Michaelhouse welcomes confident Hilton side to the Midlands

By Avuyile Sawula , in Water Sports | News , at 2023-11-09 Tags: Water Polo

KwaZulu-Natal powerhouses, Michaelhouse and Hilton College, lock horns in a full water polo derby in the Midlands this weekend.

The fixture will also see the boys play for a much greater cause, as it forms part of the annual PinkDrive campaign that the two rivals share, which seeks to shine a light and raise awareness about cancer-related issues.

The day will be saturated with action across the school’s three pools, with the junior sides set to kick off proceedings early in the Old Boys’ Pool, before the third, and fourth teams battle it out in the Railway Pool.

The A teams and the first and second teams will play at the Full Pool, with the final match scheduled for 12:15.

Looking back on their season, the hosts have had a rather challenging period in the water, coming short several times despite showing clear signs of improvement in recent weeks.

In the KZN Top 10 Tournament, the boys from Balgowan finished in seventh spot, defeating Maritzburg College (7-6) on the last day.

During the earlier Clifton Water Polo Tournament, they were underdone in their preparations, and, thus, struggled against quality opposition. They finished third in their group and missed out on a quarterfinal spot.

Hilton will go into the match high in confidence after putting together a series of impressive performances this season.

They finished fourth in both the SACS and Clifton Water Polo tournaments, and they also came close to clinching the silverware at the KZN Top 10 Tournament, losing the final 5-8 to Clifton College, the same team that had beaten them in the playoffs for third in the two aforementioned tournaments.

Hilton heads into the match having two recent wins over Michaelhouse to their credit, including a 9-6 victory over their great rivals in the 9th place playoff at the St Stithians Water Polo Invitational at the end of October.

The Teams

Hilton College

Trent Chubb, Hanu Pieterse, Matthew Thomas, Thomas Taylor, Tristan Uys, Retief Malherbe, Oliver Mattison, Meyer Malherbe, Mitchel Garreau, Nic Bregman-Frangos

Michaelhouse

Elliott Springate, Bryn Retzlaff, Reilly Elliott, Oliver Guy, Keegan Elliot, Alex Jankowitz, Luke Davidson, Reece Rezac, Nicholas Smithers

Fixtures

Old Boys Pool

08:00 – Michaelhouse u14B vs Hilton College u14B
08:45 – Michaelhouse u15B vs Hilton College u15B

Railway Pool

08:00 – Michaelhouse 3^rd vs Hilton College 3^rd08:45- Michaelhouse 4^th vs Hilton College 4^th

Full Pool

09:45 – Michaelhouse u14A vs Hilton College u14A
10:30 – Michaelhouse u15A vs Hilton College u15A
11:15 – Michaelhouse 2^nd vs Hilton College 2^nd12:15 – Michaelhouse 1^st vs Hilton College 1^st

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Avuyile Sawula

Avuyile Sawula is a multimedia sports journalist, broadcaster, and writer. He possesses a journalism qualification from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. During his time in the media industry, he has worked for various online media publications covering a variety of sporting codes. He also has a broadcasting background having worked as a news journalist at one of Cape Town’s commercial radio stations. His reporting beats include hockey, rugby, water polo, and cricket. Apart from writing, he has a knack for creating sports content, and video editing.

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