Mid Canterbury’s Logan McCorkindale (left) and Dennis Bulloch, who he beat to claim the South Island Golf Croquet Championship singles title recently.When Logan McCorkindale was nine and looking for a sport to play, his mum suggested croquet after seeing an advertisement in the paper for a have-a-go day.

He went along to Ashburton’s Waireka Croquet Club and never looked back, and now – almost 10 years later – he is eyeing up his first ever trip out of New Zealand next year, to the world under-21 croquet championships in England.

McCorkindale, 18, is one of a group of young Mid Cantabrians who had performed with distinction on the national stage in recent years, and this year he has decided to really chance his arm.

With his schooling now finished and a gap year planned for 2019, croquet has become McCorkindale’s number one focus, spending a good two hours a day training, although the recent run of bad weather meant he hadn’t frequented Waireka as much as he would have liked.

The summer season has been pretty good to McCorkindale so far though.

Of the four national or South Island tournaments he’s competed in he’s made the finals in three, and won two.

Most recently he competed at the South Island golf croquet championships in early November and took it out, beating one of the country’s top players to win it.

McCorkindale was currently ranked 35th in the national golf croquet rankings and he beat Dennis Bulloch, who was 10th on the list.

This South Islands were just a part of his build-up to the New Zealand Golf Croquet Championships which will be held from January 18-25 in Nelson, and the New Zealand Open in Mt Maunganui which is held just before the nationals.

But McCorkindale has a bigger picture in mind too, with selection for the national team for the under-21 worlds in England in July next year a big part of that, and the open world championships which follow that.

He is already a member of the national under-21 squad, but knew he had a lot more hard work to do to get there, and he is determined to do it.

His early season form so far this year had been pretty good.

He placed first in the secondary schools’ doubles championship with his partner Josie Tallents, and in the doubles for national under 21s Tallents and McCorkindale were second in the four-day tournament.

Fellow Waireka members Christopher Spittal and Kaleb Small won the doubles at the national under 21s, while another – Edmund Fordyce – won the singles.

Fordyce, Spittal, Small and another Mid Cantabrian, Jacob Smith, were also in the national under-21 squad.

The next big thing on the calendar for many local players, including McCorkindale, was the South Island Association Croquet Championships.

So, with his Year 13 exams done and dusted, once the rain finally clears and summer kicks in, his training would hit top gear.

“I practise for about two hours every day, mainly because this year is my last year of school and I’ve sort of got the time before I figure out what I’m going to do,” McCorkindale said.

After two ranking tournaments he’d got his national ranking up to 35 and wanted to keep improving on that.

At the moment, the top golf croquet player in New Zealand was a 19-year-old, with Fordyce ranked third.

In recent years more and more young people had taken up the sport in New Zealand, and Mid Canterbury had proven to be a top breeding ground for young croquet talent.

McCorkindale was keen to try and encourage other young people to try the sport, which he described as surprisingly challenging.

“It takes a lot of hand eye coordination and a tactical mind to play croquet, the sort of challenge that many young people would enjoy”.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 1 December 2018

Ashburton College Year 13 student Diana Barbu, heading off to New Zealand’s prestigious Powering Potential event for the country’s top science students. Photo Sue NewmanAshburton College student Diana Barbu will remember her Year 13 year as one where opportunities just kept on coming.

She won a place on a mid-year four-week international X-Lab science camp in Germany, one of just two New Zealanders among the 40 strong group, and next month she will be part of a Powering Potential event for science students in Wellington.

Add to that a scholarship for a German study programme and it’s been a huge year.

Barbu applied for the Powering Potential event last year, missed out, and was determined to win a place in Year 13.

Place secured, she says she’s excited about the opportunity to spend three days mixing with like-minded students and being mentored by scientists and PhD students.

“It’s different to anything else that’s offered because it’s not about lectures. We’ll be working in teams of five on a given scientific problem or issue that’s facing New Zealand,” she said.

With plans for a career in bio-medical science, Barbu said she’s excited by her study topic, obesity and diabetes.

The Powering Potential event involves students researching, investigating and then working collaboratively to provide recommendations from their findings.

To be selected each student was required to submit an in-depth application and video focused on their science strengths and how they have contributed to an area of science in their school or community.

Students were selected because they were serious about going on to study science at a tertiary level and had demonstrated a passion for science.

Barbu said that opportunities such as X-Lab camp and Powering Potential were exciting because students with the same passion were able to work together.

‘I’ve gone out of my way to seek out opportunities and this will be a really intensive three days because we’re so like-minded, we’re all so interested in and serious about science.”

Maths was her first love, but at college, her focus changed and this year she’s studied physics, chemistry, calculus, statistics and German.

Time out at X-Lab mid-year meant too much catch up work was needed to sit scholarship exams in anything other than German.

Next year Barbu will study health science but hopes to be able to keep up her German language studies as well.

Like many students, she’s applied for several scholarships and counts herself fortunate to have picked up an academic excellence scholarship from Otago University, one of the most valuable on offer.

It’s worth $35,000 – $15,000 next year and $10,000 for the following two years.

She was also the inaugural winner of MP Andrew Falloon’s local STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) scholarship.

Add to those scholarships, money saved from working as a lifeguard at the EA Networks Centre pools and Barbu said she is relieved to be looking at first year study without a student loan.

In wrapping up her years as a student at Ashburton College, Barbu won year 13 awards for German and statistics.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 23 November 2018

The ball has begun rolling on a plan to redecorate and bring life back to some important facilities at Ashburton College. A group of teachers have taken it upon themselves to redecorate the school’s toilets to try and change a culture of vandalism and damage that exists currently. Teacher Shelly Robson, a self-proclaimed Facebook addict, said she was scrolling through the social media platform one day and saw photographs of school toilets that had been redecorated and painted with positive messages. “I liked and shared the post and a few other teachers commented saying that would be really cool for us to do,” she said. Robson said the group of teachers behind the project are operating off a zero dollar budget, but hope to have one set of boys and girls toilets done before the end of the year. The toilets are currently painted with an anti-vandalism paint, which will require multiple layers of different paint to cover to be able to decorate the bathrooms with the positive messages they want. “Our painting contractor has offered to help us getting paint at a discounted price but with the zero budget and applying for funding taking time, we are on lookout for any donations (of old paint that is no longer needed, or equipment such as rollers, brushes and drop cloths), or labour,” Robson said. Those looking to offer support can either get in contact with Shelly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by contacting the school office on 03 308-4193. –

By Jaime Pitt-MacKay © The Ashburton Guardian - 22 November 2018