St John’s clinches Vuvuzela, final St Mary’s Festival placings
St John’s DSG wrapped up their journey at the St Mary’s Hockey Festival with a smile on Sunday after they clinched the Vuvuzela with a 1-0 victory over their fellow KwaZulu-Natalians, Our Lady of Fatima, in Johannesburg.
With it being the last outing for both in the four-day festival, and despite 25th place being on the line, both sides gave it everything they had left in the tank.
It was a tight clash as neither team wanted to make a costly mistake. However, St John’s found a way to break the deadlock and secure a tense 1-0 win. That brought them a confidence boost after an up-and-down campaign at St Mary’s.
In their first round of pool matches, they mustered only a single victory in seven games, defeating their rivals from the KZN capital, Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High, while also drawing three matches and going down in three others.
That left them seventh in Pool C, with six points. Their fortunes improved in the next round, however, where their results included a 3-0 win over the St Mary’s Festival XI, but a 0-1 defeat to Our Lady of Fatima.
St John’s also enjoyed a 4-0 triumph over Roedean School in the cross-pool play-offs.
They were on their game, striking twice within the first six minutes. After 14 minutes, it was 3-0 as St John’s scored from a beautifully executed penalty corner. Another goal in the 23rd minute sealed a comfortable victory.
Meanwhile, Our Lady Fatima enjoyed some early successes, winning 1-0 against the St Mary’s Festival XI and Collegiate, which pleased their coach, Jacinta Wedderburn. “A very good win and a really fantastic start,” she said. “We wanted our girls to start strong. I couldn’t be prouder. They stuck to our structures, and they got the job done.”
In other clashes between sides in the bottom half of the standings, Paarl Girls’ High played to a goalless draw against their fellow Capetonians, St Cyprian’s in the 19th place playoff.
The Wykeham Collegiate finished 17th after handing Hoërskool Garsfontein a 2-1 loss. Pearson clinched 15th place, edging out St Andrew’s 1-0 in a nail-biter.
Victory in the Plate competition went to Herschel, who defeated St Mary’s 2-1 in a penalty shootout after they had played to a goalless draw.
Playoff Results
1st/2nd – Durban Girls’ College 3-2 Eunice
3rd/4th – St Stithians 1-0 Paarl Gimnasium
5th/6th – Oranje 2-0 St Mary’s DSG (Kloof)
7th/8th – Bloemhof 0-0 Menlopark
9th/10th – Waterkloof 1-0 Affies
11th/12th – Rhenish 1-0 St Anne’s
13th/14th – Herschele 0(2)-0(1) St Mary’s Waverley
15th/16th – Pearson 1-0 St Andrew’s
17th/18th – The Wykeham Collegiate 2-1 Garsfontein
19th/20th – Paarl Girls’ 0-0 St Cyprian’s
21st/22nd – Collegiate 2-0 Clarendon
23rd/24th – Somerset College 1-0 DF Malan
25th/26th – St John’s DSG 1-0 Our Lady of Fatima
27th/28th – Windhoek HS 0-0 Roedean
29th/30th – St Mary’s Festival XI 0(7)-0(6) Pretoria High School for Girls
31st/32nd – Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High 2-0 St Mary’s DSG (Pretoria)
