Sporting your life vicariously – the last Tournament

Next week my daughter will be playing for her College team at the 2012 Federation Cup Secondary School Tournament in Carterton. It will be for her, and many others, the final schools tournament they get to play in. Of course there is always faint hope of age grade representative teams, and other honours, but this one is a final hurrah before she embarks into the real world!

Rangitoto College are this year seeded #6 based on the 2011 tournament results. The Federation Cup is for the top schools Hockey teams, and is pretty mercenary, the bottom 4 teams drop out of the tournament the following year, and the top four teams from the  Marie Fry Trophy Secondary School Tournament are added, this year: St Hilda's Collegiate , Craighead Diocesan, Christchurch Girls High, and Gisborne Girls High. The Schools that now play in the tournament below -The Marie Fry Trophy Secondary School Tournament -  are : Westlake Girls High, Hillcrest High School, Tauranga Girls College,  and Nelson College for Girls, and they go in as the top 4 seeds for that.

The Federation Cup  is played in a tournament format of 16 Team 4 teams per pool, and then Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals.

In recent years, since they qualified after the 2007 Marie Fry Trophy Tournament,  Rangitoto College have finished 8th (2008), 4th (2009), 2nd (2010), and 6th (2011).

This year then the seeding and pools look like this

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
Wairarapa College	Diocesan School	St Cuthbert's College	St Matthew's Collegiate
Whangarei Girls' High	St Margarets' College	Rangitoto College	Rangi Ruru Girls
Epsom Girls Grammar	Kristin School	Villa Maria College	Palmerston North Girls
Gisborne Girls High	Christchurch Girls High	Craighead Diocesan	St Hilda's Collegiate

And seedings

Team	Division Seeding
Wairarapa College	1
Diocesan School	2
St Cuthbert's College	3
St Matthew's Collegiate	4
Rangi Ruru Girls	5
Rangitoto College	6
St Margaret's College	7
Whangarei Girls' High	8
Epsom Girls Grammar	9
Kristin School	10
Villa Maria College	11
Palmerston North Girls	12
St Hilda's Collegiate	13
Craighead Diocesan	14
Christchurch Girls High	15
Gisborne Girls High	16

And for me? A Few days in Carterton where there is plenty of Wine to drink ! oh and I'm urged to consider these activities whilst there, inbetween games:

• Paua World, a terrific paua factory and store


• The Parkvale Mushroom Factory


• Vineyards at Gladstone


• Stonehenge Aotearoa


• Country gardens - like Daysh Country Garden at Clareville and Assisi Gardens high in the Gladstone hills


• and as a bonus


• For an outdoor adventure hike in the Tararua Forest Park and the Waiohine Gorge, which has an brilliant swing bridge.

All of which could happen.