The Mid Canterbury side that will head to Christchurch to play in the division one men’s basketball final today, bar Gareth Hunt. Photo Erin TaskerMid Canterbury’s first men’s team to tackle big city basketball in 20 years started the season with their sights set on a top six finish.

They did that, and then kept on going, fighting their way through to the final of Canterbury Basketball’s division one competition.

That final will play out at Cowles Stadium in Christchurch this afternoon, where their opposition will be an Atami Casa De Banos side that they have a bit of unfinished business with.

Mid Canterbury coach Brian Kerr said his side has played the Atami side twice already this season – once in the round robin where Mid Canterbury came out on top 85-68, and then again in the top six where Atami came out on top by just two points in one of the most tense finishes of the season.

“The game we lost by two, the boys played obviously really well, but we didn’t have big Jase, and it makes a bit difference,” Kerr said.

That “big Jase” is Jason Greig, who towers above most opposing players at a massive seven-foot tall.

He’s been one of Mid Canterbury’s key players this season, but Kerr said every member of the squad has played a part.

Before this season, Mid Canterbury’s last appearance on the Canterbury club scene was in 1999, in the premier grade, and while this year’s side may not have been the biggest or the most experienced, they have a lot of heart and play every week for each other, Kerr said.

He said defence has been key for his side this season.

Halfway through the season things weren’t going quite as they’d hoped. They sat down together and captain Pip Johnston told them they needed to refocus.

So they did. They made a few changes to the way they went into games, and those changes paid off.

“The guys have got all the skills and ability, it’s just a matter of focusing on the job at hand and doing the business,” Kerr said.

“When we get running, a lot of teams just can’t keep up.”

Kerr said at the start of the season, top six had been their goal.

“We left it pretty tight because we were running fifth or sixth, but when we just started focusing on what we wanted to do, we started winning, and we started winning well,” Kerr said.

Today, in the final, the key will be to retain the focus that has got them this far. Kerr said his side can’t afford to be overawed by the occasion, as big as it is.

Captain Johnston said for him and most of his team-mates it won’t be their first final, but it’ll be their first big final as a team, and he’s looking forward to it.

“The best thing about this group is that it’s got guys in it that I coached in the (Ashburton) College side, so to be able to play among them instead of being on the sideline yelling at them to do this and that, I can do that on the court with them,” Johnston said.

Johnston came to the side this season after almost 20 years of premier basketball in Christchurch, and he’s loved being able to play for his home association.

Playing for Mid Canterbury meant dropping from premier down to the next grade – division one – but it also meant an end to the years of largely lonely drives to Christchurch for training and games.

“The best thing about playing here is you don’t have to travel to get to trainings, and yeah you still have to travel to games but you’re travelling with a group of guys, so you build team chemistry in the van,” Johnston said.

He knows the final will be tough going, but he’s confident his team is up for it.

“This team we are playing is experienced and they have played a lot of finals before.

“I’ve played them in prems finals quite a few times and they are definitely a good bunch of guys to compete against, even though we hate their guts on court,” Johnston said.

Any off court friendships will be cast aside today, with a title on the line, and if the last encounter between the two sides is anything to go by, the crowd at Cowles Stadium for finals day could be in for a treat.

Today’s division one final will tip off at 12.20pm, and it will be followed by the women’s premier grand final between the Lincoln University and North Canterbury premier women’s teams, and the men’s premier final between the University of Canterbury and the Pioneer Pacers.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 14 September 2019

Diana Barbu with Andrew Falloon. Photo supplied.Applications open on Wednesday for this year’s $1500 Andrew Falloon MP STEM scholarship.

Last year’s recipient was Ashburton College student Diana Barbu (above).

It is for students who have attended secondary school in the Rangitata electorate, and are interested in taking on a STEM subject at tertiary level, that is science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

“By itself my scholarship won’t solve the problem of skills shortages, but I hope that it will encourage more people to look at training in the areas we need to keep our economy moving,” Falloon said.

“Nearly every day I hear from employers the difficulty in finding locals with specialised training in STEM subjects.”

Falloon had sold almost $900 worth of raffle tickets at local A&P shows, and topped up the remainder of the scholarship himself.

Fellow judges will be Nigel Davenport from Aoraki Development, and Bevan Rickerby, the economic development manager at the Ashburton District Council.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 10 September 2019

Ashburton College netballers (from left) Mia Pearson, Samantha Holden and Hayley Tallentire were named in the talented players squad after their fourth place finish at the South Island Secondary Schools’ tournament. Photo supplied.Ashburton College’s netballers headed to the South Island secondary school championships with their eyes set on finishing in the top half of the draw.

But they did far better than a top 16 finish, instead coming home from Nelson with a fourth placing to their names, three players in the tournament’s talented players group, and a spot at nationals booked.

Just what they’d achieved was still sinking in for the talented young school side, but coach Kaye Kennedy said they were absolutely over the moon.

The team headed to the tournament in Nelson just a week after winning the Mid Canterbury Netball premier one grade final against Celtic A, full of self belief but at the same time knowing that they’d be up against it.

“We did talk about creating history and before we went away we talked a lot about the legacy of Ashburton College, and we are part of that legacy now, so it was exciting considering that our goal was top 14 – we well and truly exceeded that,” Kennedy said.

The result was even better when you considered that in this season’s weekly Canterbury secondary schools’ SuperNet competition Ashburton College finished eighth, and the fact that last year they came 15th at South Islands.

“You just never know a South Islands, because every year the teams change when they lose Year 13s and they get new players in, but if you win those first two games on that first day it sets you up pretty well,” Kennedy said.

“So we did that, but neither of the games were easy, and then it was just a matter of keeping on winning.”

Up until the last day, they did just that, but no game was smooth sailing.

“We were down in a couple of games but the girls just managed to keep things together when we were down.

“They just really fought back and we just talked about grinding it out, and they did.”

Ashburton College was the only team to have three players named in the tournament’s 20-strong talented players’ group – Hayley Tallentire, Mia Pearson and Samantha Holden – while two Mid Canterbury umpires, Lydia Wilson and Willow Diedricks, both made the talented umpires group.

Tallentire, Ashburton College’s goal-shoot, had an incredible tournament particularly on the days where they played outside in the rain, Kennedy said.

There was only one game during the week where she shot under 80 per cent, and in two games she shot at 94 per cent.

Meanwhile, down the other end of the court, Pearson and Holden were forming a formidable defensive duo and Kennedy said they were simply outstanding all week.

Ashburton College’s outstanding run came to an end in the semi-finals at the hands of Christchurch Girls’ High School (CGHS) 34-21, and then lost the third play-off to Villa Maria 39-30.

“We just ran out of oomph a bit on that last day, particularly against Christchurch Girls’ High School, outside in the pouring rain.

“They had a really strong mid-court and we had tired legs and we just stopped doing lots of the early preparation work off the ball,” Kennedy said.

“But it was never a thought that we actually couldn’t do it.”

And they’d now take that self belief back to Nelson next month, where this time it’d be a national crown on the line.

The national secondary schools’ championships will be held in Nelson from October 8-10, and would involve the top five teams from the South Island tournament – CGHS, Villa Maria, Ashburton College and fifth placed St Margarets from Canterbury, and Dunedin’s St Hilda’s.

Ashburton College last played at the nationals in 2017 after a team pulled out and they were called up as the next best finishers, and before that they’d last qualified in 2002, 2001, 1999, 1995 and 1993.

Their best finish from those years was a sixth place finish in 1999.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 9 September 2019