School News

In the final week of the summer holidays, the Hamilton Boys' High first XI cricket team competed in the Super 8 cricket tournament in Rotorua. We produced an extremely young side including 4 year 11’s and 6 year 12’s. Despite this, we still held high expectations of ourselves over the week.

 In our first game we came up against Hastings Boys’ High School. We won the toss and batted first, as Hastings came out firing, ripping through our batting line-up as we were bowled out for a disappointing 98. The only form of resistance came from Matt Lowe who scored 30. The team were fired up as we bowled Hastings out for 70 with Maison Carstensen and Te Raina Richards-Coxhead picking up 3 wickets and Matt Wallbank picking up 2.

In our second game we defeated Gisborne Boys High school by 45 runs. We batted first and compiled 160. Danyn Stewart top scored with 38. We then dominated in the field, bowling Gisborne out for 115. Maison Carstensen was the chief destroyer, taking 4 wickets. Matt Wallbank and TeRaina Richards-Coxhead also picked up 2 wickets each.

For cross country runners, any day is a good day to run but it did help that this year’s Super 8 event in New Plymouth emerged as a magnificent autumnal day.  The Super 8 event is second only to the National Secondary Schools Cross Country  in terms of the quality of competition and many very talented, nationally ranked athletes were on display over the challenging, undulating course.

With a young team, our goal was to improve on our 6th placing of the previous two years.

Our Year 9 team of Jacob Priddey, Marek Schirnack, Finn Maunsell and Hamuera Lee made a superb start to the day placing 3rd in the 3-man team event. Arguably the most exciting race of the day, Jacob Priddey led the field through the first 1500m lap.  He slipped back to second place mid-way through the second lap but, with an impressive and incredibly gutsy sprint to the finish, closed the 10 metre gap to the Tauranga runner, narrowly missing out on first place in a photo finish.

HBHS fielded a large contingent of runners at the Super 8 Cross Country meet in Palmerston North on Monday 14 May.   Our 3-man senior boys team placed second overall (Jacob Priddey, Tom Mclaughlin and Theunis Pieters) in a very strong field of competitors.

What is cross country running?

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain.  The course, typically 4-12 kilometres long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road.  It is both an individual and a team sport as runners are judged on an individual basis and a points scoring method for teams. Both men and women of all ages compete in cross country, which usually takes place during autumn and winter, and can include weather conditions of rain, sleet, snow or hail, and a wide range of temperatures. 

The 2011 Super 8 Cross Country Race was held in Tauranga on Monday 30 May.  HBHS came second overall, which is the strongest performance in the school's recent history.  The results are as follows:

Yesterday in Palmerston North, the HBHS Super 8 Cross Country team was able to take out the competition for the first time since it began twelve years ago, and did so in convincing fashion, with a team total of 52 points with the second-place team 21 points behind.  The Junior Boys Under 16 team placed 2nd overall, the Senior Boys team placed 1st overall, and the outstanding Year 9 team of Isaiah Priddey, Sam Montgomerie, Liam Steffert, Connor Tristam, Bradley Cullen and Sean Lovelock, with great support from newcomers Waikare West and Sean Trowern also coming in first.  These excellent results put the team on target for a 3-man and 6-man placing at the New Zealand Cross Country Championships in Christchurch in two weeks time.  Congratulations and thanks to coach Mr Vaughan Priddey and teacher in charge of Cross Country Mrs Tonia Heeps.  The full team list and placings is as follows:  (cont)

Last Friday, HBHS musicians, debators, speakers and actors headed to Rotorual Boys' High School for the annual Super 8 Cultural Festival, and these talented performers were rewarded for their efforts.  A detailed write-up of the event will feature in the Term 2 High Achiever, and the results are as follows.  HBHS Head Prefect Sam Franicevic won the solo Music Performance, whilst the HBHS Junior Music Performer was 3rd.  It was a double header for the TheatreSports teams, as both the HBHS Junior and Senior teams won.  The Junior Debaters were also successful, and the HBHS Senior team were unlucky to lose in the final.  In Oratory, HBHS was 2nd in the Junior Speech Competition, whilst Alex Kennedy continued his impressive run this year and won the Senior Oratory Competition.  Finally, HBHS placed third in Drama.  Thanks must go to Mr James Sutherland, Mr Adrian Botting, Mr Colin Leach, and Mr Kevin Brown for their contributions to HBHS's success at the festival.