2015 HNHS School Magazine | Page 55

Boys’ Badminton The boys’ inter-school badminton competition ran from 19 May through to the 11 August, playing every Tuesday after school. Although we could only field one team, the A-Grade team did Havelock North High School proud. From the 11 games, they only lost two. Ben Waddington and Chris Meekin were in the A team last year, and Kevin Gee and Ice Boonyung stepped up to make the team. I would also like to thank MJ Peralta, Joseph Belcher, and Andrew Russell who were coaxed into playing for our school when needed. The boys’ team won convincingly against our Sports exchange with Tawa College 4–2 but could not repeat their 6- 0 win against Wairarapa this year as Wairarapa, unfortunately, could not field a team. The season finished with the Hawke’s Bay Inter-Secondary Schools’ Competition, held in the Rodney Green Event Centre in Napier over two weeks. This event was not restricted to the school’s inter-school teams and a number of students took up the opportunity to play. Only five boys were entered into the singles tournament. Two of our German exchange students did very well. Tim Friedrichs won the Boys’ B-Grade Singles title whilst fellow German exchange student, Jonathan Strenzke, won the Boys’ B-Grade Plate Final. Badminton Senior A Boys Back Row: Ice Boonyung, Mrs L. Baker (Coach) Front Row: Christopher Meekin, Kevin Gee, Ben Waddington I was privileged to accompany twenty six students, eight of whom were boys, to the doubles event. Although not everyone came away a winner, they all played to their best ability and represented our school with pride. Due to school assessments, both Chris and Ben only attended the doubles tournament. Unfortunately, the A-Grade competition was very tough but they played extremely well. Kevin and Ice decided to play in the B-Grade and this turned out to be a very good decision for them in the doubles as they made it through to the finals. Tim and Jonathan made an excellent choice to pair up as they took out the Boys’ B–Grade Doubles title the following week. The game was very exciting to watch and could have easily gone either way with the final score of 33–31 against fellow school members, Kevin and Ice who took out the title of Boys’ B-Grade “Runners’ up”. L Baker