Grey High and Selborne shine on day two of Nomads Festival
Grey High School and Selborne College are the only unbeaten teams after two days of captivating hockey at the Nomads Hockey Festival, being hosted by Maritzburg College, in Pietermaritzburg.
The 10-team annual showpiece kicked off on Thursday and ends on Saturday with a contest between the hosts and last year’s juggernaut, Jeppe.
Catch all the action live on SuperSport Schools.
In 2023, when they hosted the event, Grey High won four of their five fixtures. Their sole loss came at the hands of Maritzburg College. Coach Andrew Beynon’s charges avenged that defeat on the first day of the festival with a 3–2 win over the 2024 hosts.
With that frenetic tie out of the way, the boys from Gqeberha could focus on maintaining their 100 percent win record in the first two events they have participated in this year. They duly followed that victory over College with a 4–1 thumping of St John’s in Thursday’s last match.
On Friday, Grey High took two steps forward on their unbeaten run, which began at the Tony Godding Festival, with victories over Hilton College and King Edward VII School (KES).
Beynon’s team has routinely scored multiple goals this year, but they had to play out of their socks against Hilton’s organised defence. A 0-1 loss to Grey High ended the KZN team’s unbeaten run.
In the afternoon session, Grey High regrouped and found their goal-scoring form, making up for their single goal haul of the morning, by firing six past KES.
St John’s pulled off a big upset when they toppled a red-hot Grey College. Coming into the match, the Free Staters had won two in two, while St John’s had not only lost two in two, but they had scored just a single goal and conceded eight.
Last year, coach Gilbert de Villiers’ charges’ best performance was a 1-1 draw in their match against St Charles. They were beaten in their other four matches, with their heaviest loss being 0-4 to Grey College.
With a 2-1 win over Grey this time around, St John’s avenged last season’s big defeat.
Selborne had little trouble maintaining their clean record which, like Grey High’s, goes back to the Tony Godding Festival. KJ Friend’s team did just enough to remain unbeaten.
The first order of business for Tre’ Gilbert and his team was to keep a smarting Jeppe at bay. Last year, Jeppe won four and drew one of their matches at Nomads, but they seemed unable to buy a win this year.
Coach Siya Sityana’s charges threw everything they had at Friend’s team but came up short, going 0-1 down. With a third win under their belt, Selborne took on the hosts with confidence in their second match of the day. Sticking to their structures, they ran out 2-0 winners over Maritzburg College.
Jeppe finally managed to end their winless nightmare when they produced a stirring performance to outlast Wynberg 4-3.
The Johannesburg side will be eager to make it back-to-back victories on Saturday, while College will be keen to have the final word when they meet on Pape’s Astro. Those two schools have produced more South African Schools players than any others, so the honours in a rich rivalry are on the line.
Results
KES 1-4 Grey College, Grey High 1-0 Hilton, Wynberg 3-1 PBHS, Maritzburg College 2-1 St John’s, Selborne 1-0 Jeppe, Grey High 6-0 KES, Hilton 2-1 PBHS, Grey College 1-2 St John’s, Jeppe 4-3 Wynberg, Maritzburg College 0-2 Selborne
Saturday
07:30 – Grey High vs PBHS, 08:40 – KES vs Wynberg, 09:55 – Selborne vs St John’s, 11:05 – Hilton College vs Grey College, 12:15 – Maritzburg College vs Jeppe.
