Carol Robertson’s fantasy themed Cinderella cake won top honours at the New Zealand Chefs Association National Salon held in Auckland.
A score of 98 out of 100 not only earned Carol a gold medal in the Celebration Cake Open section but also the top honour in her class.
“We were at the prize-giving and eventually I realised my name hadn’t been called. I knew that there were four golds awarded.
“The next thing I heard was ‘and the winner of the class is Carol Robertson all the way from New Plymouth!’ I was beaming, I just couldn’t stop smiling. I was on cloud nine. Gavin was over the moon, he was just so happy for me!”
Carol then had to wait to receive her score in the mail and received more astonishing news.
“I wasn’t expecting 100 points but to get 98 was just amazing. I have never got 98 before. That is the highest score I have ever got. I just went into shock again.”
Spotswood College senior girls’ volleyball team secure gold at the National Secondary School Championships in Palmerston North. Front L to R Amber Shepherd, Magdi Grobler, Laura Anderson, Brooke Carter, Back Row – Phil Gayton (Head coach), Ashleigh Allen, Daria Kühne, Kelsey Lovegrove, Hannah Tattersall, Kaitlyn Koboski, Olivia Preston.
Spotswood College senior girls’ volleyball team hadn’t even practiced as a full team before heading off to the National Secondary School Championships in Palmerston North.
Despite this they won gold in division four, and placed 49th out of 85 teams at the tournament at the Arena Stadium in Palmerston North, last week.
This is the first time a Spotswood College girls’ team has ever won a gold medal at the championships and the first time the school has secured gold since the boys’ team won division II in 1997.
The girls had a rocky beginning to the competition, losing their first three matches in closely fought battles which resulted in them being graded into the division four championship.
“We had a team meeting and I told the girls I was impressed with their improvement over the games, I thought we could do well in division four and a medal was obtainable,” said head coach Phil Gayton.
Team captain Laura Anderson was also impressed with how her charges reacted to their early losses. “Our team really grew together as the week progressed.”
They won their next four games, setting up a division four final against Burnside High School B of Christchurch, who they had earlier beaten in pool play.
They took out the final 3-1 (25-10, 25-22, 17-25, 25-12)
Team member Kelsey Lovegrove said seeing how much the victory meant to Gayton was the highlight of the championship.
“One of the biggest achievements of the week was bringing tears of pride to our coach’s eyes.”
This article was published in the Taranaki MidWeek on April 3, 2013
Carol Robertson’s fantasy themed Cinderella cake won top honours at the New Zealand Chefs Association National Salon held in Auckland.