosties 10-2.

In tomorrow night's feature games, North Island champions Epsom Girls Grammar play Kelston Girls High and current NZSS champions Kelston Boys High meet the team they beat last year, Long Bay College.

Massey II will play Rangitoto Ice Cutters and Long Bay will play Papakura II in a mixed clash.

Rugby

Auckland Grammar's strong start to the season continued with their 36-0 win over Sacred Heart College. Grammar have yet to concede a try this season.

Mt Albert Grammar are keeping pace with Auckland Grammar. They thumped Macleans College 55-3 to also notch their third win in a row.

Matching Auckland Grammar in not conceding a try thus far, Tangaroa College beat Otahuhu College 26-0 while St Peter's College, after leading Kelston BHS 17-8 at halftime, went down 25-17.

In the all-Otahuhu clash, King's College beat De La Salle 26-12. In another encouraging effort, 1st XV newcomers Tamaki College scored a hard-fought 17-12 win over St Paul's for their second victory of the season and a spot in the top half of the table.

Led by a hat-trick of tries from Vilaimi Fotofili, Marcellin College beat Hillary College 32-7 in 1B action.

Massey, Rosmini and Westlake Boys High are the only unbeaten teams in the North Harbour championship after Massey's second XV lost their first game of the season, going down 23-10 to Takapuna Grammar.

Massey's first XV swamped Orewa College 74-0. Rosmini had an even bigger scoring spree, thumping Glenfield 92-0.

The Tangaroa girls are matching their boys first XV. They head that table with eight points after their 44-0 Monday evening win over Hillary College.

In a breakthrough victory in Central Zone pool 1, St Marys, in a catch-up game, beat Avondale College 14-10 with Louise Ah Mann scoring all of St Marys' points - two tries and two conversions. They followed that first victory with another on Monday, edging Waitakere 21-12.

Cycling

The rain and tricky conditions failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the cyclists who turned up for the second round of their time trial series on the Auckland Waterfront.

In a minor upset, Auckland Grammar, starting from pole but weakened a little by the loss of team members to a Junior World Championship selection event in Australia, were overtaken by the powerful St Kentigern team. Despite the loss, Auckland Grammar retain the James Faulding Memorial Trophy by still having the fastest time in the series.

Diocesan A were, however, able to shrug off the absence of key members to hold off a determined Epsom Girls Grammar, St Cuthberts and an improving Macleans in a race in which the margins are getting closer. Waikato Diocesan, in their first appearance, finished a creditable sixth.

Basketball

Rangitoto College welcomed Cam Stuart back to their team which had been hit by illness and injury. He responded with a 27-point haul in their 90-72 win over Dilworth. But it was a good comeback by Dilworth, as they trailed by 20 points at halftime and 40 at the end of the third quarter. Dilworth's Lydon Aoake scored a match-high 29 points.

On the back of Tony Wallbutton's 41 points and 18 rebounds, Westlake Boys High raced to a 159-32 win over Takapuna Grammar.

After bowing to Avondale College early, Kelston Boys High picked up their game in the second quarter and made Avondale battle for much of the game.

Avondale, with Latu Tuivailala named their MVP, eventually won 111-72. Shane Schwalger showed out for Kelston.

The return of key point guard Candice Marsh (with 18 points) played a key role as Rangitoto's girls completed a double for the school with their 86-37 win over Penrose.

In a fast open game, Northcote beat Westlake Girls High, for whom newcomer Karla Kairua showed out. Strong games from Talya Makea and Brooke Campbell were not enough for Rosehill College in their attempt to hold leaders Avondale College, who eventually ran out 63-43 winners.

Soccer

Taking advantage of the absence of Auckland Grammar and Mt Albert Grammar on Chatham Cup duty (both teams losing after leading their respective matches), Westlake Boys High went to the top of the senior A1 table after their 3-0 win over King's College.

Westlake have a two-from-two record.

The match between Liston College and Kelston Boys High was postponed due to a car accident.


* College results


BASKETBALL


AUCKLAND


Boys: Rangitoto 90 Dilworth 72, Auckland Grammar 106 MAGS 57, Westlake BHS 159 Takapuna 32, Avondale 111 Kelston 72.


Girls: Rangitoto 86 Penrose 37, Avondale 63 Rosehill 43, Manurewa HS 130 Diocesan School 15, Northcote 95 Westlake 45.


* * *


NETBALL


AUCKLAND


Premier: MAGS 29 St Kentigern 21, Diocesan 29 Baradene 29, St Marys 37 Howick 22, St Cuthberts 30 EGGS 22, Pakuranga 31 Macleans 23, AGGS 44 Kings 9.


NORTH HARBOUR


Mahurangi 39 Birkenhead 19, Orewa 46 Takapuna 20, Kristen 41 Kaipara 13, Northcote 39 Carmel 24, Rangitoto 48 Long Bay 12.


* * *


RUGBY


AUCKLAND


Boys: Auckland Grammar 36 Sacred Heart 0, Mt Albert Grammar 55 Macleans 3, Tangaroa College 26 Otahuhu College 0, Kelston BHS 25 St Peters 17, Kings College 26 De La Salle 12, Tamaki College 17 St Pauls 12.


B grade: Marcellin 32 Hillary College 7.


Girls, south zone: Tangaroa 44 Hillary College 0, Southern Cross 21 Papatoetoe 10, Otahuhu 22 McAuley HS 5, Papakura 53 Manurewa 0, Kames Cook HS 5 Mangere College 5. Central zone: St Marys 14 Avondale 10, Onehunga 29 Tamaki College 5, St Marys 21 Waitakere 12.


NORTH HARBOUR


Takapuna GS 23 Massey 2nd XV 10, Massey 1st XV 74 Orewa College 0, Rosmini 92 Glenfield 0, Westlake BHS 22 Rangitoto College 3, Birkenhead 28 Kaipara College 10, Westlake 2nd XV 27 Mahurangi 5.


* * *


SOCCER


AUCKLAND


Westlake BHS 3 Kings College 0.

This week.-

Today: Cross-country, Auckland SS Championships, St Kentigern College from 1.30pm. Hockey, boys: AGS v St Kentigern, AGS 7.10pm; Macleans v King's, Lloyd Elsmore 6pm; AGS II v Mt Roskill, Mt Roskill 4.40pm; MAGS v Avondale, AGS 4.30pm.

Tomorrow: Hockey, girls, Diocesan I v Macleans, Lloyd Elsmore 5.30pm; EGGS I v St Cuthberts, AGS 5.30pm; St Cuthberts II v Diocesan 2, St Cuthberts 4pm; Pakuranga v King's, Lloyd Elsmore 4pm.