High-quality field for Founders Festival
Stacked! That one word describes the line-up for the 2024 Founders Hockey Festival, which takes place at Kearsney College from Saturday, 23 March, to Monday, 25 March.
All eyes will be on SACS, the clearcut number one team in South Africa last year. While they have lost players from their all-conquering side, they remain loaded.
Last year’s team produced the best goalkeeper, the best defender and the best attacker award winners at the SASHOC Hockey Week, with six players being selected for the SA u18A team and one for the SA u18 B team, while four SACS boys were included in the SA u16A ranks and one in the SA u16B team.
In 38 matches, which included a tour of The Netherlands, SACS won 34 times, drew three games and lost just once, scoring 227 goals while conceding only 35.
That sole loss came to Paul Roos, a 2-3 setback at the Hibbert Shield, but they also beat PRG 3-1 and 8-1 during the season.
Speaking of the Stellenbosch school, they will also be in action at the Founders Festival, led by Reuben Sendzel, who ran out for the SA u21 team in 2023. He also captained the SA u17 team to a silver medal at the Dato Mirnawan Cup in Malaysia in October, scoring a hattrick in the final against India, who won the game 4-3.
Paul Roos has a new Director of Hockey, Michael Baker, who did an outstanding job at Durban High School (DHS), helping DHS to become a top five-ranked school in the country at u14, u16 and 1st team level. He also helped the Horseflies dominate KZN Coastal selections.
Hockey in the Western Cape is in very good health, and the challenges will be tough, but Baker has a habit of getting the best out of the boys who play under him, so it will be interesting to see if Paul Roos, also ranked in the top five last season, is able to make even further progress.
Leading the Gauteng challenge will be St Stithians College, who won the Aitken Trophy for the first time since the 1980s last year. They played to a 2-2 draw with Jeppe in the final, and then secured victory in a shootout by a 4-2 margin.
Having Gauteng’s best and the Western Cape’s best at the same festival is quite something, and Northwood School will be staking their claim to being KZN’s best this year.
They enjoyed a very strong 2023 season, which ended on a high note after they beat Grey College 2-0 in the final of the Guschkie Top Schools under-18 Tournament in Bloemfontein in mid-August.
They’ll be ready for action having opened their season with a tour of Argentina.
Expect a hard-running effort from the Knights, who function well as a defensive unit that applies a tight press and then counterattacks with pace.
The hosts, Kearsney College, led by SA Schools’ midfielder Matt De Oliveira, will be tough to beat on Mason’s Astro. Only once in the past two seasons have they lost there, although that happened in their most recent outing when they went down 0-1 to a DHS side that has all but three players returning from their 2023 team.
It will be interesting to see Rondebosch in action. They were convincingly outplayed by SACS last season, but ‘Bosch has a proud hockey tradition and will be keen to make amends for 2023’s misfortunes.
Affies is a dark horse candidate to make some noise, while Parktown, Queen’s College and Dale College, who complete the lineup, would love to spring a surprise or two.
Fixtures
Saturday, 23 March
07:30 – Affies vs SACS; 08:35 – Kearsney vs Dale; 09:40 – Northwood vs Rondebosch; 10:45 – Parktown vs Paul Roos; 11:50 – Queens vs St Stithians; 12:55 – Kearsney vs Affies; 14:00 – Northwood vs Dale; 15:05 – Parktown vs SACS; 16:10 – Queen’s vs Paul Roos; 17:15 – St Stithians vs Rondebosch
Sunday, 24 March
07:30 – Queen’s vs Parktown; 08:35 – Northwood vs SACS; 09:40 – St Stithians vs Paul Roos; 10:45 – Affies vs Dale; 11:50 – Kearsney vs Rondebosch; 12:55 – Queen’s vs SACS; 14:00 – Northwood vs St Stithians; 15:05 – Affies vs Paul Roos; 16:10 – Dale vs Rondebosch; 17:15 – Kearsney vs Parktown
Monday, 25 March
07:30 – Affies vs Rondebosch; 08:35 – Dale vs Parktown; 09:40 – Northwood vs Queen’s; 10:45 – SACS vs St Stithians; 11:50 – Kearsney vs Paul Roos
Matches will be played in four 12-minute chukkas, with breaks of two minutes, three minutes and two minutes.
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