Kate Donald lines up a conversion. Photo Matt Markham.With the pointy end of the season approaching, Mid Canterbury’s schoolgirl rugby side AshHutt is making every post a winner.

The outstanding side, who have compiled an impressive record over recent seasons, made light work of their clash with close neighbours, Geraldine on Wednesday, winning 84-10.

Before the two sides took to the field the result was a foregone conclusion with Geraldine unable to field a full side for the match and therefore defaulted, but in order to get a game in, the AshHutt team provided their rivals with two players to get the game under way.

Despite the heavily weighted scoreline, AshHutt faced a stern challenge from their rivals and took the opportunity to try some new moves as a team.

The side, which is coached by Grant Elvines, Laura Hanson, Keith Early and Nigel Smith – the AshHutt side were keen to thank the two girls, Steph Geeson and Megan Hurley for stepping in to help Geraldine for the match.

The locals scored tries in the match through Kate Brady, Kate Donald (captain), Naomi Sooaemalelagi, Tyla Harraway, Paris Gola, Naumai Terekia, Piper Jones, Sophie Nathan with Donald adding a number of conversions.

After a recent loss to Craighead, their first of the season, the side now has six matches left in the season should they make their way through to the final.

They have taken plenty of key learnings from that defeat and are applying them strongly around the paddock to get things back on track.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 6 July 2018

Matthew Clough. Image supplied.Ashburton multisporter Matthew Clough had two gold medals in his sights when he boarded a plane bound for Denmark this week.

His destination was the ITU World Multisport Championships where he will face a gruelling two-race schedule, but he was ready and hopeful of what he could achieve in his third shot at becoming the world’s best in his age group.

In 2016 at the world championships in Mexico the 17-year-old Ashburton College Year 13 student was third in the aquathlon, and a year later in Canada he was second. From there, there is only one way to go, and that is first.

An aquathlon is a 1km open water swim and a 5km run, but this year he has added a second race to his itinerary and it is one he can’t wait to line up for.

Clough wanted to give the cross triathlon a go at last year’s world champs, but wasn’t old enough. This year he is old enough though and he will be one of eight athletes lining up at the start line in the 18-19 year old age group.

A cross triathlon is effectively a cross country triathlon. It is a 1km open water swim, a 28km mountain bike ride and a 10km run, and it is actually his favoured event.

“I’m really aiming for a lot. It’s been my goal for a while to be world champion in my age group and now I’m doing that cross tri too and I can’t think of anything better than coming back with two gold medals,” Clough said.

He had no goals in terms of times because speed could be dictated by the conditions on the day.

“I sort of have this thing where no matter where I’ve placed, if I know I’ve done everything I can and have given it 100 per cent, I’ve pretty much won,” Clough said.

Clough said his love for triathlon dated back to his first Weetbix Try-athlon and the Mid Canterbury primary schools’ triathlon where kids had to swim a lap of the Hampstead School pool, then bike around the block and run around the school.

A competitive swimmer growing up, it was in the pool where Clough claimed his first national titles and medals.

“I was swimming and swimming and swimming and I just sort of got sick of swimming every single day, and thought I needed to find something else,” Clough said.

After reading a story about Methven multisporter Braden Currie, Clough decided multisport was that something else.

Currie – a past Coast to Coast winner and world beater in multisport – became his idol.

“I love Braden and the things he’s doing and the way he portrays himself as an athlete,” Clough said.

But he doesn’t want to be like him, he has dreams of one day being even better than his idol.

He has worked hard on every aspect of his sport. Swimming and running came naturally, and his biking legs have continued to improve with time.

“My coach tells me if anyone asks me what my best discipline is, tell them it’s triathlon. You can’t afford to have a bad leg,” Clough said.

A bad leg in Denmark could the difference between finishing on the podium, and not, and with a big few months on the world stage ahead of him, Clough is hoping to start the way he hopes to continue.

Clough will set sail again in October, this time bound for Maui, Hawaii, for the World Xterra Championships, and before that he’ll attend Xterra Townsville in Australia to help him acclimatise to the warmer conditions.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 5 July 2018

Photo supplied.An 86-65 win over Ellesmere High School on Tuesday night was another step in the right direction for Ashburton College’s senior boys’ basketball team, according to their coach.

Playing at Leeston in Canterbury secondary school basketball’s Thomson Trophy division two competition, Ashburton College started with a zone press and attacked the Ellesmere guards with good results early.

But they soon started making some uncharacteristic errors and the effectiveness of the press waned, allowing Ellesmere to settle into their offence and bring their tall players into action.

But College’s zone defence worked hard, coach Brian Kerr said.

“The encouraging thing was that every time the ball was passed inside to the Ellesmere big men, the college defence was able to collapse back onto that player surrounding him and then applying immense pressure,” Kerr said.

College took a seven-point lead into the second quarter and continued to put pressure on, negating Ellesmere’s danger man and using their speed to get out to a 47-31 lead at halftime.

Ellesmere started the third quarter strongly though, as college’s intensity waned. But college’s bench players got that intensity back up and college led at three quarter time 70-56, with a strong finish seeing them take it out 86-65.

Kerr said it was a mixed game, with wonderful interplay between his players.

“Unfortunately, some of this good work was undone by stages of poor execution especially on offence.

“We probably missed a dozen easy layups which was both frustrating and unusual.

“Our break was also a little disjointed as our outlet passes lacked accuracy at times.”

Penuel Pantaleon was an absolute dynamo particularly on defence, Kerr said.

“He was into everything and created chaos for Ellesmere.  He’s not a big guy but his defensive rebounding was great.”

Combining with Fotu Hala (who top scored with 20 points) and Harry Jackson (13 points) off the bench, they did a good job on the defensive boards, while Marc Juntilla (17 points) also had another strong game.

“I thought Abel Wilson (12 points) had a good all round game and produced some great drives to the basket.  He just seemed to score when we were a little devoid of ideas on offence.”

Meanwhile, in the girls’ Whelan Trophy top division, Ashburton College played what coach Mark Douglas said was their best game of the season, but lost.

They went down 84-61 to top seeds St Andrew’s.

“We competed for the whole 40 minutes,” Douglas said.

“With eight remaining fully fit players they all played as good as I’ve seen them play this season.

“With a couple of weeks to refresh and rest injuries before we kick into the back half of the season there is optimism for the next round.”

Douglas said his side needed to keep building with South Islands looming at the start of September.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 4 July 2018