SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge Highway Regional

SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge

Highway Regional

Westville Girls’ High School: Sunday 6 May

Maintaining their reign, St Mary’s DSG defended their title in the Highway Regional of the SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge in a hard-fought battle against hosts, Westville Girls High School.

Saints added to their six titles in this regional when they managed to defeat Westville in a riveting final that concluded in a penalty shootout. Saints opened up their account with their first goal smashed in after 66 seconds of play, by a powerful shot by ace striker, Kiana-Che Cormack. The ball was pushed right from the castle to Cormack who controlled the ball and then sent it flying.

Saints camped out around the Westville circle, earning themselves another two short corners that were both defended. They also had three shots at goal that Westville dealt with valiantly. With 95seconds remaining in the first half Tayla Thwaits found herself unmarked in front of the goals, spun around controlling the ball to the left of her, and slipped the ball in with a cheeky shot notching up the second goal for Saints.

Saints continued dominating the final with their fourth short corner that Westville again defended. In a moment of brilliance, Kerryn Swanepoel ignited her Westville team with a solo run down the left, leaving Saints scrambling with only two defenders still at the back. Swanepoel weaved around the first, dodging the second but the first Saints defender chopped Swanepoel’s stick. Standing on the spot, no-nonsense umpire Mike Lees split his arms indicating a penalty flick for Westville. A calm Swanepoel stepped up to the p spot and slotted in her shot into the top left corner.

Four minutes later, the amped Swanepoel charged down the right of the field surging towards the Saints circle. Swanepoel made a dash for the goals but was forced out of play by a harsh shoulder charge from St Marys, resulting in her second penalty flick that she bravely converted, levelling the score at 2 a piece.

The game then progressed to three players from both teams taking an eight second penalty shootout. After three rounds, both teams only managed to slot in one goal each, meaning the score line was still level pegged at 1-1. The finals then went to a sudden death, with the same three players stepping up to the spot for another chance. Two more rounds were played with no winner being revealed, then Leah Piggot managed to slot her shot in, going 1 up for Saints, earning her team the win and the regional title for 2018.

Special mention must go to the Westville keeper, Saiyuri Govender for her fearless display on the line throughout the game, bravely standing tall surge after surge of Saints powerful attacks.

Saints are the eighth team to head to the Grand Finals that they will be hosting on 21 and 22 July. The girls will be making their seventh appearance at the Grand Finals where they are also the overall defending champs from 2017.

Manager for the St Mary’s Malcolm Reeders said “The tournament is always a highlight on the school girl hockey calendar. Winning the finals today was a fantastic end to the day after all the pressure for us to hold on to the title. There was some fantastic hockey played today. But was a case of a tale of two halves, as at half time we were two up and then after half time, Westville managed to equalize. Our penalty takers were brilliantly composed during the shootout."

Ryan Lees, coach for Westville Girls High said, “It was a smoothly run tournament, but it was hard to perform consistently in all the games. Our team did themselves proud by coming back after being 2 down at half time, to equalize and then take it through to sudden death."

They join Ferrum Hoërskool (Northern KZN); newcomers Epworth School (PMB Central Regional); St Anne’s DSG (PMB Northern Regional); Durban Girls’ College (DBN Central Regional); Amanzimtoti High School (DBN South Regional); Our Lady of Fatima (DBN North Regional); and King Edward High School (Southern KZN Regional).

For more info like the tournament’s Facebook page.

Results

1 St Mary’s DSG, 2 Westville Girls’ High School, 3 Thomas More College, 4 Hillcrest High School, 5 Kloof High School, 6 Curro Hillcrest

ENDS

SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge Highway Regional - May 6

SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge

Highway Regional - Westville Girls’ High School - May 6

The fiercely contested Highway Regional of the SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge takes place this year at Westville Girls’ High School astroturf on Sunday, May 6.

St Mary’s DSG, six times winners of this regional and three times winners of the Grand Finals of this highly-respected school girls’ hockey event, will be focussed on holding onto their title. Only once have the defending champs been ousted from their top position, and that was by Westville Girls’ High in the 2014 tourney at Thomas More College.

This year, Westville Girls’ High will host this regional, and will no doubt be using their home-turf advantage in their attempt to break the iron grip that St Mary’s has on this region.

Sian Tarbuton coach for host school, WGHS says that their team is hard at training and looking forward to the regional. “Our indoor season was a cracker,” she enthuses. “We were placed second in the logs, only losing to St Mary's with a narrow loss of 4-2. We were so close to getting a draw and then they scored against us in the last couple minutes. Our outdoor season got off to a great start. We won the Crawford La Lucia outdoor hockey tournament held over the April holidays. We won our pool and then met Crawford La Lucia in the final, winning the tournament. We won our first outdoor hockey match of the season against Thomas More College, so we have high hopes for the season, but need to keep our composure and work hard.”

Other schools participating in this six-school regional include Curro Hillcrest, Hillcrest High, Kloof High and Thomas More College.

The tournament starts at 8am, and will be played in a round robin format. Games last 23 minutes with a quick change over at 11 minutes.  A win will earn a team 4 points, a draw with goals 2 points, a goalless draw 1 point and a loss 0. First and second places will then go head-to-head in a final match to determine the eighth regional team to go through to the Grand Finals at St Mary’s DSG in Kloof.

Other schools that have already secured their place at the Grand Finals are Ferrum Hoërskool from the Northern KZN Regional, newcomer Epworth School from PMB Central Regional, St Anne’s Diocesan from PMB Northern Regional, Durban Girls’ College from the Durban Central Regional, Amanzimtoti High School from the Durban South Regional and Our Lady of Fatima from the Durban North Regional.

For more info like the tournament’s Facebook page or follow the tournament on Instagram.

-ends

SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge - Durban North Regional

SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge

Durban North Regional

Crawford College North Coast: Sunday 15 April

The Durban North Regionals of the SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge will take place at Crawford College North Coast on Sunday, 15 April.

This hotly contested regional will be hosted for the first time by Crawford College North Coast on their astroturf in the picturesque setting on their school grounds in Tongaat.

In the seven years of this tournament history, three schools have managed to claim the title, which has meant some fierce competition as teams jostle for the honours. 

Defending champs and two times winners of this regional, Our Lady of Fatima who raised the trophy in 2017 and at the inaugural tournament in 2011, will be keen to hold onto their title while Danville Park Girls’ High, who have won this regional twice (2012, 2014), and Ashton International College (2013, 2015, 2016), who have won three times, will be wanting to reprise their victories. They will be joined by Crawford College La Lucia, Northlands High School, Reddam House Umhlanga and Durban North College, who will all be vying to shift the balance of power in this regional.

The tournament will take the format of pool games with cross-pool semi-final playoffs with a final match to determine who will be going through to the Grand Finals at St Mary’s DSG in July. The games begin at 8am and last 23 minutes with a change over at 11 minutes with a total of 17 games being played.

This is the sixth regional to be played in this annual series, and the winner will join Amanzimtoti High School (Durban South Regional) who recently secured their berth in the Grand Finals, along with Durban Girls' College (Durban Central Regional), St Anne's Diocesan (Pietermaritzburg Northern Regional), Epworth School (Pietermaritzburg Central Regional), and Ferrum Hoërskool (Northern KZN Regional).

For more info like the tournament's Facebook page. 

-ends

SPAR KZN School Girls' Hockey Challenge - Durban South Regional

3 Schools Trust: Sunday 25 March

After an absolute humdinger of a final, Amanzimtoti High School sealed their fourth win in a duplicated 2017 performance in the Durban South Regional of the SPAR KZN School Girls' Hockey Challenge at the  3 Schools Trust Astro on Sunday 25 March.

Toti took on neighbouring school, Kuswag Hoërskool for a Toti derby with a fast-flowing final being played where they won the game 1-0 after a persistent attack from Toti resulted in the solitary goal.

It took Toti all of four minutes to knock in the goal that earned them victory. Toti's feisty Mvelo Mtombeni powered forward into the circle where Kuswag defender was penalised for getting the ball on the back of the stick. Toti had earned their first short corner. Kuswag's defense stood firm as Toti attempted to score. In the second short corner, the ball was knocked from left of the goals to the nearest player, then was quickly passed along the top of the circle. At the top of the circle the Toti ball hit a Kuswag foot, taking them to the third taking of the short corner. 

In a similar fashion, the ball moved in from the short corner, getting tapped along the top of the circle to Megan Powell standing firm mid circle, firing in a shot that Kuswag fumbled and were unable to prevent the goal. 

Thereafter a fired-up Kuswag dominated the possession, but were unable to capitalise. Nine attempts by Kuswag sadly didn't amount to an equalizer. Both the Captain and Vice-Captain for Kuswag played outstanding games, with both of them attacking the Toti defense.

Leading up to the finals, in an exact replication of last year's tournament, Toti met Kingsway in the first semi-finals where the scoreline was level on 1 all at full time. The semi went to a penalty shoot out where Kingsway stepped up first, missing the goals. Toti also missed their first attempt. Kingsway then took their second penalty attempt, missing that. Amani Xozwa broke through netting the first goal for Toti, taking the score to 0-1 to Toti going into the final round. 

Nontobeko Mazibuko leveled the score for Kingsway, managing to get the ball behind the hard-working Toti keeper, Alexia Kesaris. The final penalty had Mthombeni lining up to take it. Her first attempt was thwarted by tenacious Kingsway’s goalie, Teneze Tsouros who put her body on the line, stopping the shot. Tsouros then dived forward pushing the ball out of danger but was deemed to have used the back of her stick in the clearance, resulting in the final penalty being retaken. Mthombeni didn't make the same mistake twice and secured her team’s win.

Kuswag had an easier time advancing to the finals, meeting Werda. Captain for Kuswag Crizelda Delport scored the only goal in their semi-final, with the final score ending on 1-0 in favour of Kuswag. 

Dale Fibiger, coach of Kuswag, the host school said “It was an exciting tournament - it is always a good platform for the players to play lots of hockey and get their skills right. The coaches can use the opportunity to see where the players are best positioned too. The final match between ourselves and Amanzimtoti was exciting - it was played with good spirit and our girls were very positive and played as a team until the end."

Chris Clarke, coach for Amanzimtoti said “The first match of this tournament against Kuswag was our first game of the year. It was a very enjoyable event although it was hot all the teams stepped up their games, especially New Forest. This year the hockey was much harder. We started out well, and even though the girls got tired during the day, they managed to hold it together. It was an incredibly tough final against Kuswag, who dominated once we had scored our goal - but the girls managed to maintain their composure to make it to the final whistle."

Amanzimtoti High School is the fifth team to secure a spot at the SPAR KZN School Girls' Hockey Challenge Grand Finals that will be held in July at St Mary's DSG. They join Durban Girls' College (Durban Central Regional), St Anne's Diocesan (Pietermaritzburg Northern Regional), Epworth School (Pietermaritzburg Central Regional), and Ferrum Hoërskool (Northern KZN Regional).

For more info like the tournament's Facebook page. 

SPAR KZN School Girl’s Hockey Challenge - Sarel Cilliers - Glencoe KZN: Saturday 24 February

SPAR KZN School Girl’s Hockey Challenge

Sarel Cilliers: Saturday 24 February

The fixtures for the first SPAR KZN School Girl’s Hockey Challenge have been released with both the host team and one-time winners, Sarel Cilliers and defending champs teeing off the tournament.

The Northern KZN Regional is taking place on two turfs at Sarel Cilliers, with the games lasting 25 minutes, going one way. The ten teams have been split into two pools, with Pool A consisting of six times winner, Ferrum High School from Newcastle and Dundee High School, Pongola Akademie, St Dominic’s and Vryheid High School. Pool B features Utrecht, Newcastle, Pionier, Vryheid Landbou and hosts, Sarel Cilliers.

Once all the pool games are concluded, the teams will go into a cross pool elimination. After that, there will be a bronze playoff game and then the main game of the day revealing the 2018 champion for the Northern KZN region.

For more info like the tournament’s Facebook page.

ENDS