Bishops 175| Wins for Bennies, St Andrew’s College and hosts
Bishops Diocesan College, St Benedict’s College and St Andrew’s College got their Bishops 175 Hockey Festival campaigns off to winning starts at the Woodlands Astroturf in the southern suburbs on Thursday.
The festival, which is a celebration of Bishops’ 175th anniversary, continues deep into the weekend, culminating with the final matches on Sunday.
The hosts, who came into the festival high in confidence after picking up a string of positive results at the Parel Vallei Boys Hockey Festival a week ago, took on on KwaZulu-Natal’s Michaelhouse in their opener, a team that has also welcomed a new coach in Nick Bérichon.
Bishops, just as they did a week ago at Parel Vallei, asserted themselves early in the match. With the added advantage of the buzzing atmosphere and home crowd behind them, coach Ryan Julius‘s side dominated ball possession and looked dangerous from the outset.
They kept their momentum going for the full four chukkas, recording a 3-1 win, with two of the goals coming via drag flicks from the stick of Albert Steyn, while James Grieve scored with a sweetly struck reverse stick shot.
Another team that continued an impressive start to the season was coach Owen Mvimbi’s St Benedict’s side, which registered a 2-0 win over St Charles College.
Mvimbi’s troops have hit the ground running early in the new season and recorded a number of impressive victories leading up to the festival.
Before landing in Cape Town, they defeated Hoërskool Jeugland 11-0, before thumping Hoërskool Kempton Park 7-0.
They also played to a 1-1 draw against Jeppe High School for Boys, before suffering a 2-3 defeat at the hands of the defending Aitken Trophy champions, St Stithians College. Those matches meant they were not short of game time before heading to Cape Town.
They started the brighter of the two teams in the first two chukkas and dominated possession.
They won 2-0, courtesy of a Byron Comley double. They also created enough opportunities to have increased their winning margin.
That’s an aspect of their play that Bennies will seek to improve when they tackle Somerset College on day two, with that match starting at 10:40.
In other fixtures on the opening day, Langa Hockey Club shared a hard-fought 1-1 draw with the aforementioned Somerset College.
Meanwhile, St Andrew’s College, fresh off an unbeaten run at the Tony Godding Festival last weekend, scraped a 1-0 victory over Johannesburg’s St David’s Marist Inanda. The Makhanda boys left it late, scoring through a penalty in the third chukka.
The scheduled clash between St Andrew’s School and Mpumalanga’s Uplands College was called off after St Andrew’s ran into transport problems and didn’t make it on time for the fixture.
Day two of the festival sees each of the teams playing two matches.
Langa Hockey Club and St Andrew’s School get the ball rolling at 08:20, before Uplands College plays their first match against St Andrew’s College at 09:30.
Bishops takes on St Charles at 11:50. The final game of the day features Michaelhouse against Somerset College at 19:30.
Results: Day 1
Langa Hockey Club 1-1 Somerset College
St Benedict’s College 2-0 St Charles College
St Andrew’s College 1-0 St David’s Marist Inanda
Bishops 3-1 Michaelhouse
Friday, 22 March 2024
08:20 – Langa vs St Andrew’s School; 09:30 – Uplands vs St Andrew’s College; 10:40 – Somerset College vs St Benedict’s College; 11:50 – Bishops vs St Charles; 13:20 – St David’s Marist Inanda vs Michaelhouse; 14:30 – Langa vs Uplands; 15:40 – St Benedict’s College vs St Andrew’s School; 17:10 – St Charles vs St Andrew’s College; 18:20 – Bishops vs St David’s Marist Inanda; 19:30 – Somerset College vs Michaelhouse.
Saturday, 23 March 2024
08:20 – St David’s Marist Inanda vs St Charles; 09:30 – Somerset College vs Uplands; 10:40 – St Benedict’s College vs Michaelhouse; 11:50 – Bishops vs St Andrew’s School; 13:20 – Langa vs St Andrew’s College; 14:30 – Somerset College vs St David’s Marist Inanda; 15:40 – St Benedict’s College vs Uplands; 17:10 – St Charles vs St Andrew’s School; 18:20– Langa vs Michaelhouse; 19:30 – Bishops vs St Andrew’s College.
Sunday, 24 March 2024
08:00 – St David’s Marist Inanda vs Uplands; 09:10 – Michaelhouse vs St Andrew’s College; 10:20 – Langa vs St Charles; 11:30 – Somerset College vs St Andrew’s School; 12:40 – Bishops vs St Benedict’s College.
