Paarl Gim crowned Cape Town International Hockey Tournament girls’ champs
Paarl Gimnasium decimated seven teams on their way to being crowned the champions of the 2024 edition of the Cape Town International Hockey Tournament.
In the final, Ian Naude‘s side crushed Somerset College 10-1 on the Maties A Astro at Stellenbosch University on Sunday.
“I am proud of the way the girls played. They displayed good professionalism. They did not take any team lightly and fought till the last minute,” said Naude, after the match.
While the scoreline showed a dominant performance from Paarl Gim, they had a subdued first two chukkas.
Knowing that they could not play to contain their opponents, coach Kyran Fortuin‘s Somerset College side tried to seize control of the contest by going on the attack from the first pass back. They played so well that they won the first penalty corner of the contest. It was, incredibly, the first short corner that Paarl Gim had conceded in the tournament.
“Going into any final, you always expect strong competition and pressure. Somerset was playing well. And I think the girls were also nervous, [with] it being a final,” Naude explained.
Paarl Gim scored only two goals in the first two chukkas. The other eight came in the second half of the game.
“At halftime, I encouraged them to settle down and remember what we had set out to do in the match,” Naude shared. Part of his brief was for his players to retain possession of the ball. That was the key to them controlling the contest. Once they took control, they played like the team that had scored 55 goals in the tournament.
Paarl Gim twice reached double digits during the event, firstly in an 11-0 win over Worcester Gymnasium, and then in the final.
To qualify for the title decider, they breezed past the UK-based Clifton College in the semifinals, romping to an 8-0 victory. Anya Swanepoel led the scoring, bagging a hat-trick, while Isabella Nel, Alanda Rademeyer, Karea de Ridder, Anine le Roux, and Tanya Pieterse also scored.
Swanepoel was on the scoresheet again in the final, this time with a brace. However, the star of the show was Pieterse, who bagged a hat-trick. Nel also scored twice, while Le Roux, Marika Neethling, and Lize Thomas added a goal each.
Neethling and Pieterse finished the tournament as the joint top goal-scorers with 10 goals each.
Paarl Gim also converted the most penalty corners in the tournament, 22, which was more than double the total of the next-best team. In second place was Clifton College, with nine goals.
“We have put a lot of work into our short corners. One of the pillars for our short corners has been to get the first shot on target, which makes it easier for our girls to get the rebound,” Naude shared.
His side also scored 3.9 times as many field goals as the next-best team in that department. They finished the tournament with 39 field goals. Chisipite and Clifton College tied for second with 10 each.
The only area where Naude’s charges didn’t dominate was on the Player of the Match lists. Those determinations were made by each match’s two coaches and, because Naude’s side always played so well as a unit, he found it difficult to select only one of his girls. So, he asked the opposition coach to pick one of their outstanding players.
“For us, the result is what mattered. The result was for the team and the team pulled together to achieve it, and that’s what we focussed on,” Naude explained.
Somerset punched their ticket to the final with a 1-0 win over Parel Vallei, thanks to a Siena Kontopirakis strike. That win also helped them avenge a 0-1 defeat in a league match earlier in the year.
Kontopirakis also scored Somerset’s consolation goal in the final. It was the first and only goal Paar Gim conceded in the tournament.
Final standings, top 10
- Paarl Gim
- Somerset College
- Clifton College
- Parel Vallei
- Uppingham
- Hoërskool Kempton Park
- Windhoek Gymnasium
- Chisipite
- St Paul’s College
- Paarl Girls’ High
Results
Semifinals
Paarl Gim 8-0 Clifton College
Somerset College 1-0 Parel Vallei
Other matches
AKS Lytham 2-1 Worcester Gymnasium
Hoërskool Bellville 0 (3) – 0 (0) Hoërskool Outeniqua
St Paul’s 1-0 Windhoek High School
Paarl Girls’ High 2-0 Springfield Convent School
Uppingham 3-0 Chisipite
Hoërskool Kempton Park 3-2 Windhoek Gymnasium
Durbanville High School 4-0 Curro Durbanville
Windhoek Afrikaanse Privaatskool 1-2 Rustenburg
AKS Lytham 3-1 Hoërskool Bellville
Worcester Gymnasium 0-1 Hoërskool Outeniqua
Chisipite 2 (2) – 2 (3) Windhoek Gymnasium
St Paul’s College 0 (3) – 0 (2) Paarl Girls’ High
Windhoek High 0–2 Springfield Convent School
Parel Vallei 1-2 Clifton College
Uppingham 1-0 Hoërskool Kempton Park
Rustenburg 0 (2) -0 (3) Durbanville High School
Windhoek Afrikaanse Privaatskool 2-0 Curro Durbanville
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