Ashburton College 1st XI batsmen Angus Jemmett and James Forbes meet in the middle for a conference during their match against Christchurch Boys’ High on Saturday. Photo Linda ClarkeThe Ashburton College 1st XI overcame a second innings batting collapse to record an outright win over Christchurch Boys 3rd XI on another hot Saturday at the domain.

The day started to plan with Tom Ravenscroft and Will Graham continuing to score runs and they took the score to 90 before Graham fell for 39.

The rest of the batting looked like an old fashioned phone number 2, 0, 0, 4, 2, 5, 5, 0, with the only resistance coming from Ravenscroft who batted for over two hours for a very well complied 73 in Ashburton College’s 139 all out.

That left Boys’ High 225 to win in a minimum of 75 overs.

Boys’ High lost an early wicket when Ben Niles took a sharp chance at slip off Graham to remove their dangerous opener, then Harry McMillan and Gareth Hunt picked up a wicket each to have the visitors 20/3 at lunch.

Boys’ High were looking untroubled after lunch as their two batsmen put on 77 runs before Niles broke the partnership with the first of his three wickets.

Year 9 player Angus Jemmett was given the responsibility of being the team’s spin bowler and was rewarded with three wickets.

Jarod Hopwood finished off the innings when he took a great catch off Hunt to see Boys’ High all out for 138.

The boys play St Thomas’ at home the next two weeks before they head away for their last two games.

By Linda Clark © The Ashburton Guardian - 10 February 2017

It’s the end of an era for the former Ashburton Community Pool on walnut Avenue.

A digger, pictured, made short work of razing the pool building to the ground on Tuesday, laying to rest decades of swimming history.

The demolition of the pool is a joint project between Ashburton council and the Ministry of Education, on whose land the pool sits.

Council will contribute $75,000 to cover its portion of the demolition cost, with the Ministry of Education covering the remainder.

The Ashburton Community Pool was officially opened on March 27, 1982, but was closed in May 2015 after the construction of EA Networks Centre.

© The Ashburton Courier - 9 February 2017

George, Karl and Hugh Donaldson were all in superb form at the Asia-Oceania Waterski Championships.Ashburton water-skiing dynamos, the Donaldsons, have been back doing what they do best, again.

The highly successful family had three of its members competing at the biannual, Asia-Oceania Waterski Championships in Northland.

And as is becoming customary, they competed with great success.

Twin brothers George and Hugh were in fine form, while elder brother Karl produced some great results as well.

All three produced personal best efforts during the championship and they all managed to place in the top five skiers overall.

The championships consisted of nine countries from around Asia and Oceania with all five disciplines on offer across two different lakes.

Barefoot and the tournament competition was held at Lake Kereta while Wakeboard and Ski Racing was held at Lake Karipiro.

New Zealand claimed overall honours in the 40+ teams event, beating Japan in Australia and they also finished second in two other categories, open teams and under 17 teams – both behind Australia.

Karl, who competed in the New Zealand open team, was up against some strong opposition but produced consistent results over the three events to place fifth overall.

He produced a personal best in both rounds of jump – a notable achievement considering it hadn’t been something he’d been seriously focusing on leading up to the event due to Canterbury’s northerly tail winds.

It was Hugh who claimed honours with a gold medal in the under 17 overall category – finding a spot on the podium in all three events – a further recognition of his efforts which saw him ranked 8th at the Junior Worlds earlier this year.

He claimed three silvers in the three events and picked up personal bests along the way too.

George had a difficult start to his championships when he fell on his first flip and missed out on making the tracks final.

That put the pressure on him and he produced a remarkable comeback to find himself claiming the bronze medal on the overall podium, helped in large to his gold medal effort in the slalom event where he produced a personal best.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 10 February 2017