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SAC Shield: Bishops and Rondebosch unbeaten, St Stithians and Selborne impress


Bishops' Owen Cross in action for his side against St Andrew's College on the second day of the SAC Shield in Makhanda. Photo: Toni Butterworth
Bishops’ Owen Cross in action for his side against St Andrew’s College on the second day of the SAC Shield in Makhanda. Photo: Toni Butterworth.

Entertaining match-ups, nail-biting contests, and shock results highlighted the second day of the St Andrew’s College (SAC) Shield on Friday in Makhanda.

Day one, on Thursday, produced a whopping 214 goals in 13 matches from the 12-strong field, which set a high bar for the following days. The final takes place on Sunday, 26 January, at 12:10.

After two days, Bishops Diocesan College and Rondebosch Boys’ High lead Pool A and B respectively, and both remain unbeaten.

Bishops made it four wins from four after beating St Andrew’s College 13-7 before outscoring their southern suburbs rivals, SACS, 12-3 later in the day.

Matt Fenn scored five times against the hosts after a couple of impressive performances on day one.

Harry Ford added a hattrick, while Owen Cross, Timothy Young, Luke Cartwright, Noah Edmunds, and Heath Blackwell all found the back of the net.

Coach Jabulani Sibiya’s side plays a final pool game against Westville Boys’ High on Saturday morning before their shifting attention to the quarterfinals.

Another Pool A side, which is eager to make it to the last eight and cause an upset, is St Stithians College, led by coach Michael Stewart.

After a win and a loss on Thursday, Saints returned with vigour and confidence and dominated on Friday, beating KZN’s Westville 11-8 and Clifton College 14-5.

The KZN schools would have not enjoyed those defeats, but they both would have departed the pool on Friday in an optimistic mood after bagging crucial wins of their own.

Coach Matt Stringer’s Westville side boys pulled off their first win in Makhanda by stunning SACS 6-5. Henry Harker led the way with a double, while Oli van der Merwe, Brogan Jones, Drew Hollingsworth, and Andrew Boucher all netted, too.

Clifton pulled off an impressive turnaround and bounced back from their disappointing loss to Saints with a 9-7 win over St Andrew’s College.

Nathan Burger, who has been a frequent goal scorer for the Durban school, bagged a brace alongside Kyle Human and Daniel Nothard. Nabil Bejia, Jake Frederic, and Jamie Nicolau also got in on the action with a goal each.

Rondebosch Boys' High's Joshua Ripsold going for goal against Selborne College during day two of the SAC Shield. Photo: Toni Butterworth
Rondebosch Boys’ High’s Joshua Ripsold going for goal against Selborne College on day two of the SAC Shield. Photo: Toni Butterworth.

Rondebosch Boys’ High is in full control of Pool B after maintaining a 100 percent winning record, although they came close to losing it.

Coach Jared Wingate-Pearse‘s boys form a confident unit, but they were forced to grind out wins over St John’s College and Selborne College on day two.

Their first game, against St John’s, went to a penalty shootout, while Selborne made ‘Bosch work hard before the Cape Town boys secured a 12-8 victory.

Selborne, despite the defeat to ‘Bosch, was another team that played attractive and smart water polo on the day.

Coach Storm Siebert’s troops defeated Grey High in a provincial tussle early on before pulling off their biggest win of the year so far against Hilton College.

Selborne stunned Paul Roos Gimnasium (PRG) on day one, but the win against Hilton puts coach Siebert’s side in prime position to qualify for the next round.

Earlier, Hilton comfortably beat PRG and then won by an impressive five goals against St John’s. They were flying…until Selborne sunk them in the third outing of the day for the coach Paul Martin‘s charges.

It wasn’t the best of days for St John’s. However, they also beat PRG to claw back some ground after going down to Rondebosch and Hilton.

St John’s captain Nicholas Searle led from the front in all three matches. He was joined on the score sheets by Luke Shipway, Chris Chapman, Sam Gomes, Ethan Wilcocks, Fedor Sadovnik, and Sebastian Bruinders.

PRG recorded their first win of the tournament after edging out Grey High 9-7.

The final three pool matches will kickstart the action on day three before the quarterfinals and semifinals are played later in the day.

DAY 2 RESULTS

Pool A

Westville Boys’ High 6-5 SACS
Bishops Diocesan College 13-7 St Andrew’s College
Stithians College 14-5 Clifton College
Stithians College 11-8 Westville Boys’ High
Clifton College 9-7 St Andrew’s College
Bishops Diocesan College 12-3 SACS.

Pool B

Hilton College 10-5 Paul Roos Gimnasium
Rondebosch Boys’ High (3) 8-8 (1) St John’s College
Selborne College 9-7 Grey High School
Paul Roos Gimnasium 7-5 Grey High School
Rondebosch Boys’ High 12-8 Selborne College
Hilton College 8-3 St John’s College
St John’s College 9-7 Paul Roos Gimnasium
Selborne College 12-9 Hilton College

FIXTURES

Saturday, 25 January

Pool A

07:00 – Bishops Diocesan College vs Westville Boys’ High; 07:50 – SACS vs Clifton College.

Pool B

08:40 – Rondebosch Boys’ High vs Grey High School

Play-offs
10:20 – Quarterfinal 1; 11:10 – Quarterfinal 2; 12:00 – Quarterfinal 3; 12:50 – Quarterfinal 4; 13:40 – 5th-8th place-playoff; 14:30 – 5th-8th place-playoff; 17:00 – Semifinal 1; 17:50 – Semifinal 2.

Avuyile Sawula
error: Sorry ol' chap, those shenanigans are not permissible.