Rhenish, Parel Vallei, and Fairmont, chasing Western Cape wins
After finishing in 11th place at last weekend’s St Mary’s Hockey Festival, Rhenish Girls’ High School will be seeking to recreate the momentum they produced over the first two days of the event when they welcome DF Malan to Stellenbosch on Friday evening.
The clash is one of a number of big matches taking place in the Western Cape this weekend.
Rhenish, led by coach Chris Gerber, made a rip-roaring start to their season.
They were first in action was in East London at the Greg Beling Festival. There, they swept the floor with their opponents, beating Clarendon (4-1), DSG Makhanda (3-0), Eunice (5-1), Pearson High School (4-0) and Affies (4-0).
At St Mary’s, Gerber’s team played some of their best hockey over the first two days of the festival.
On day one, they defeated St John’s DSG (4-0), before drawing with Waterkloof (0-0), and Garsfontein (1-1) respectively.
Rhenish upped the ante on day two, winning all four of their matches. They downed Somerset College (2-0), St Andrew’s School for Girls (1-0), Oranje (1-0), and Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High (4-0). The defeat they inflicted on Oranje was the Bloemfontein powerhouse’s first loss of 2024.
Maybe playing four tough matches on day two took a lot out of them, however, because they couldn’t replicate that form on the final two days and had to settle for 11th place after beating Affies (1-0) in their last play-off match.
DF Malan will have their work cut out for them when they visit Stellenbosch.
Another massive clash on Friday will see Parel Vallei taking on Paarl Girls’ High on home soil.
To start their season, Parel Vallei enjoyed a successful tour of the Netherlands and will be brimming with confidence about the strides they’ve made.
Paarl Girls’ High, on the other hand, was also in action at the St Mary’s Festival, where they finished 19th.
The in-form Fairmont High School will take on Rustenburg Girls’ High in another Cape Town clash, which has a late start.
In their opening match of the season, last weekend, Fairmont picked up an impressive 2-1 win over Durbanville.
In that game, three of their players, Tatum O’Brien, Sarah Swanepoel, and Leah Buckley achieved their 50th caps for the first team. Meanwhile, Sienna Graser and Kaylin Bastard reached 100 caps.
Saturday’s action starts bright and early with a derby between HTS Drostdy and Framesby, at 09:00.
After going down last weekend, Durbanville will be aiming for a win against Westerford, while Wynberg Girls’ High welcomes Curro Durbanville, before La Rochelle battles it out with Springfield Convent.
Friday, 12 April
18:40 – Rhenish vs DF Malan
18:45 – Parel Vallei vs Paarl Girls High
18:45 – Fairmont High vs Rustenburg Girls High
Saturday, 13 April
09:00 – HTS Drostdy vs Framesby
09:25 – Durbanville vs Westerford
10:10 – Wynberg Girls High vs Curro Durbanville
12:30 – La Rochelle vs Springfield
