The week in secondary school sport.
Shooting
The annual schools competition for smallbore shooting was won by Otago Boys High School with a score of 561.09 out of a possible 600.60.
The event was made up of eight teams of four shooters competing for the Otago Rifle Association Shield.
Last year's winner, Waitaki Boys High School, placed second with a score of 555.10.
The sport has the advantage that teams can compete on equal terms without having to be at the same venue.
Postal entries were received from Waitaki Boys, Tokomairiro High and Taieri College.
It is also a gender-neutral sport.
Third place went to the composite team comprising three Queens High pupils with one Kings High pupil, Chris Young.
Chris took home the award for best score and top boy with a creditable score of 193.11 out of a possible 200.20.
The 11 indicates that Chris shot 11 bullseyes from his 20 shots.
The badge for top girl, and second individual placing, went to Samantha Neehof (St Hildas) with 191.03.
The third individual was Kurt Thomas, of Otago Boys.
The standard of target shooting among school pupils throughout New Zealand has reached remarkably high levels in recent years under the guidance of Target Shooting New Zealand.
This month, more than 200 teams will compete in the nationwide Winchester match.
At last weekend's annual Otago-Southland fixture, Southland junior Jenna McKenzie (15) scored 200 out of 200 for one of the matches and finished with 395 out of 400.
SnowboardingWhat a season it has been for the Logan Park High School snowboard team.
August brought the Otago-Southland secondary schools competition.
The team consisted of Leroy Rust, Ben Dagg and Mike Goodman, with Api Ihaia enlisted from Otago Boys to complete the four-man team.
First up was halfpipe.
Team members Leroy and Ben showed everyone how it was done, with Leroy placed third.
The afternoon brought the boardercross, a fast-paced race down a tight and bumpy track.
Api and Mike were placed in the same race and Mike was knocked out of the competition by his own team-mate.
Api made the quarterfinals, Ben made the semifinals and Leroy made the team proud by placing second.
The biggest win came at prizegiving where Leroy was awarded third overall in the male snowboarding and, to top things off, the team claimed the silver medal, beating such teams as Wakatipu High School and Dunedin rival John McGlashan College, which came third.
Rugby
The semifinals and final of the 23rd South Island junior rugby tournament for under-15 teams from co-educational schools takes place in Nelson today.
It was expected the number of teams would be fewer than usual, as the tournament was being held so far north, but 21 teams have attended.
Home team Waimea is the favourite but other strong teams include Gore, St Andrews, Central Southland, South Otago and Dunstan.
While there is a tournament winner, the title of best all-round team is highly prized as it is achieved by points gained from opposing coaches for attitude, from referees for fair play, as well as on results.
The emphasis is on developing future First XV players by placing them under new situations - shortened games, many games and different flag point structures.
Scoring tries is important in pool games.
Such is the popularity of the tournament and the positive rugby played that referees from Otago make up the bulk of the adjudicators as they come back each year to be involved.
Football
Balclutha is hosting the New Zealand girls' satellite football tournament this week.
A well-organised committee has been working for some time preparing for the event.
Teams participating include Central Southland College, Columba College, Craighead Diocesan, Hornby, James Hargest College, Kaikorai Valley College, Otago Girls, Papanui, Queens, Southland Girls, South Otago, St Andrews College, St Hildas Collegiate, Taieri College and Villa Maria College.
Craighead Diocesan defeated Avonside Girls in a closely-fought final in 2007.
Finals are tomorrow.
Fields will be set up at the Balclutha Showgrounds for the tournament.
In Dunedin, all three schoolboy grades have now reached their conclusion for the season, with Otago Boys showing dominance across the sections.
The Junior First XI final was played three weeks ago between hot favourite Otago Boys Blue and John McGlashan College.
It was keenly contested, but, as had been the way during the regular season, Otago Boys had too much firepower and won 4-0.
On the neighbouring Bayfield No 1 ground, Kings Second XI played competition leader Otago Boys Second XI in their final.
These teams finished regular-season play on equal points, but with two games fewer and having conceded only four goals, Otago Boys was the favourite.
Someone obviously forgot to tell a well-drilled Kings team, which won 1-0.
In the First XI semifinals, King played Otago Boys, and Logan Park played John McGlashan.
Again, these were keenly contested affairs with only one goal deciding each fixture.
With more chances on goal, Kings was unfortunate to lose to Otago Boys 0-1, while a lack of finishing cost McGlashan in its 1-2 loss to Logan Park.
Referee Chris Boyd had his hands full early on in the final, thanks to several willing challenges.
Both sides then settled into some constructive football, with Otago Boys showing greater composure on attack and being rewarded before half-time with a well-taken goal by Sam Mepham.
Logan Park defended well and matched Otago Boys in the middle of the park, but lacked the composure and finishing up front to create any real chances.
Despite a few concerted attacks, Otago Boys could not add to its tally and when the whistle sounded the end of the game, it was a relieved 1-0 winner.
Ice hockey
The two best teams in the competition, Kings and Otago Boys, met in the section 1 final, having played each other four times during the season with each game drawn.
Otago Boys began strongly and spent much of the first 10min attacking the Kings goal.
James Kennard opened the scoring for Otago Boys late in the first period.
Kings came out strongly at the start of the second period and Henry Bley slotted the equaliser soon after the puck was dropped.
Kings scored quickly again when Jamie Teasdale, playing out of position in the forwards, found himself unmarked in front of the net.
Kings was soon up by two after a flurry of shots (and saves) on the Otago Boys goal saw Harrison King's shot go to the back of the net.
Otago Boys then threw everything they had at Kings, which defended with fantastic commitment.
Jamie Teasdale threw his body on the line, while Devin Williams made a host of saves.
Tom Wilson finally got one past him with 6min left on the clock.
Then 2min later the scores were tied again at 3-3 when Jordon Bishop took advantage of some poor defence in front of the Kings goal and knocked in the equaliser.
Kings took the puck from the face-off and was soon on attack in the Otago Boys zone.
It was frenetic with shots, saves, deflections and misses in all directions.
Eventually, Ben Spiers found himself in front of goal, unmarked, and calmly flicked the puck into the back of the Otago Boys net with 1min 30sec left on the clock.
Despite a good effort, Otago Boys was unable to score again in the remaining time and finally the buzzer went with the score 4-3.
The final for the section 2 competition was played between Bayfield High School and Balmacewen Intermediate.
This was a game of teams with totally different styles and skills, with Bayfield having lost a number of its experienced players this year, compared with a much younger, smaller and experienced skating team in Balmacewen.
Both teams played positively with the first goal going to the Bayfield team.
Balmacewen continued to attack the Bayfield goal and the game went from one end of the ice to the other.
At half-time the score was 2-0 to Bayfield.
Balmacewen dominated the second half but Bayfield hung on to win 3-1.
These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Assn Inc (OSSSA) which is proudly sponsored by the University of Otago College of Education.
Contacts: Des Smith, Otago regional sports director, PO Box 6303, Dunedin.
Ph 470-1337 Fax 470-1786 Email: des@osssa.org.nz Website: www.osssa.org.nz
Calendar of events
Tournament week (Sept 1-4)
• South Island ice hockey, Dunedin Ice Stadium.
• South Island netball, Edgar Sports Centre.
• New Zealand schoolgirls football, Balclutha.
• India Shield hockey, McMillan Turf.
