Good afternoon School. Please be seated.

I’d like to invite Bruno Wylie to deliver today’s reading

Today’s reading comes from 1 Peter Chapter 4: Verses 7-11

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. 

To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

This is the word of the Lord

Thank you, Bruno. I’ll pick up on the theme of that reading later on.

Rectors Comments:

Boys no doubt many of you would have been woken by the earthquake that occurred at sea off the Gisborne coast in the early hours of this morning. People in certain east coast areas of the North Island were told to move to high ground and that advice has continued today following further earthquakes much further out to sea. We are certainly very happy to have our Snr Maori boys back today from their trip in the Te Ureweras, even though they were a long way from danger.

Members of your family may have been asked to follow civil defence instructions and move to high ground and I’m sure that’s occurred where appropriate. We’ve been in touch with hostel parents to let them know that if weekend leave plans change as a result of families being asked to temporarily move away from homes and beach houses, Mr Ahern and the boarding staff are on hand ready to support you and your families as required.

Other than that, it’s a case of us all continuing to follow civil defence instructions and for you to calmy follow your caregivers’ instructions. Just like with our Covid Alert Levels, I trust that you will be calm, mature and sensible because you know that’s the best way to help and support others when we are faced with change.

This week we had our annual Rathkeale Summer Sports Exchange and I had the pleasure of travelling on the bus with the 2^nd XI and colts cricketers and the Junior and Senior A tennis teams. It was my first ever time travelling along the road south beyond Waipukurau, through some iconic New Zealand towns such as Dannevirke, Woodville, Eketahuna and eventually Masterton. If I’ve missed out an even more iconic town along that road where you’re from, please come and see me and put me right on that score boys.

It was a fantastic day of sport and we’ll hear more about that later when Taylor gives his report, but I reflected on the day afterwards and couldn’t thinking that it was so much more than a day of sport for a group of boys from two schools. As I sat down to think about what had made it such a successful and special day, I realised that I was starting to use the same words that we see on our values flags outside.

So I witnessed Service – earlier in his reading, Bruno said “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” The Rathkeale staff and students delivered food and drink to us all day. They prepared seating in the shade for us and were wonderful hosts throughout.

The Headmaster Mr O’Grady gave up his precious time to give me a tour of the school and he asked me, a fairly new principal, if there was anything he could do to help me and he did offer some great words of advice as an experienced principal, and by the way as a very proud former Lindisfarne teacher and Assistant Rector.

I witnessed humility. We had some big wins but stayed humble. We shook hands and said well played and there was no showing off or yahooing. I saw boys score big with the bat and take many wickets and win tennis sets love and love, but they walked off the field or court modest and humble at having achieved something remarkable and clearly wanting to show wonderful sportsmanship to our hosts

I saw Respect being shown by our boys. I heard the way our students were speaking to Rathkeale students and members of staff. Always in a respectful tone and that was on and off the field.

When we stopped on the way home to have dinner and our boys got off the bus, I saw the self respect that our boys had in making sure their uniform was immaculate. I felt so proud walking down the street with these boys looking outstanding in their red blazers and polished shoes. I could hear members of the public looking at them with pretty impressive looks on their faces as if to say….. whoa they look pretty sharp. I walked past a boy who would have been about 9 or 10 yrs old say to his father, “Dad look Lindisfarne.”

I saw Integrity. Decisions sometimes didn’t go our way. I saw one or our top batsmen looking very disappointed that he’d been adjudged LBW by the umpire, but he walked off because he knew that was the right thing to do. Even when you know the umpire one wrong, you walk because you know the integrity of the game and your own integrity demands it.

I witnessed courage in bucket loads on Tuesday. The 1^st XI cricketers required the whole team to show great courage, as we were up against it after the first day. Did they enjoy a courageous win, or did they suffer a courageous loss? You’ll have to listen carefully later on to find out.

Certainly our hosts showed kindness all day, but I’d like to comment on another group of people who demonstrated the value of kindness throughout the day, and that’s the teachers and staff who took the teams down to Rathkeale for the day. How did they show kindness? What did they do in preparation to support you?

• The day before, they had to set work for all their classes for the day
• They had to be at the bus very early in the morning with all the equipment ready to tick you off as you hopped on the bus.
• They had to show extra kindness to those of you whose phone alarms had failed and let them down on the one morning they needed them most.
• They scored and umpired cricket when called upon, pace nervously along the side of the court or the boundary and generally cared for you in whatever way was needed.
• I heard many thanks from you as you got off the bus and so well done.

So I guess the message today is to think beyond the obvious whenever you’re reflecting on an activity you’ve been involved in, whether that’s at school or in your personal lives. Tuesday wasn’t just a few really enjoyable games of cricket and tennis. There was so much more than that going on and that’s what really made it a day to remember.

Keep pausing to reflect so that you can appreciate all the wonderful things that happen in your daily lives. When you had lunch in the dining room today, was it really just a meal in a dining room? Just think and take yourself back there now….picture yourself in the places you stood and sat….was there kindness? Was their service? Were other serving you and did you perhaps complete a small act of service yourself? Did you share great conversation with friends? Did they make you laugh? Did teachers take the time to ask you how your day was going – did they make you smile?

So in closing, the Rathkeale exchange was a fantastic day of sport and I’m looking forward to being reminded of the results very soon from Taylor. But for me it was a memorable day for so much more than the results. It was a day to be proud of you, the students who took part, of our staff and of the Rathkeale college students and staff. The Rathkeale College Exchange is a very special fixture, and we look forward to hosting them in the winter exchange later in the year. Let’s make sure we demonstrate the same courtesies they showed us this week, so that we can honour the words on those flags outside the Homestead. Thank you.

We continue our assembly today with the school song, Highways in the Heart.

Thank you, please be seated.

I now invite Sports Prefect Taylor Topp forward to continue with the Sports news

At the RATHKEALE SPORTS EXCHANGE

Our junior A tennis team won with a clean sweep of 12-0. Congratulations boys! Our senior A tennis went down 5-7. Hunter Every, Tom Baines and Sam Lowry won their singles matches, and the pairings of Hunter/Jackson Lambert and Sam/Will Apatu won their doubles matches.

In the 3 - day 1^st XI cricket match Finn Reid picked up 5/60 off 29 overs and Lindisfarne needed to score 272 in five hours during their second innings to win the game. They achieved this in the second to last over of the day, with Sam Bartram hitting 89 not-out and Sam Cassidy scoring 76 to lead the way.

The 2^nd XI won by 3 wickets, with some good bowling by Marcus Sisam 2/22 and James Ericksen 2/21 before the batting of Connor Kimble (48), Marcus Sisam (23) and Noah Schmidt (20)

and our Colts A cricketers restricted Rathkeale to 125 with the wickets shared around, before Nic Robertson (35), Tom Speers (30 not out) and Tom Cassidy (20) steered the team to an eight wicket win.

We won the overall exchange, retaining the trophy.  Well done to those boys involved in the exchange.

CRICKET

In Saturday cricket the Second XI went down to Napier Tech, the First XI went down to Havelock North CC and Colts B suffered a loss.

Lindisfarne Colts A had a comfortable win against St Johns, colts scoring in excess of 200 with contributions by Reid, Speers and Chatfield.  The team bowled well to restrict St John’s to 130.

Our intermediate 1^st XI defeated Havelock North intermediate by 57 runs. Lindisfarne made 149 for 5 with Fergus Benefield 33, Harry Reed 32 not out and Presley Krupa 18 batting well. Havelock North scored 92 all out with Patrick Ross (4 wickets) and Jed Bruce (2 wickets) the chief destroyers.

Our intermediate 2^nd XI played Napier Old Boys Marist who scored 110 runs compared to our 67.  Our top run scorer was Dan-yal Sheikh.  The entire team were very positive and competitive against a very good side.

Last Friday the Colts A lost their Hawkes Bay final to Napier BHS. 

Over the last week Charlie Wenley for Colts B made 79 runs, Sam Bartram First XI 89 runs not out and Sam Cassidy First XI 76 runs

Can these boys please come forward to receive the fifty-run bat

(Present Trophy)

(Pause)

And can Finn Reid please come forward to receive the 5-wicket trophy for his performance in the Rathkeale Exchange

FUTSAL

Our senior Div 1 team won 4-2 against NBHS. Ben Barker was outstanding scoring all four goals.  Our senior Div 2 team had a loss 6-1 against Taradale 

Our Junior year 10 team won against USH 4:2. The junior year 9 team lost against Napier Boys 2:3 in a very tight and exciting match.

On Sunday our senior futsal team had some pre warm up games prior to nationals.  Game 1, Lindisfarne won 2-0 NBHS. Game 2, Lindisfarne narrowly lost 1-0 HBHS. Game 3 Lindisfarne lost 5-2 to Havelock North High School.

TOUCH

In the first round of touch last Thursday.  The Junior B1 team had a Draw 5 -5 against NBHS Sinde Stags and

The junior B2 team lost to NBHS 4-2. The team performed very well given it was their first game.  Keegan Jenson and Will Baines scored 1 try each, Jack Duncan and Jock Lee all had strong games and Ben Grey shows some real promise. 

SAILING

Carl Marshall finished 8th at the yachting nationals last week in Wellington. He competed at the U17 level.

CANOE POLO

Well done to Jacob Porter (year 9) Thomas Griffiths (year 8) and Ashton Taylor (year 8) who were selected for the Hawkes Bay U16 Canoe Polo Grade D reps. They finished second in the nationals over the weekend in Hastings.

TENNIS

Sam Harrison had a great weekend at the Inter-Regional tournament.  He played two singles games and three doubles games, representing Tennis Eastern region for U11’s. He won all his games which were long, hard battles.

Hunter Every won all three of his singles matches, and two of his three doubles matches in this competition.

Tom Haliburton also competed in this competition. 

TRIPLE PEAKS

Last Saturday Lindisfarne College had two teams participate in the 57km Triple Peaks marathon event which included our boys running Mt Erin, Mt Kahuranaki and Te Mata Peak.

Our senior team which consisted of Tom Goodisson, Matt Buckeridge and Harry Brenton-Rule finished as the fastest men’s team, fastest school team (for the 6^th time) and 2nd fastest overall (not including mountain bikers), with only 3 minutes behind first place in a time of 5hrs: 3minutes : 35.86 seconds.

We also entered a second junior under 15 team and it’s the first time these boys have competed in this race. Tilo King, Josef Ost-houzen and Chris Proctor were all year 9 students. They finished with a time of 8 hrs :44 mins :59.70 seconds, which is still extremely impressive and put them in the top 20 fastest men’s run teams. Well done boys!

Can all those boys please come forward to receive their medals and trophies: Tom Goodisson, Matt Buckeridge, Harry Brenton-Rule

Tom Goodisson - Gold

Matt Buckeridge - Gold

Harry Brenton-Rule – Gold

I’ll also ask Mr Hakeney to present the boys with the fastest mens team trophy and trophy for fastest secondary school team

Could the following boys come up to receive their Competitor finishing medals:

Tilo King

Josef Ost-houzen

Chris Proctor

Tilo King

Josef Ost-houzen

Chris Proctor

DUKE OF EDINBURGH

Congratulations to Sam Alexander for achieving his Silver Award.

Sam can you please come forward to receive your award from Mr Hakeney

A reminder to those who received trophies and 50 run bat please return them to the office after assembly please. 

Thank you and congratulations once again to all boys.

Thank you, Taylor

Very well done to all those boys who were recognised today and I wish you all the best for your weekend.

Reverend Dunnett will now close our assembly in prayer.

Article added: Monday 08 March 2021