Kapa Haka
Te ihi, te wehi, te wana, te mana aue! Karapinepine ana ngā kapa tamatāne o ngā kura e waru ki te whakatauira i te kapa haka, ōtira ki te whakataetae. As one of the schools that have participated in this kapa haka event since its inception, it was again our turn to host. It was excellent to see a high number of schools participating in the kapa haka Super Eight competition. Eight kapa haka from seven of the Super Eight schools performed. Palmerston North Boys’ High performed very well, however the calibre at other schools was very high this year. We commend the tutors, teachers, students and whānau from the other schools on their efforts in this event. Ngā mihi maioha!
Final results:
Kakahu (Clothing)
1st – Rotorua Boys’ High School Juniors
2nd – Rotorua Boys’ High School Seniors
3rd equal – Tauranga Boys’ High School/Napier Boys’ High School/Hamilton Boys’ High School
Kaitataki tāne (Lead male)
1st equal – Hamilton Boys’ High School/Gisborne Boys’ High School/Rotorua Boys’ High School Seniors
Whakaihuwaka (Overall winner)
1st – Rotorua Boys’ High School Seniors
2nd – Hamilton Boys’ High School
3rd – Gisborne Boys’ High School
Music
The Super Eight Cultural Festival saw musicians’ from the eight boys’ schools competing in a variety of genres for the Super Eight title. The Stage Band went up against the Stage Band of Tauranga Boys’ College who had been awarded Best Big band at the National Youth Jazz Festival at Tauranga in April. Having just returned from Australia, the PNBHS Stage Band put in a very polished and professional performance and took out the Super Eight title. The senior solo title also went to PNBHS with Ciaran Carroll claiming that title on piano and the junior title went to Henry Yan from PNBHS on piano also
Oratory
Speaking up, speaking out, standing proud.
Both junior and senior Super Eight Oratory competitions demonstrated the pure talent that we can find inside boys’ schools.
From the provocative to the emotive and with topics ranging from achieving a unified and inclusive Aotearoa to the consequences we are currently facing as a result of our abuse of planet Earth, they covered it all!
Oh….and let’s not forget a very entertaining speech on the absolute ridiculousness of table manners. Hearty congratulations to our PNBHS contestants. Jacob Waugh representing in the junior duel and Piripi Pinfold-Whanga in the senior. These highly competent young men both achieved second place and seem determined to continue to hone their oratory skills.
Drama
Drama (Directed by Mr Philip Mills) placed 3rd. Cast: George Ambridge: Duncan, Fergus Congdon: MacBeth, Nathan Emeck: Banquo, Kieran Giddens: Drums, Ollie Grant: Soldier, Zac Maskill: First Witch, Noah Purcell: Second Witch, Caleb Rayner: Malcolm/Angus, Karmeehan Senthilnathan: Ross, : Vealata Tongati’o: Third Witch
Junior Theatresports (Senior students and Miss Sophie Belcher) Placed 3rd. Team: Camille Chemasle, Cameron Baker, James Pinfold-Whanga, Lachlan Fraser, Wilson Hannon
Senior Theatresports (Themselves, Mr Dan Pengelly and Miss Sophie Belcher). Placed 2nd. Team: Trent Hooper, Ollie Gillespie, Ali Alswad, Tyler Purdy, Matthew Allen
The standard was extremely high and we were delighted with the way all our young men performed and related to our manuhiri.
Debating
The debating competitions during Super Eight this year went exceptionally well, with both Junior and Senior teams relishing some challenging moots and appreciating the strong competition delivered by visiting schools.
Our Junior team, composed of Lucas Richardson, Benjamin McQueen-Davies and Muhammad Huzaifa put in an impressive effort but were knocked out in the first round by New Plymouth Boys’. However, their speaking skills were recognised by the adjudicator with Lucas being awarded Best Speaker in his team.
The PNBHS senior team, composed of Andrew Karatea, John Cole, and William Wood, performed well, beating Tauranga Boys’, Rotorua Boys’, and finally Napier Boys’ to win the trophy for first place. William Wood was awarded Best Speaker.
Congratulations to both the Junior and Senior teams, and many thanks to our adjudicators Dr Gerard O’Connor, John Worthington, Denis Duffy, and Ty Hart for making this year’s Super Eight debating competition an overall success.
Chess
This year we had five of the Super Eight schools compete in the Chess Tournament: Hamilton Boys’, Napier Boys’, New Plymouth Boys’, Tauranga Boys’ and Palmerston North Boys’. As host school, we entered an A and B team to even the draws. Our participants were as following, A team: Sol Ross, Eli Hancock, Keegan Leask and Ahmad Barzak; B team: Alex Clayton, Paul Kaiser, Tommy Lu and Tipene Anderson.
The tournament commenced at 2:30pm on Friday, 17th May, in the College House Function Room. Round 7 concluded at 6:40pm that evening with Hamilton Boys’ in the lead and Palmerston North Boys’ following closely in second.
Round 8 commenced the following morning at 9 am and concluded at 11:50 with the end of Round 10.
Hamilton Boys’ retained their winning title from the year before taking first place, with Palmerston North Boys’ and Tauranga Boys’ coming in at second and third placings, respectively.
Our most valuable players were Sol Ross and Ahmad Barzak who shared equal match points.
Pictures of Festival: 2019 Super Eight Cultural