It’s WP vs Boland as SACS and Wynberg host Paarl Gim and Paul Roos
Just two weeks remain before the SASHOC National Week springs into action in Pietermaritzburg on Monday, 30 June.
The national tournament for the boys’ u18 A-Section take places on the iconic Pape’s AstroTurf, at Maritzburg College, where Western Province u18A and Boland, last year’s finalists, will be among the favourites.
When they met in the title game in Bloemfontein in 2024, it was Province who reigned supreme, beating their noisy neighbours 3-2 in a tightly contested clash.
Due to the fact that they contested the final, the rivals have been drawn in separate pools, but another meeting in the final would not be a surprise if it happened.
Before that, though, this weekend, some of the leading teams in the Western Province and Boland regions will lock horns in local derbies.
Paul Roos Gimnasium (PRG) and Paarl Gimnasium will make the trip from Stellenbosch and Paarl, respectively, to face Wynberg Boys’ High and South African College High School (SACS) on Friday night.
We take a look at the teams’ current form, past results, and how they have fared ahead of those big games.
SACS vs Paarl Gimnasium
The Brewery AstroTurf, the home of SACS hockey, will welcome Paarl Gimnasium on Friday night for the second meeting of the teams in 2025.
They met in the Hibbert Shield final in Gqeberha, in May, and it was SACS who dominated their opponents, recording a 6-3 win.
Led by coach Sam Holmes, SACS has not looked back since that win and have continued to run rampant against their Western Cape counterparts.
They’ve played some of their best hockey in the local league, beating Bishops 4-1, overrunning Rondebosch Boys’ High 9-1, and DF Malan 10-0.
Their toughest task was a meeting with Paul Roos Gimnasium, and they passed that test by handing the Stellenbosch outfit a 3-1 defeat on the Maties AstroTurf.
SACS’s last outing resulted in a 4-0 win over Reddam House Constantia, so they enter the clash in red-hot form.
Paarl Gim, meanwhile, has suffered a bit of a slump since reaching that Hibbert Shield final a month ago.
Coach Jacques Grobler’s boys came out on the wrong end in a hefty 2-6 loss against PRG exactly a week after Hibbert. They were then stunned by Parel Vallei High, going down 2-3.
Paarl Gim, then, rolled to a convincing 5-0 win over HTS Drostdy, but last week they fell to a 1-2 loss against Bishops. The competition in the Western Cape is tough!
And it will be a tough ask to go to SACS and pull off a win, but coach Grobler and his troops believe it can be done. If they get it right, though, it would be the biggest upset of the season.
Wynberg vs Paul Roos
The last meeting between these two sides didn’t end well for coach Ben Wiley and his Wynberg side, who were dealt a one-sided 1-7 loss.
That defeat occurred in Stellenbosch, which is a difficult place to visit, so Wynberg will be banking on their home-ground advantage to make a big difference on Friday when they host PRG at the Astro of Dreams.
It hasn’t been the best of seasons for Wynberg. They’re a young team, full of potential, with a sprinkling of experienced campaigners, led by their skipper, Zach Gibbon.
They’ve produced a mixed bag of results in their last three outings. Last week, they suffered a 1-3 loss to Rondebosch Boys’ High away from home. The week prior, they drew 3-3 with Stellenberg High, and they defeated Bishops in May.
In Paul Roos, they’ll come up against a side that’s lost only twice this season, and both of those defeats came against SACS, the first of them after a penalty shootout in the Hibbert Shield semifinals.
Besides those two losses, coach Michael Baker‘s team has dominated and last weekend they put five past Stellenberg.
They’ve also scored handy wins over Paarl Gimnasium and Paarl Boys’ High. The last time they visited Cape Town, though, they mustered a nervy 3-2 win over Bishops.
It promises to be an enticing clash and far more closely contested than their first meeting.
While two Boland teams head to Cape Town, a Cape Town team, Bishops, journeys into the winelands to take on Paarl Boys’ High.
FIXTURES
19:00 – SACS vs Paarl Gimnasium
19:00 – Wynberg Boys’ High vs Paul Roos Gimnasium
19:25 – Paarl Boys’ High vs Bishops
