Driver took out store
Nelson College sports have a notso-secret new weapon helping their teams get over the line in 2018.
The Nelson College Supporters Club has been making a lot of noise all season at the school’s rugby, football and basketball games.
Since forming at the beginning of the year, the club now boast more than 60 members, a Facebook page, and an array of managers, captains and presidents.
Club co-president Matthew Grimes said the idea started at last year’s Quadrangular Tournament.
‘‘We’ve sort of carried it on for the past three months,’’ he said. ‘‘Last year it was called the Blue Tsunami, but now we’ve become a proper club at college, we’ve got meetings and leaders, and we get help from our leadership team.
‘‘Basically, we see ourselves as just a group of lads trying to better ourselves as human beings by getting out and supporting the lads from Nelson College in all areas of code.’’
Club manager Josh Simpson said that while it initially started out with a group of friends in year 13, the club soon grew to include students from other age groups.
‘‘We’ve got year 12s and year 11s involved now. It’s pretty awesome to have that kind of culture in the school.’’
Grimes said that on the day, it was about making the atmosphere as much fun as possible, with the club members coming up with chants on the spot and trying to make as much noise as they can.
The tactics seem to be working, with the First XV yet to lose a home game this season.
However, the biggest test will come this Saturday, when the rugby team takes on top-of-thetable Christchurch Boys’ High School in the UC Championship.
The club doesn’t want 2018 to be a flash in the pan, though, with plans afoot to keep the tradition going well into the future.
Year 11 student Finlay Hughes said there were plenty of young students keen to carry on the legacy. ‘‘People who wouldn’t necessarily come to the Saturday games are turning up now because they hear about it in assembly and stuff like that.’’ A Nelson fisherman has been sentenced for driving at four times the legal alcohol limit and crashing into a takeaway shop in Westport.
On May 28, after drinking a bottle of rum, Justin Raats, 24, drove through an intersection without slowing, mounted the kerb and smashed through the front corner of Smiley’s Pizza and Takeaways on Cobden St, causing extensive damage.
Store owner Robert Stewart said his wife was serving a customer when the car smashed through the building. ‘‘Fortunately my wife and the customer weren’t injured.’’
According to police at the scene at the time, Raats was so drunk ‘‘he couldn’t stand up and couldn’t even remember which direction he came from’’.
A blood test showed Raats had 210mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 50mg.
In the Nelson District Court on Monday, Raats pleaded guilty to charges of drink-driving and careless driving. Duty solicitor Lucy Patchett said the incident was a ‘‘lapse of judgment’’, and Raats had already paid the business owner $1000.
Raats was fined $6210, to be paid to the building owner, and $900 for driving with excess blood alcohol. He was also disqualified from driving for eight months.