This blog was written by Toni Johns and Elle Reynolds . . and NOW contains photos. . sorry . . same too for Saturday/ Sunday.
After being dragged out of bed for another early start, we made our way to the Te Papa museum in Wellington to find that we were in fact, an hour too early to gain entry. I’m sure you can imagine our delight at this situation, so, to suppress our wounds, we sat on the museum floor and had a good old game of Fizz Buzz for Shoz’s birthday (and all you other mathletes out there). Shoz, the Equadorian champion of 2009, was loving every second, but didn’t enjoy coming second to Fran Short. Finally, our time came to explore. We have decided we will summarise the museum in a few words: interactive, informative, intellectual, interesting, irrelevant and giant squid. We learnt that Charlotte Badger from Worcestershire, England was the first white woman to land on the islands of New Zealand. Lunchtime came, and a lot of us braved torrential downpours to find our lunch. Quickly, we returned to sniper STEEEVVEEE (who had earlier stolen my hat) who took us back to the hotel in the STEEVVEE-mobile. We had a brisk turn around in which we changed into our kit and mentally prepared ourselves for the match ahead.
After arriving at the Samuel Marsden School, we were presented with a table laden with luscious cakes. Believing that the cakes may be suspicious tactics being used by the opposition, the RGS first team avoided them with caution, unfortunately nobody could stop Georgia “the Cake” Richardson as she attacked the mounds of sweet delights. Following an intense warm-up from coach Wootts, Shoz bundled the first team into a small and echoing room where he motivated us with the famous “inch by inch” speech (from the film, on any given Sunday featuring Robert DeNiro) bringing tears to our eyes, passion in our hearts and fire in our bellies (where there was not much room in Georgia’s case). Dear Fran Short didn’t know where to look or how to respond to the motivational speech and was desperately looking for a team-mate to give her a clue but none came . . ALL were speechless and determined . . Alex was in tears again with the emotion but then we’ve found her to be a lovely emotional lady ( You just have to say lambykins and she bursts into tears !! – only joking ) . Games commenced at 1700 hours and we were raring to go. The game started with a bang as the Spitfires went up 9-4 in the first quarter. Featuring Georgia’s debut to the first team and great playing by all. Next quarter went well but the Marsden team came back at us by achieving half of our goals leaving the score at 14-7 for half time. The third quarter finished 21-13 to Grammar and in the last quarter there was inspirational play by all and the game ended 31-15. Being the first victory for any of the Royal Grammar school teams the whole squad was in high spirits.
Then came the turn of the Hurricanes team, with gallant effort and glimmers of hope, they looked at the first quarter stage to be buried being down by 4. However the girls with the inspirational Jane and Immi held everything together and closed the gap to 3 and then kept it for the third and final quarter, thereby narrowly losing 21-24. Player of the Match was given to Georgia Richardson who stood out with her sharp, angel-like movements. Again this is a tremendous achievement considering the amount of changes this team has had to face. To still be in the game –one turn over and centre pass away from tieing is just fantastic. The Sopwiths team were also defeated but all showed huge amounts of commitment and passion with the final result 9-31. Player of the Match was given to Katie Reynolds, second time running, whose balance and determination shone through. Sophie Eaton should be mentioned for her consistent optimism and team spirit.
Whilst the matches were being played, sniper Steve lurked in all corners of the hall, dressed in a black coat and leather gloves, searching for sniper holes in the balcony and protecting his pack.
Again, as I hope the photos will show the games were played in the best possible spirit and the RGS girls whilst being disappointed were not down heartened. They have come a long way . . and still have some way to go.
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