St Stithians dominates St John’s Preseason Festival
The water polo season is underway, and the action is Gauteng is happening thick and fast. On the weekend, the waters at St John’s College churned with many of the top water polo-playing schools in the province sharpening their skills ahead of some prestigious tournaments.
When the event kicked off on Friday, with most teams playing two or three fixtures, the hosts, St John’s, impressed by winning all three of their matches in convincing fashion.
They opened the festival with a dominant 11-0 victory over King Edward VII School (KES), asserting control from the first whistle.
Their winning momentum continued as they comfortably brushed aside Pretoria Boys High School (PBHS) 10-1 and then withstood a tough challenge from St Alban’s College, winning 6-3.
St Stithians College also caught the eye. They kicked off their campaign with a clinical 17-0 demolition of Parktown Boys’ High. Next up, they withstood a fierce challenge from Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies), picking up a 4-2 win, before ending the first day with a convincing 8-1 defeat of PBHS.
After losing to St John’s and St Stithians, Boys High rebounded with an emphatic 15-3 win over Parktown. St Alban’s, also won comfortably against Parktown.
The competition included some major milestones from St Stithians’ players, with Declan Wood and James Crick celebrating 150 caps for the first side, while Liam Tebbutt and Travis Donnelly turned out for the 100th time.
It’s that kind of experience that marks Saints as potentially one of the top teams in the country, and their win in the St Alban’s Beach Water Polo Tournament last weekend, further underlined that status.
On Saturday, St John’s continued their strong run with a 5-1 win over Affies and a 7-4 victory over Jeppe High School for Boys. However, their winning streak was brought to a halt in a thrilling encounter against St Stithians, who battled their way to an 8-6 win in a very tight match. Saints, then, closed off an unbeaten campaign with a commanding 12-5 defeat of KES.
Jeppe was in action on Saturday only and, after going down to St John’s, they picked up a couple of wins, beating Parktown 13-0 and PBHS 8-5.
RESULTS
Friday
St John’s 11–0 KES
St John’s 10–1 PBHS
St Stithians 17–0 Parktown
St Stithians 4–2 Affies
Parktown 3–15 PBHS
St John’s 6–3 St Alban’s
Affies 4–2 KES
St Stithians 8–1 PBHS
Parktown 2–13 St Alban’s
Saturday
St John’s 5–1 Affies
Parktown 0–11 St Alban’s
Affies 4–4 PBHS
St John’s 7–4 Jeppe
St Alban’s 2–7 Affies
St John’s 6–8 St Stithians
Parktown 0–13 Jeppe
St Alban’s 3–7 KES
PBHS 5–8 Jeppe
St Stithians 12–5 KES
