Cape sides to contest final of Cape Town International Hockey Tournament
The 2025 edition of the Cape Town International Hockey Tournament has reached its business end, with the finalists for Sunday’s title game decided on Friday, day three of the tournament in the Mother City.
It will be South African College High School (SACS) versus Reddam House Constantia for the title, with the match taking place on the Hartleyvale A Astro at 16:30.
It will also be the second time the sides meet this season after they clashed in a league fixture in June.
That clash took place at the Brewery AstroTurf, at SACS, and it was the hosts who ran out 4-0 victors, courtesy of goals by Litha Kraai (2), Reece Theunis, and Jo le Roux.
It’s a different SACS’ outfit, a Stayers’ team, that will take to the turf on Sunday, and Reddam House will fancy their chances.
SACS, led by coaches Sam Holmes and Jody Erasmus, uses the CTIHT as a chance to give young talent a run while resting their senior players who will be leaving the school at the end of the year.
Reddam, meanwhile, has thrown the kitchen sink at the event and is fielding a full-strength team, led by their influential skipper and SA Schools’ player Joe Gitlin.
Their journey to the final was far from easy. In a cross-pool playoff, they needed a penalty shootout win to get by Parel Vallei. That set them up for a semifinal showdown against Paarl Boys’ High.
It was a tightly contested affair with almost nothing to separate the two sides until a goal by Matt le Roux broke the deadlock. That solitary strike proved to be just enough for Reddam, who held on to reach the CTIHT final for the first time in their history.
In the second semi-final, it was SACS versus Hoërskool Outeniqua, from George.
SACS had dominated their opposition from the get-go and defeated the UK’s Reed’s School in a cross-pool playoff to book a spot in the final four.
Outeniqua, meanwhile, was the surprise package. After a poor showing in the group stages, they stunned Durbanville 1-0 to set up their date with SACS.
The boys from George had done well to make it through to the semis, but beating SACS was a mountain too high to climb and the Newlands boys recorded a 4-1 win, with Litha Kraai, Daniel de Wet, Mohlodi Maseko, and Matthew Lassen scoring. Wehan Meyer struck for Outeniqua.
That victory resulted in SACS reaching the CTIHT final for a third year in succession
Other matches
While the action intensified in the Elite Section, the boys playing in the Evolve Section also brought the heat with some exciting matchups on Friday.
St Paul’s College, from Windhoek, defeated Curro Durbanville 5-4 on penalties in the first semifinal after their clash ended level at 2-2.
The second semifinal saw Bridge House record a nervy 3-2 win over HTS Drostdy.
St Paul’s will tackle Bridge House in the title match. Their girls’ team, meanwhile, will play for the title in the Elite section.
The Evolve boys’ final take places at 12:30 on Sunday at the Hartleyvale B Astro.
RESULTS
Durbanville High 1-0 Reed’s School (5th/8th playoff)
St George’s Weybridge (6) 2-2 (5) Parel Vallei (5th/8th playoff)
Windhoek High (2) 2-2 (1) Western Province Invitational (13th/16th playoff)
Somerset College 3-1 Kingston Grammar (13th/16th playoff)
Windhoek Afrikaanse 2-1 Millfield School (9th/12th playoff)
Worcester Gimnasium 2-1 King Edward’s School (9th/12th playoff)
Reddam Constantia 1-0 Paarl Boys’ High (Semifinal 1)
SACS 4-1 Outeniqua (Semifinal 2)
