Action galore as Cape sides return to the turf
Somerset College captain Julia Brown in action for her side during the Spar Hockey Challenge in Cape Town. Photo: Khulani MediaAfter the heavy workload of the All Girls Hockey festival, which was held in Potchefstroom last weekend, it will be business as usual for Western Cape sides when they return to the turf this weekend.
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The action commences on Friday night with a gripping encounter between two dangerous sides in Somerset West, where Somerset College hosts Paarl Girls’ High.
At the beginning of the season, Somerset looked deadly in front of goal, and they made scoring look easy, opening their campaign with wins over Fairmont High (2-0), Herschel Girls School (1-0), St Cyprian’s (4-1), and DF Malan (2-0) at the Spar Hockey Challenge pre-season tournament.
They carried that momentum into the Belgotex Sport Easter Hockey tournament, which they won, beating Hoërskool Middelburg 2-0 in the final.
Then, at the St Mary’s Festival, in Johannesburg, against the highest quality field in the country, they lost their form a little and placed 23rd out of 32 teams.
This coming Friday, they come up against a good Paarl Girls’ High side, which has made strides this season.
Despite going down 0-1 against Oranje and 1-3 against HMS Bloemhof last month, coach Anri Keevy’s side has shown signs of improvement. Playing an exciting brand of hockey, they finished fourth at the All Girls Festival.
They will challenge Somerset, with players like Rouxné Pentz and Nina Cilliers likely to lead their goal scoring efforts.
Another clash to look forward to on Friday is the showdown between Springfield Convent School and HMS Bloemhof. Bloemhof was also in Potchefstroom for the All Girls Festival and performed well to finish in an impressive fifth place. Also on Friday, Paarl Gimnasium will tackle St Cyprian’s.
Saturday promises to deliver some exciting action with Rhenish, Herschel, and Fairmont High, among the teams in action.
Rhenish will aim to quickly get over the disappointment of a penalty shootout loss in the final of the All Girls Festival when they welcome La Rochelle to Stellenbosch.
Stellenberg High plays Westerford, and Durbanville takes on HTS Drostdy in a highly anticipated derby clash.
The action wraps up with Herschel Girls School facing Reddam Constantia and Fairmont hosting Wynberg Girls’ High.
Fixtures
Friday, 10 May
18:30 – Somerset College vs Paarl Girls’ High
19:00 – Curro Durbanville vs Milnerton
19:15 – St Cyprian’s vs Paarl Gimnasium
19:25 – Springfield vs HMS Bloemhof
Saturday, 11 May
09:00 – Stellenberg vs Westerford
10:00 – Durbanville vs HTS Drostdy
11:00 – Rhenish vs La Rochelle
11:00 – Herschel vs Reddam Constantia
10:00 – Fairmont vs Wynberg Girls’ High
Avuyile Sawula is a multimedia sports journalist, broadcaster, and writer. He possesses a journalism qualification from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. During his time in the media industry, he has worked for various online media publications covering a variety of sporting codes. He also has a broadcasting background having worked as a news journalist at one of Cape Town’s commercial radio stations. His reporting beats include hockey, rugby, water polo, and cricket. Apart from writing, he has a knack for creating sports content, and video editing.
