Tag Archives: Sports

Aug 29 2012

Sporting your life vicariously – the last Tournament


Next week my daughter will be playing for her College team at the 2012 Federation Cup Secondary School Tournament in Carterton. It will be for her, and many others, the final schools tournament they get to play in. Of course there is always faint hope of age grade representative teams, and other honours, but this one is a final hurrah before she embarks into the real world!

Rangitoto College are this year seeded #6 based on the 2011 tournament results. The Federation Cup is for the top schools Hockey teams, and is pretty mercenary, the bottom 4 teams drop out of the tournament the following year, and the top four teams from the  Marie Fry Trophy Secondary School Tournament are added, this year: St Hilda’s Collegiate , Craighead Diocesan, Christchurch Girls High, and Gisborne Girls High. The Schools that now play in the tournament below -The Marie Fry Trophy Secondary School Tournament –  are : Westlake Girls High, Hillcrest High School, Tauranga Girls College,  and Nelson College for Girls, and they go in as the top 4 seeds for that.

The Federation Cup  is played in a tournament format of 16 Team 4 teams per pool, and then Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals.

In recent years, since they qualified after the 2007 Marie Fry Trophy Tournament,  Rangitoto College have finished 8th (2008), 4th (2009), 2nd (2010), and 6th (2011).

This year then the seeding and pools look like this

Pool A Pool B Pool C Pool D
Wairarapa College Diocesan School St Cuthbert’s College St Matthew’s Collegiate
Whangarei Girls’ High St Margarets’ College Rangitoto College Rangi Ruru Girls
Epsom Girls Grammar Kristin School Villa Maria College Palmerston North Girls
Gisborne Girls High Christchurch Girls High Craighead Diocesan St Hilda’s Collegiate

And seedings

Team Division Seeding
Wairarapa College 1
Diocesan School 2
St Cuthbert’s College 3
St Matthew’s Collegiate 4
Rangi Ruru Girls 5
Rangitoto College 6
St Margaret’s College 7
Whangarei Girls’ High 8
Epsom Girls Grammar 9
Kristin School 10
Villa Maria College 11
Palmerston North Girls 12
St Hilda’s Collegiate 13
Craighead Diocesan 14
Christchurch Girls High 15
Gisborne Girls High 16

And for me? A Few days in Carterton where there is plenty of Wine to drink ! oh and I’m urged to consider these activities whilst there, inbetween games:

  • Paua World, a terrific paua factory and store
  • The Parkvale Mushroom Factory
  • Vineyards at Gladstone
  • Stonehenge Aotearoa
  • Country gardens – like Daysh Country Garden at Clareville and Assisi Gardens high in the Gladstone hills
  • and as a bonus
  • For an outdoor adventure hike in the Tararua Forest Park and the Waiohine Gorge, which has an brilliant swing bridge.

All of which could happen.

Jul 31 2011

I support the All Blacks….


Well no, I appreciate them, but being English I’ll support England first. Sure I know the names of the All blacks, and can even pick some of them out from their pictures. But it’s not really support is it.

It’s like the Ford/Holden thing, you pick one that you support, but when it comes down to it you’re picking based on it being a V8 supercar not the Ford Fiesta, or Holden Vectra, and most likely you show your support by driving Nissan or Mazda. (I prefer Ford, I drive a Holden).

Support for a team though, if you get the support thing you’ll  know that it’s a lifelong thing, you don’t chop and change as it suits. I’ll always follow Crystal Palace, always. I’m a Ford man. I’ll never stop following North Harbour, and the Warriors will be my pick to win every time.

If you support something you do always, loyally. But you know what you can’t just pick the national team, that’s just being patriotic, You can support national team if  it’s Wellington Phoenix, Breakers or Warriors, but they play in Australian competitions so that’s a bit different.

My support of Crystal Palace, it’s like a tribal thing, You pick your colours, team name, mascot, ground, sometime based on locality (almost always based on locality) and that’s it you’re in. Some of you might think you support Manchester United, or Arsenal, you don’t you follow them, it’s different (ok if you’re English and they’re you’re local team then you can, I concede). In NZ you’re a follower. And in NZ you don’t get many opportunities to tribal up (unless it’s city based rivalries.)

But I’ll tell you what you can’t do, create some competition, in this case Netball, and come up with some schmanzy names like the Mystics, Sting etc and expect it to catch on. There is no connection to anything, you can’t just invent names to suit a franchise you must have a base line and existent place to build from. I can’t get the Netball name thing, that’s whacked, and for that reason I can’t see myself supporting something I don’t or can’t connect with.

What would separate the follower from a supporter? Well it’s not wearing the replica jersey. It’s a life long thing, you can’t waiver. Patriotism isn’t support, support is following your team, thick and thin. The All Blacks will always have support and carry a nation that’s not in dispute, but if the number of shirt sales depends on their success, and not how much you want you want to look like them then that’s not support that’s like a disapproving parent and a child.

So I support England, and anyone playing Australia (in any sport). And I always will.

Jul 15 2011

Playing with yourself.


Sports Entertainment
Lets stick to Rugby or Football, if you want to be a pedant that would be Rugby Union Football and Association Football, not the same thing.

The match from woah to go is about 2 hours. That includes getting to your seat, the both halves and a half time break.

Music
Whats with the need that for every stop in play, and sometimes during play, after a score or before a kick that we get a burst of music. Really, what’s with that?

Do the organisers think that i’m incapable of watching and enjoying a spectacle for that long, that I’m about to nod off having parted with some hard earned cash for a ticket?

This is akin to and worse than loud music in pubs that the bar staff feel adds atmosphere, after all if you have to shout at each other then you must be having a good time, right?

It’s not needed, not required, not asked for and is intrusive and annoying.

Half-Time Entertainment
Whats with the need to have a bunch of cheer leaders ‘dancing’ to a mix tape? Do you think I can’t sit for 10 minutes (or stand) and not get bored or wander off? Not have a conversation with my neighbour?

Beer
Honestly I think I can go 90 minutes without a beer, I can probably go 2 hours without beer. I can go 2 hours without the need for food too! Strange as that sounds. Not that I don’t enjoy a beer, I do, often, frequently. It’s not the drinking it’s how we’re doing it, right?

At least they’re trying to stop the mexican wave, wherein half full cups of stale beer, and worse urine, are thrown into the air for fun. I’ve done the mexican wave, I’m the one man Mexican wave world record holder after all. Yet I’ve never felt the need to throw something in the air. Wonder why, it might be sober me., which can’t be true as I have had beer at sorts events.

The Mexican wave, now that’s when the crowd are bored. The game is dull, boring or so one sides as to not even be a competition. I know play music that’ll stop them getting bored.

Jul 10 2011

Sport, Opinion or Hobby?


We make a big deal about sporting prowess, and nations place great store in sporting achievement. There are many global tournaments, including and not limited to the football world cup, the summer and winter olympics, cricket, tennis, golf, yachting, rowing the list is pretty endless.

So what is sport, and why is it sport and not hobby?

As a work in progress over a long period of time then it should be possible to define what is a sport and therefore what is a hobby.

What is the fundamental premiss behind my sport or hobby theory.

I’m down to this – A sport is a competition between individuals or teams to achieve a result or outcome. A competition that relies on a 3rd party to score the ability, progress or ability of a competitor or competitors is an opinion, not a sport, and a hobby is where you strive to improve against your own previous achievements,

There are games of skill that I don’t really know how to categorise, I’m reminded that in English pubs games of chance weren’t allowed, however games of skill were, including bar billiards, shove ha’penny, draughts/checkers, skittles etc

I should work on a Venn diagram since there are some that could be called sport and yet are a hobby. or a sport and opinion. I’ll put that on my projects list.

Sports

Football, Tennis, Athletics, Cycling, Rowing, Bowls, Yacht racing, Downhill Skiing/Slalom, Boxing, Ice hockey, Field hockey, Netball, Cricket, Motorsports, Golf, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Squash, Badminton, Chess, Snooker, Pool, Ten pin bowling, Beach Volley Ball.

Opinions

Gymnastics, Dressage, Swimming Pool Diving, Tricks based snowboards/skiing events, Boxing, Dancing, Rhythmic Gymnastics

Hobby

Scuba diving, Fishing, Golf, Shooting, Hunting, Ten pin bowling

It’s a work in progress, not definitive or authoritative, or particularly well researched, but it is something that I mull over in the quiet moments when I’m surfing the couch looking for a sport to watch.

Nov 11 2010

Sporting your life vicariously


 

Field Hockey 1977

Image by Luther College Photos via Flickr

As you may know I’m big on supporting my children in their endeavours, particularly sporting ones.

Ms16 plays a mean game of field hockey, and it’s between seasons now so all she has on is an 8-a-side thing and a social league thing, so we’re down to 3 visits a week to the turf (one of for a sporting academy thing).
Making sure that it’s important to have the best (we can afford) equipment we notice that the hockey shoppe has a sale on, so a chance to buy a new stick at a reasonable price, even if it’s exactly the same as the one you have now it’s still a lot cheaper than a ’11 model. Makes sense.
Having traipsed to the shoppe on a weekend to try out some new(old) sticks we get a shrug and an “I don’t know”. Something is afoot,
Seems that there is a new kid in town – http://www.toahockey.com – a couple of kiwi blokes who are trying to break into the market with a small range of sticks, and MS16 has a friend that uses one and loves it – hey even the block in the hockey shoppe whispers to us that they are great and he has one – but would get sacked if the boss heard him say so.
So Ms16 arranges with them to try out one. And guess what – the one they put up is their best one, which is “ok”. But worse! they take it away and are “gripping” properly for her – clearly they’ve discussed her preference.
At $349 there had better be wriggle room – after all this is a this year model and not an ’11, and it will be nice to have something that players she knows, and international level, are advising her and telling her what’s what. You never know they may suggest the cheaper one
- I’m not holding my breath.