They went through the whole week unbeaten, but Ashburton College’s girls’ softball team fell at the final hurdle at the national softball championship softball tournament last week.

Ashburton College’s girls’ softballers who finished second in the secondary school nationals division two competition last week. Photo supplied.After seeing off challenges from all-comers in the seven-team division two draw last week in Christchurch, Ashburton College took on Southland Girls’ High School in the division two final and having beaten them 6-4 in round robin, had to be the favourites to take it out.

But, Southland had other ideas and got home 14-12 to take the title.

The side’s coach Pat Patea said it was a great effort by his young side, which featured only a couple of players who plied their trade in Christchurch competitions, including pitcher Kate Flanagan.

Patea said he really had no idea what to expect from the side ahead of the tournament.

“I never had a goal, it was just to play game by game and see how everything went,” Patea said.

So to finish as runners-up was an outstanding achievement.

The Ashburton College boys were also in action at the tournament. They finished fifth out of nine teams.

The MVPs for the Ashburton College teams were Gemma Taylor for the girls, and Jacob Gray for the boys.

Mid Canterbury Softball’s Richie Johnstone said the results were Ashburton College’s best ever at the tournament.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 1 April 2019

Mollie Gibson,. Photo supplied.Ashburton College rowers are coming home from the Maadi Cup with their heads held high, but without any medals around their necks.

The annual national secondary school championship regatta was this year held at Lake Karapiro in the Waikato and the biggest event on the national rowing calendar wrapped up on Saturday.

One of the small Ashburton team’s biggest medal hopes was Mollie Gibson in the girls’ under-18 single sculls. But she wasn’t able to reproduce the winning form which saw her take out the under-17 title in 2018, finish sixth in the under-18 final this year.

In the same event, Aidan Elvines made the B final where she placed sixth.

Gibson and Elvines also combined to race in the girls’ under-18 coxless pair, and they finished eighth in the A final, while the girls’ under-18 coxed quad sculls crew of Emma Stagg, Gibson, Elvines, Grace Adams and Harriet Leverton were fourth in their A final, after winning their semi-final.

Earlier in the regatta Stagg and Adams were second in the under-18 double sculls C final.

In the under-16 single sculls, Ged Wall won the D final, while in the under-17 single sculls Patrick Dekker was third in the G final.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 1 April 2019

Isaac Bazley in action. Photo supplied.Ashburton College’s first XI cricketers begin day two of their final match of the season against St Thomas of Canterbury’s first XI today in a strong position.

The visitors hold a first innings lead of 100 runs in the Canterbury youth grades competition two-day match in Christchurch, but at the mid-stage of day one that didn’t look like being the case.

Ashburton College batted first and made 120 all out, with Isaac Bazley batting well for his 56 and Devon Flannery adding 27.

In reply, St Thomas looked to be cruising and with a bit of luck looked like easily surpassing Ashburton College’s score at 72/1.

But the Ashburton bowlers had other ideas and produced a stunning few overs to see St Thomas lose their final nine wickets for just 18 runs.

They were all out for 90 runs.

Ben Middleton ended with the figures of 3/8, while Angus Jemmett took 3/18 and Will Copland took 2/8.

Ashburton began their second innings with a 30-run lead and by the end of day one that lead was 100, with Jemmett 40 not out and Jonty Small 7 not out.

Day two gets under way today in Christchurch at the St Thomas of Canterbury fields.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 30 March 2019