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SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge 2019 Regional Tournament Dates Announced

SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge

2019 Regional Tournament Dates Announced

 

The dates for the ninth SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge have been announced with the ten regionals taking place around KZN.

 

The year gets underway a week later than previous years with the usual Northern KZN regional nestling in midway on the 2019 calendar.

 

A bumper March has four tournaments taking place back to back over two weekends. Kicking off the year is the Pietermaritzburg Regionals. The Central and Northern Regionals of Pietermaritzburg will be played on Sunday 3 March hosted by one-time winners, St John’s D.S.G. and The Wykeham Collegiate. Saturday 9 March sees the Durban North Regional taking place at Crawford La Lucia. Durban Girls High School hosts the Durban Central Regional at 3 Schools Trust on Sunday 10 March.

 

The fifth regional tips off the first of two tournaments taking place in April. On Sunday 7 April, Amanzimtoti will see the teams for the Durban South Regional at 3 Schools Trust. Heading further south, the challenge moves down to Port Shepstone for the Sisonke and Ugu Southern KZN Regional tournament on Saturday 13 April at host school, Creston College.

 

The final four tournaments all take place in May, the action moves inland to Newcastle’s St Dominic’s for the Northern KZN Regional on Saturday 4 May. Remaining inland for the Umvoti, uThukela and Umzinyathi Regional on Saturday 11 May defending champs, Greytown High School host. Unfolding the next day, the Highway Regional will take place at Thomas More College. Wrapping up the regionals, Grantleigh will host the Northern KZN Coastal Regional on Sunday 19 May.

 

Once all the winners are revealed at the ten regionals, the ten regional representatives converge at St Mary’s DSG two months later for the Grand Finals. The riveting Grand Finals gets underway on Saturday 20 and continues on Sunday 21 July where the ninth victorious team will be crowned.

 

For more info on the tournament life the Facebook page or follow on Instagram.

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.

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