Archive #57/65: Sporting Highlights of the 2000’s

Increased sporting diversity was also a feature of this period with a wider range of boys being represented up to international level in an increasingly different range of sporting activities.

The decade got off to a stellar start with Chris Hansen being chosen at the age of 16 to represent New Zealand in the International Equestrian World Championships which New Zealand subsequently won. Taraia Robin was selected to play for the Under 19 New Zealand cricket team and later in the decade, Israel Dagg earned his first New Zealand representative cap when he was chosen as part of the U16/17 rugby squad.

In 2006 Kriston Chadwick was picked to represent New Zealand as a member of the Junior Clay Target shooting team. Rowing got off the ground again at Lindisfarne in 2004 and has gone from strength to strength since then. Sailing also came on the scene with our first involvement in the Secondary Schools Yachting Championship and Ben Goodwin’s subsequent selection for New Zealand representation overseas. This was repeated in 2006 when Ben and Sam Mckay were chosen to represent New Zealand in sailing competitions. Ben was later chosen as the Hawke’s Bay Secondary School Sportsman of the Year – the first Lindisfarne boy to achieve this. Squash and skiing gained ground with Lindisfarne winning regional titles in both these sports in 2007.

Athletics continued to be an important part of school activities with numerous boys picking up titles at the E.C.N.I. championships and the North Island Secondary School Championships. James Holden, who broke numerous school records during his time at the College, was selected for the New Zealand team to go to the ISF World Schools Cross country Championship in the Czech Republic in 2008 The hockey team hit a high point in 2002, defeating Napier Boys in the regional final and being promoted to Rankin Cup. They consolidated these gains by being the Hawke’s Bay Secondary Schools Champions for the next two years.

The rugby teams over this period had numerous tours to Canada and the US in 2003 and the UK and Ireland in 2005. In 2006 they beat Hastings Boys for the first time since 1999 and made a clean sweep of all inter-school fixtures including a historic 50-0 win against Wanganui. This decade saw the soccer team marking numerous historic firsts including the first win over Wanganui College in 20 years and the first entry into the Secondary Schools National Soccer Championship. They also embarked on the first ever tour with the music department to Australia. In 2006 they beat Napier Boys for the first time and won all inter-school fixtures. Tennis also went through a strong decade in the 2000’s with several years in which the Hawke’s Bay representative side was entirely made up of Lindisfarne students”.

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