Today’s reading comes from the book of 1st Peter, Chapter 5, Verses 8-9 

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 

This is the word of the Lord (Thanks be to God) 

Rectors Comments:    

Thank you, Charlie.  

Today I’d like to read you a poem called “If” by Rudyard Kipling. Written in about 1895, it’s one of the most reproduced poems of all time and it’s worth sharing with you because it challenges you to think about some things in you can try to do in your life to become a good man. 

Our vision at Lindisfarne is for you all to become good men of character by living your lives according to our college values and character flags and you can do this by doing things according to the Lindisfarne Way, which you can read about in all your classrooms every day. The poem “If” touches on a lot of the characteristics we talk about in the Lindisfarne Way. 

Please listen to this poem carefully and see if you can pick up some of the messages and advice it’s trying to give. You won’t understand every line, but you will understand some parts and you can always go away and do a bit of research on it and perhaps even print out a copy for yourself. My mum gave me a copy of the poem when I was about 12 or 13 and I’ve still got it framed. 

Once I’ve finished reading the poem, I’m going to invite a few boys up who I gave the poem to earlier today, to share with us their favourite lines, why they liked those lines. 

If, by Rudyard Kipling 

 If you can keep your head when all about you    

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,    

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 

    But make allowance for their doubting too;    

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, 

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, 

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;    

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;    

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 

    And treat those two impostors just the same;    

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken 

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, 

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 

And lose, and start again at your beginnings 

    And never breathe a word about your loss; 

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,    

And so hold on when there is nothing in you 

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,    

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, 

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 

    If all men count with you, but none too much; 

If you can fill the unforgiving minute 

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,    

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,    

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! 

Ok, so I gave a copy of the poem to a some of our Year 13 boys and asked them to think about what lines in the poem were particularly meaningful for them, so I’m now going to ask those young men to come forward and share their thoughts with us. 

Cameron Strong 

Jett Varcoe 

Jack Morison 

Charlie Titter 
 

Thank you boys.  

I don’t expect you to have understood every line in the poem, but I do think it’s a poem worth revisiting and spending a bit of time unpacking as you work your way towards becoming a man of character at Lindisfarne College.  

There are several values represented in the poem: self-control, believing in oneself, patience, honesty, kindness, humility and others. Each stanza or section presents a set of values that form an ideal character. 

It’s only one person’s opinion on what qualities you should practise to become a good man, but the reason it’s such a popular poem is because it obviously rings true for many people and it certainly did for me as a young person. 

So that’s the poem IF by Rudyard Kipling. I guarantee you’ll come across it again in your lifetime at some point. So if today was the first time you heard it, remember when and where you heard it and remember what our Year 13 students said about what the poem means to them. 

Please join with me in singing the national anthem God Defend New Zealand 

Thank you, please be seated.  

I’ll now invite Cultural Prefect Ryan Palmer forward to update us on the latest Arts and Culture news. 

Arts and Cultural Report 
 

House Haka Competition 

It was great to see the House Haka Competition take place last Wednesday. Each house delivered a performance that was worthy of respect as was noted by the judge for the day, Mr Noho Parata, who is also an old boy of Lindisfarne College. It was fantastic to see Mr Parata join in with all of you in doing our whole school haka. Mr Parata complimented you all on the way you performed the haka with pride and how the haka has become much stronger since his time at the college. Congratulations to Aidan house for claiming first place this year!  

Exam success in guitar 

Recently Jasper Jamieson passed his grade three 3 Trinity College of London Classical Guitar examination with the grade of Merit. Jasper is a pupil of guitar tutor Mr Boston, and this is an exam that Jasper worked towards during 2023. Congratulations to Jasper on his success. Could he please come forward to accept his certificate.  

Have a great weekend. 

Thank you, Ryan 

Mr Hakeney “I would like to welcome SPORTS PREFECT Finn Reid up to present this week's sports report”. 
Good afternoon school, it is my pleasure to read this week's sports reports. 

In Cricket 

Congratulations to the following boys who have represented Hawke’s Bay Year 10 in recent weeks; 
Fergus Benefield, Leo Dixon, Presley Kupa, Archie McDonald, Marley Hekenui, James Boyes and Will Symes 

In addition, the following boys have represented Hawke’s Bay Year 9 in recently; Cooper Witheford, Oliver Cranswick, Freddie Absolom, Patch Leipst, Sam Mellet. Congratulations to these youngmen 

In Softball 

Congratulations to Evan Marshall who has been selected in the ISA New Zealand u17 Softball team. This is a very talented group of young men who will be representing NZ when they tour Prague in June. Congratulations Evan. 

In Mountain Biking 

During winter tournament week 27 students travelled to Rotorua to compete in the North Island Mountain Biking Championship. Boys competed in various categories; Down Hill, Enduro and Cross Country). As a group we were thrilled with the success we had over the four days. Particular highlights included; 

• Charlie Wiffin placed 6th in the u20 Down Hill and 4th in the Cranworx AIR DownHill 

• Issac Dan 21st in the u17 Down Hill 

• Tennyson Wiffin 16th in the u16 Down Hill 

• Konna Schnell 8th, Jethro Wiffin 12th and Charles Burn 15th in the u15 Down Hill category 

• Noah Hemmingsen placed 9th in the u17 Down Hill 6th in the u17 Cross Country, 2nd in the u17 Enduro. This resulted in Noah receiving 1t overall for u17. 

•  

Noah, please come forward to receive your silver medal for placing second in the u17 Enduro. 

In BMX 

Riley Burley participated in the BMX NZ Nationals last weekend and placed 7th in NZ. Congratulations Riley. 

In Rugby 

In the Pre–season match vs Rathkeale College our 1st XV squad scored a very positive result 53 – 14. It was a great opportunity for all those involved to show off their individual skills and put into practice their learnings from training. They scored some outstanding team tries and they look forward to further development across the rest of their preseason campaign. 

On Thursday the 28th of March the 1st XV squad continued their pre-season campaign vs Palmerston North Boys High School 2nd XV.  It is evident that the team is playing an exciting brand of rugby. Their attitude to playing with no fear is encouraging. Lindisfarne winning 31-17.

In Volleyball 

The final game of the season for Lindisfarne White was a thriller. Playing against WCC, both teams won a set each and then Lindisfarne unfortunately lost on points.  

In Water Polo 

The first ever Year 9-13 Water Polo teams finished both their seasons in style by qualifying for the final of each of their leagues.  Senior As were playing Napier Boys' High School in the top High School league final. Led by Fletcher Dawson, Lindisfarne took an early lead, however, Napier came back into the game. We showed tremendous courage to pull away in the 3rd and 4th quarter. Winning the game 8-4. Some great play from Monte Douglas, Oscar Brandon in goal and Liam Monteith scoring two goals. 

 This success was followed by the Senior Development team, made up of mostly Year 9s and Year 10s, playing in the Division B final.  It was a tight battle against Karamu High School. Strong performances from Jed Schnell down the right wing, Oscar Hayward’s defence and Tom Bayliss making some important late saves in goal. However, our superior teamwork proved to be the difference. Winning the final 10-9. 

 Credit needs to go to our expert coach Ryan Schnell and the amazing support we received during the finals from all the players, whānau and the Rector. 

Can I ask both captains to come forward and receive their respective trophies: Senior A- Fletcher Dawson and Senior Development – Jed Schnell. 

In Tennis 

We took part in the NZSS Cup event, a Tier 2 tournament in Wellington in which 11 schools of boy's teams from all over New Zealand took part. Our two teams comprised Monty Cullwick, Tom Haliburton, and Freddy Hoggard, the other team Tom Weston, Jett Varcoe and Charlie Titter.  

In the first of the four-day event, the boys lost both their contests in the round-robin stage against established club players. Nonetheless, everyone played well above themselves, and with a positive attitude and support of each other. Then, as the competition split into a main draw and secondary draws, the boys found winning ways against St Bernard’s College and Paraparaumu College. Jett Varcoe is to be commended for his perseverance in winning a very close singles match against Rathkeale College, winning 10-6 in the third set super-tiebreaker, helped by the strong encouragement from his team-mates. 

In the end, the two Lindisfarne teams finished 8th and 9th  overall.  

It was a very enjoyable time away, and special thanks goes to the boys’ coach Luke Donovan, who accompanied us and provided excellent input and coaching.            

In Futsal 

The 2024 season for our futsal team has been nothing short of exhilarating.  Including our continued success locally, winning the Hawkes Bay Challenge Cup for the third year running. 

We carried our momentum into Nationals Secondary Schools in Wellington, where we faced tough competition from teams across the country. Despite the challenges, our team showcased exceptional skill and teamwork, finishing 19th out of 32 teams. While the result may not have been what we initially aimed for, it is a testament to the resilience and camaraderie of our squad. 

In Canoe Slalom  Ollie Fritchley attended the New Zealand Secondary School Canoe Slalom competition held at Kawerau in the Bay of Plenty during tournament week.    Ollie was competing in the U14 division, where he placed: -4th in the K1 event on Sunday,  -2nd in the C1 event on the Monday and  -2nd in the down river race (which has no gates to negotiate) on the Tuesday  Can Ollie please come forward to receive his two silver medals. 

In Canoe Polo 

The Lindisfarne College Senior canoe polo team played in the regional qualifying tournament at the Mitre 10 Sports park on the 24th and 25th February. This earned them a place to play in the New Zealand Secondary Schools tournament in Palmerston North on the 15th, 16th and 17th of March. 

The team competed in the Division 2 category in Palmerston North. 

The team played against teams from Feilding High School, Palmerston North Boys, New Plymouth Boys, Napier Boys, Otaki, Havelock North High School and St Peters College.  

The team got better with each game played, as the boys were prepared to take on board advice about what they did well, and what they needed to work on. All of the boys made a contribution, even though some boys stood out and scored more of the teams’ goals or worked hard on defense to block opposition goals.   

With some good wins in the round robin, the team made it through to the final where they played against Napier Boys. We watched the Napier team over the 3 days and had a good plan how we would attack and defend against them. For the most part we stuck to the plan, and shut them out, but they managed to find holes and get past our defense at times. The team played well, going down 7-4.   

There were heaps of positives from the tournament, for the boys that played and having the school represented in another sport. 

The team consisted of: 

Ashton Taylor 

Thomas Griffiths 

Jacob Porter 

Daniel Hoffmeister 

Ollie Telford 

Ollie Fritchley 

Can these boys please come forward to be presented with their certificates and their medals for second place in Division 2 

In Kayaking 

In 2024, Kayaking debuted on the New Zealand secondary schools calendar as Canoe Racing New Zealand joined forces with Waka Ama New Zealand to introduce a fresh secondary school championship. This event was huge with Waka Ama alone drawing over 2000 competitors across four days. While the kayaking component in the inaugural event featured only 100 paddlers, it is expected to expand in the future. At this year's New Zealand secondary schools kayak championships, the Lindisfarne College team participated in three events: the long-distance championships, the 250-metre championships, and the relay championships. 

On the first day of the competition, in the under 14 boys' long-distance championships, Marcus Brownlee achieved a commendable 7th place, with William Hunt following closely in 8th. In the highly competitive under 16 age group, Henry Leipst placed 14th, Fergus Denton 15th, George Chrystall 16th, Zach Dalton 17th, and Parker Arnold 18th. In the last event of the day, the under 18 boys, Oscar Jarvis, secured a credible 8th place. 

Day 2 began with the under-14 boys racing their 200-metre heats. Marcus Brownlee won his heat, while William Hunt placed third in the same heat, earning both boys direct entry to the A final the following day, bypassing the knockout semi-finals. In the under-16 boys' heats, the Lindisfarne boys missed out on the top three spots and raced in the afternoon semi-finals. George Chrystall and Parker Arnold secured B final spots. In the last event of the day, the under 18 boys' 250 metres, Oscar Jarvis placed second, securing an A final start. 

On day three, the under-14 boys' A final saw Marcus and William performing admirably, with Marcus finishing 6th and William 8th. Making it to this final surpassed the team's expectations, marking a great achievement for both boys. In the under-16 boys' B final, George placed eighth and Parker ninth. In the under 18 boys' 250-metre A final, the standout performance of the weekend came from Oscar Jarvis, who clinched first place to become the inaugural New Zealand secondary school kayaking under 18 boys' 250-metre champion. This outstanding result reflects Oscar's dedication to his racing over the past few months. 

The week's racing concluded with the relay championships. Due to our numbers, we entered a school under 16 team, a combined schools under 16 team, and a combined schools under 18 team. With only school teams eligible for medals in the under 16 relay, the Lindisfarne team (Marcus, William, Henry, and George) secured a bronze medal, being the third school team to finish. This is a great result for a group of paddlers new to the sport who have been working hard since the beginning of term 4 to prepare for this event. Our combined under-16 team (Parker, Zack, and Fergus) was placed 6th overall. In the under 18 boys' relays, Oscar spearheaded a combined schools team that won the relay but was not eligible for medals due to the combined nature of the team. 

Can the following please come forward to receive their Bronze Medal for the K1 U16 Boys Relay Championship:   

Marcus Brownlie, William Hunt, Henry Leipst and George Chrystall . 

Can Oscar Jarvis Gold please come forward to collect his gold medal for the K1 U18 Boys 250m Championship and to also receive his National Champions blazer badge. 

Coming up this week in sport; 

-Rugby; 1st XV vs Mana College Sunday 2pm at Lindisfarne College 

- Winter sports training and trials are underway this week or next week. Please ensure that you are checking the student notices.  

Thank you, Finn 

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

Chapel Prefect Ronan Brier will now close our assembly in prayer. 

Article added: Thursday 11 April 2024