Forward rolling across the finish line in style were Mia Pearson and Maggie Tarry, who took out equal third place in the Senior Girls’ 3km. Photos Katie ToddAshburton College students could be seen dashing laps of the domain during their annual school cross country yesterday.

Dozens of runners laced up their sneakers and negotiated drizzly conditions and tough competition to vie for a spot in the Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Cross Country competition later this month.

Students competed in four different grades, with Blue House accumulating the most points.

In the 3km Year 9 & 10 Junior Boys’ race, Michael Munro topped the table with a 10 minute 59 second finishing time.

In second was Dennis Nguyen and third was Flynn Mackenzie.

Completing the 3km Junior Girls’ race in 12 minutes 9 seconds to claim first place was Ella Pearson, followed by Hannah O’Reilly and Caendal Harris.

Taking out first place in the 3km Senior Girls’ race was Natasha Waddell in 11 minutes 42 seconds, followed by Jessica Grey in second, and Mia Pearson and Maggie Tarry in equal third place.

And first to cross the finish line in the 4km Senior Boys’ race was Taonga Mbambo in 12 minutes 47 seconds, followed by Toby Woolf in second and Mathew Clough in third.

The Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Cross Country competition is due to take place on May 29 at Ascot Golf Course in Christchurch.

By Katie Todd © The Ashburton Guardian - 16 May 2018

Simon ONeill. Photo supplied.Internationally renowned tenor Simon O’Neill returns home to perform with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Christchurch next month.

An Evening with Simon O’Neill at Isaac Theatre Royal on June 13 will be the singer’s debut orchestral performance of Richard Wagner’s famous song cycle the Wesendonck Lieder.

Wagner wrote the five songs to poems by his muse and lover Mathilde Wesendonck, while he was also working on his great romantic opera Tristan und Isolde.

Hailed by critics as “the Wagnerian tenor of his generation”, O’Neill has recorded Wesendonck Lieder with New Zealand pianist Terence Dennis, but has never sung the song cycle with an orchestra.

The NZSO will be led by acclaimed Dutch conductor Lawrence Renes, who has a long association with O’Neill and NZSO music director Edo de Waart.

When O’Neill first performed with the San Francisco Opera in 2012 in John Adams’ Nixon in China, Renes was the conductor.

“Maestro Renes was a fantastic conductor of the Adams work and I can’t wait to work with him with this NZSO tour,” O’Neill said.

“I couldn’t be more grateful for this – Wagner, for me is the pinnacle.

“The composing of the Wesendonck Lieder appears in an incredibly important time in Wagner’s life and career.”

In 2018 O’Neill is performing with many of the world’s top orchestras and opera companies.

His Wagner performances this year include Siegmund in productions of Die Walküre by Bavarian State Opera, the New York Philharmonic and Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and in the title role for Siegfried with Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and the Edinburgh International Festival.

An Evening with Simon O’Neill will also see the NZSO perform Wagner contemporary Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4. Known as the Romantic Symphony, it is one of Bruckner’s most popular works and his first symphony to achieve significant public acclaim.

Maestro Renes has long been an admirer of Bruckner’s works since he first performed the composer’s symphonies while a violinist in the Netherlands National Youth Orchestra.

He says conducting the world’s leading orchestras is like driving a Ferrari.

“It’s a fantastic feeling and it’s the most fulfilling thing for me.”

© The Ashburton Guardian - 15 May 2018

Phil Crozier was named the recipient of the Robilliard Trophy for his services to tennis at the Mid Canterbury Sports Awards at the Hotel Ashburton on Friday night. Photo Laura BagrieIt’s not often Phil Crozier is lost for words, but on Friday night he was rendered speechless.

As he got up on the stage at the 2018 Mid Canterbury Sports Awards to accept the Robilliard Trophy for outstanding service to sport after years of involvement with Mid Canterbury Tennis, the tears that had sprung to his eyes when he realised that was the reason why everyone had been so eager that he attended, spilled over.

When he was first told he had to go the awards, the 70-year-old wondered if they wanted him to be the mascot for the Mid Canterbury Tennis Browning Shield team, which was nominated in the senior sports team category.

He had to leave home at 2am on Saturday to catch a flight to Australia for a two-week tennis tour he had organised, so wasn’t sure a night out was a good idea.

But he went, and was surprised when he arrived to see his whole family there but didn’t think much more of it until James Cochrane started reading the citation for the Robilliard Trophy winner and he heard the words ‘tennis’ and ‘Chertsey’.

As Cochrane recited the many pages that were needed to sum up Crozier’s work, the man of the moment had to dig out a tissue to wipe his eyes.

An emotional Crozier later told the 200-strong crowd that some of them may not have known, but he lost his son Duncan to cancer four years ago.

The pair were both also heavily involved with scouts and since his son’s death, Crozier had begun running an annual summer camp, something that had always been a dream of Duncan’s.

Between scouts, tennis, his love for running, his family, and a career running his turkey farm, Crozier had always been busy.

He liked it that way, and everything he did, he did for the love of it.

Crozier hadn’t always played tennis.

He began at a young age at Chertsey, but gave the sport away for a fair few years, he was just too busy.

“It wasn’t until the 1990s someone asked me to play number one for Fairton. I was honoured but said I hadn’t played for a few years.

“I still had a wooden racket,” Crozier said.

He was beaten comfortably in his comeback match and someone suggested maybe it was time to upgrade his racket.

“I told them there was nothing wrong with the racket when I last used it, it’s just me,” Crozier said.

But, he’d caught the tennis bug again so brought himself a new Emrik racket and starting playing more regularly, and soon found himself heavily involved in the administrative side of the sport.

Along with Jack Allan and Reg Donaldson, Crozier became a driving force in the development of the Ashburton Trust Tennis Centre, which opened in 2000.

The new, 16 plexipave court complex replaced the old grass courts on Oak Grove, and the old wooden pavilion made way for a big, new pavilion with a full kitchen and bar facility, which Crozier made his own.

From day one, Crozier had been chief barman. During the summer Mid Canterbury Tennis held a popular Sunset Doubles competition on a Thursday night, which Crozier played in then headed straight for the bar to serve up post-match beverages.

He loved it.

He was proud of the Ashburton Trust Tennis Centre he had a hand in creating and was glad they did it right. Initially they were only going to do four plexipave courts at the front and keep the rest grass. Then they thought they’d do eight plexipave courts.

“Then Reg said I’m not going to keep mowing the lawn out the back if everyone is going to be playing out the front, and then Jack said why don’t we just do the lot,” Crozier said.

“And within a year from the time we dug up the grass, we were playing on them.”

Now Ashburton had some of the best courts in Canterbury that were full of youngsters learning how to play during the week, social competitions on weeknights, and open grade, representative clashes and tournaments at weekends.

At 70, Crozier said he was playing in more tournaments now than he ever had, recently winning a Canterbury doubles title.

A couple of years ago he got out of the business that had kept him busy his whole life – Crozier’s Turkeys – so had more time to give, and to play, so he was making the most of it.

“I was 100 per cent turkeys when I was younger and didn’t have time for tennis.

“I probably played occasionally to make up a team if I wasn’t too busy,” Crozier said.

He was still filling gaps in teams, but not always with himself. Crozier was famous in tennis circles for his long list of names and phone numbers.

If there was someone in Mid Canterbury who was pretty handy with a tennis racket, chances were they’d be on Crozier’s list and could get a call if a team was short of a player.

Most of them at some point probably have.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 14 May 2018