Hosts into St David’s Marist Inanda Nedbank Challenge Cup semis
The hosts progressed to the semi-finals of the St David’s Marist Inanda Nedbank Challenge Cup on Saturday after scoring a comfortable 3-0 win over Hilton College in the quarterfinals.
King Edward VII School (KES) followed suit, beating the 2023 champion, Brebner 2-1. The Bloemfontein school was succeeded as the champion by Grey College in 2024, but the title won’t be returning to the Free State this year.
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In the other quarterfinal clashes, Jeppe beat St Benedict’s 2-1, while a passionate St John’s vs St Stithians tie ended at 1-1 after regulation time. St John’s advanced, though, after a penalty shootout
Jeppe takes on St John’s and St David’s tackles KES in the semifinals at 09:00 on Sunday.
Day three of the tournament is given over to classification games, with the four losing quarterfinalists set to meet to determine the fifth to eight place finishers. Brebner plays Hilton and St Stithians meets St Benedict’s. The teams that missed out on the quarterfinals will be contest ninth to 16th places.
The final round of matches, including the final and third place playoff, is scheduled for 13:50.
The under-15 competition is played as a festival, with the teams that finished in the same places in their pools then playing a round-robin format. But, being a festival, no winner is announced.
The first round of matches between teams that topped their pools saw Jeppe edge out St Peter’s 1-0, Grey College and Hilton drawing 1-1, St Alban’s holding on for a 1-0 win over St Stithians, St David’s handing KES a 1-0 defeat.
With the support of Nedbank very visible, the St David’s campus was bursting at the seams on Saturday, drawing a large crowd to take in the action. Around the fields, the support and singing echoed. It will surely rise to an even higher level on Sunday when the title game is played.
