Term 1, Week 2, 2012

The summer holidays are well behind us and we are back at school and of course the sun and humidity has come out to greet us!!

The Waterpolo and Cricket teams start their competitions very soon and both sides look to be very competitive on paper. The Waterpolo team had a very successful tour of South Africa and Coach Goldsworthy will have the team ready to take on all before them.

After a very successful 20/20 match in December 2011, against a star studded Invitational team the AGS 1st X1, a year older, have set themselves high goals for this season. The 1 day competition starts this weekend and then the side travels to New Plymouth to play the first of their three Traditional fixtures. New Coach Mark O’Donnell has worked hard with this team over the break and the team is keen to kick off the season. Over the break three members of the team, S Hicks, D Watson and G Ratnasabapathy made the Auckland Under 18 side, with S Hicks claiming two bags of 5 wickets which included a hat trick against Canterbury.

The National Athletics and Road Race Championships took place in Wellington the week after school broke up. Grammar’s performance at the National Schools’ Championships in Track and Field at Wellington last December was superb. In total, from a small team numbering just 14, we emerged with four titles; three Bronze medals and an extremely close 4th placing in one of the highest calibre races ever seen at this meeting.

Star of the whole Junior section was Grammar’s own S Ulufonua who won the Shot/Discuss double in fine style. His effort in both events was all class.
In the U16 Grade, H Kerr did very well to place 6th in the High Jump, M Dawson ran a personal best for 8th in the 1500 metres and third former H Wagner-Hiliau was most impressive in the 200 metres.

In the Senior Middle Distance events, the royal blue and gold singlet of Auckland Grammar School was back to where it should be – at the forefront of the Nation’s schools.

As was expected, D Wilson was a class above the rest of the field in the 3000 metres. His winning time of 8:33 was good, but short of the record he sought. Still, defending one’s title successfully at this level is no mean feat. C Burstall was a courageous third in this event and then he doubled up in the Steeplechase and came away with another well-deserved Bronze medal. The title went to J Moody in the outstanding time of 6:08. Moody would be one of the most dedicated, hard-working athletes we have seen at Grammar, and his National title was richly deserved.
 

Athletics Captain, S Hill was phenomenal. In his speciality, the 800 metres event, he ran a massive personal best of 1:53.90 to secure the Bronze medal. This makes him the fastest Auckland Grammar student ever, over two laps, whilst still at School.
 

In a first for AGS, K Lane won a bronze medal in the 200m Athletes with a disability section; his was a truly courageous effort!

The Road Race Team continued its stranglehold on this event. The Year 9 and Junior Teams won Bronze medals in the 3 and 6 Man Team events, whilst the senior team with the Senior Road Race Titles for the 15th consecutive year – a truly remarkable effort. The team won Gold in the 3 and 6 Man events. The Team was F Wilson (2nd in the Road Race), C Boswell (10th in the Road Race), K Madgewick, A McDermott H Watt and K Esterhuizen.

The Junior touch team made history last year in December winning the Auckland title for the first time. In qualifying for the Auckland Champs the team beat the likes of St Peters, MAGS and St Pauls and went on to win the central zone. To win the Auckland title the team had to play 5 games in a single day and they did this without losing a single game. This team is therefore undefeated.
 

Several boys are available for the Junior team again this year in Term 4, but it was the experience of R Harris, S Stevenson, R Ioane, C Heikell and the captain J Papa who deserve special mention for their leadership and determination to win. R Harris was also named ‘player of the tournament’. The team was R. Ioane, R Harris, C Heikell, S Stevenson, G Westerlund, A Pou – Ruka, W Faiane, S Latu, B Payn, H Wagner – Hiliau, D Williams, J Gagamoe, J Gibson, A Evile and J Papa (captain)
 

The list of New Zealand Representatives has started to grow, J Malcolm has been selected in the New Zealand Junior Baseball Team and Mark Kelly and Reuben Te Rangi both made the Junior Tall Blacks.

Mr G Hansen
Director of Sport