School News

The Under 18 Four have won the Springbok Shield in a nail-biting race that saw them beat the fast-starting Auckland Grammar crew by a margin of 0.55 sec.  The crew, consisting of Ryan Rasmussen, Alex Bardoul, Drikus Conradie, Tom Healey and coxswain Ben McPherson add their gold medal to the two others that were won by HBHS crews in the afternoon.  The Under 15 Eight won gold by half a boat length in their final, and in the Under 16 Fours final, HBHS crews won gold and silver.  Tomorrow, the Under 18 Eight will race for the prestigious Maadi Cup, and a host of other crews will be racing for gold.  A more detailed report will follow, listing all triumphant crews as details come to hand, both on this website and in the Term 1 edition of "The High Achiever".  Congratulations and best wishes to the crews.

The 2012 Super 8 Badminton Tournament was hosted by Hamilton Boys’ High School on the 25th and 26th May at the Badminton Centre on Dey Street.  The competition was a round robin with each school playing all other schools.  Rotorua Boys’ High School did not take part in the tournament this year, but all other Super 8 schools were present.  The HBHS team consisted of Max Desai, Manveer Bassan, Vincent Harris, Vineet Singh and Chris Steeghs. The team was determined to retain the Super 8 title for the fourth consecutive year and dominated the other schools to win 35 of the 36 games played. The final placing for the tournament was

1^st: Hamilton Boys’ High School

2^nd: Palmerston North BHS

3^rd: Napier BHS

The Super 8 Badminton Tournament took place last Friday 7th and Saturday 8th June at Tauranga Boys' College, and HBHS were successful in retaining the title they have now won for the fifth year running.  The team of, from left, Jasmanjot Virk, Christopher Steeghs, Manveer Bassan, Vineet Singh and Vincent Harris were in commanding form, winning 40 of their 42 games.  The final placings in the tournament were: HBHS 1st, Palmerston North Boys' High School 2nd, Tauranga Boys' College 3rd, New Plymouth Boys' High School 4th, Napier Boys' High School 5th, Rotorua Boys' High School 6th, Gisborne Boys' High School 7th, and Hastings Boys' High School 8th.  Congratulations to the team on their win, and congratulations and thanks to Teacher in Charge of Badminton, Mr Marius Kotze, for his support of this sport.

Despite a scramble in HBHS' defensive circle in the first five minutes, and a half-time score of 2-0 to Tauranga Boys' College, Hamilton Boys' High School 1st XI won the 2012 Super 8 hockey competition. 

Tauranga were 1-0 up five minutes into the game, then 10 minutes later a penalty corner awarded against HBHS allowed TBC to score again.  We managed to equalise with two solid goals - Jonty Keaney applied himself convincingly as the second half of the game progressed.  A last-minute corner allowed Nick Woods to convert a goal, leaving HBHS with a winning score of 3-2. 

Our congratulations go to the team, the new HBHS 1st XI coach, Lloyd Stevenson and to Hayden Steele, who has continued in his role as assistant coach.  We are looking forward to following the team's progress in the fast-approaching Rankin Cup.

Saturday's high stakes game against last year's winner, Gisborne Boys' High School was particularly well attended.  HBHS won 30 -13.  Mr Kirkham, 1st XV Coach, commented on the event:

It was good to get the game over with - Gisborne certainly barred up and gave us a tough game.  We were expecting this.  It was good to come out with the win at the end and it certainly put some pressure on us. 

It is good to wrap up the Super 8 with one round to go.  We thought we might be six points clear, but then Napier lost to New Plymouth.  They were our closest rivals, so that points us nine points clear of the rest of the competition.  The next goal is to come through Super 8 unbeaten, as we have an encounter with Hastings coming up shortly.  Then we can have a little bit of a rest before we go into the Chiefs games.

Highlights for me included scoring on half time and right at the end.  Good teams can score at those times and put pressure on the opposition.  Te Raina Richards-Coxhead's goal kicking was fantastic.  He got three from the sideline and scored fifteen points for us.  Also the defensive work was good - Hohepa Gibb got some outstanding tackles in. 

The HBHS Number 1 Chess team (pictured at right, from right to left, Christopher Symon, Daniel Ng, Sivaram Manoharan and Ruben Nieuwoudt, facing off against their St Paul's Collegiate opponents) have won the right to represent the Waikato region in the upcoming New Zealand Inter-schools Tournament to be held at Mt Maunganui at the end of Term 3. On Sunday 11 August at Southwell School, two HBHS teams competed against other Waikato teams, and at the end of the day, the HBHS Number 2 team consisting of Year 9 and 10 students Benjamin Symon, Krisheun Deo, Alister Teow and Raymon Zhou, finished a creditable 4th out of 8 teams. The Number 1 team finished tied for first with St Paul's Collegiate Number 1 team and had to go into playoffs to decide who would win. (Article cont)