Thrilling finishes mark the end of the 21st KES Hockey Festival
The annual King Edward VII School (KES) Hockey Festival wrapped up on Monday with a dominant win for Jeppe High School for Boys amid four other tightly-contested affairs.
In the first match of the day, Jeppe continued their outstanding form, thumping Queen’s College 5-0 to close the festival with a perfect record of five wins from five.
The hosts, KES, were held to a 1-1 draw by a resilient Northwood School side, while another KZN team, Glenwood, won a five-goal thriller against Selborne by the odd goal.
Later in the day, Hoërskool Waterkloof edged past St Charles College 2-1 in a tense battle, while Parktown Boys’ High ground out a gritty 1-0 win over Helpmekaar Kollege to bring the curtain down on a weekend of top-tier schoolboy hockey.
Waterkloof had to dig deep in their final outing, rallying from a goal down after Saints had taken an early lead. The Pretoria side demonstrated composure and mental strength to quickly pull a goal back before scoring the winner late in the second half.
Klofies‘ coach Mark Lamprecht praised his players’ growth throughout the festival: “The KES Festival is always entertaining, and we always enjoy coming here,” he said. “The quality of hockey and the games we get to play are always of a high standard. It gets us to the next level.
“I think we did pretty well,” he added. “There’s still some work to do for the rest of the season to get the outcomes we want and score more goals, but I’m very happy with how the guys started from game one and grew with each match.”
Waterkloof suffered three defeats earlier in the festival, but Lamprecht credited their comeback win to the team’s calm mindset: “Yes, it’s the calmness from the side. I try to stay as calm as possible, and the players stay quite calm, too,” he explained.
“We went 0-1 down, so I had to be a little less calm and start helping the boys push for goals. Coming from behind to score two, I’m really happy with how the boys came back.”
Captain Diederik Maartens echoed his coach’s sentiments, highlighting the team’s resilience and improvement: “We had a wonderful festival,” he enthused. “We were here last year as well, and a lot of the boys returned.
“We had a rough start against Northwood, but we came back strongly against Pearson. Jeppe gave us a hard game, too, but the boys showed a lot of effort. It’s been a tough 60 minutes the last two days, and I think we’ve improved a lot.”
Reflecting on their win over St Charles, Maartens said: “Going a goal down is pretty hard because I’m at the back and can’t help much at the front,” he said. “But I just try to keep motivating my players to keep their heads up. The goals come as soon as you put in the effort.
“Like the coach said, we were a goal down, came back to 1-1 quickly, and just kept going. I just tell my boys to keep working. It’ll show on the scoreboard at the end of the day.”
In the final match of the festival, Parktown Boys’ High got by Helpies in a tight, defensive encounter. With chances at a premium, Parktown made theirs count late in the game, thanks to a composed finish by Zeyad Davids.
Coach David Grace was pleased with Parktown’s effort across the festival: “I thought it was a very good festival for us,” he reckoned. “We won a couple of games, drew a tough game against Selborne College, and ran out of legs against Maritzburg College. They deserved to win. They were very good on the day.
“All in all, I am very happy with my boys. They played very well and grew from strength to strength. That’s all I can ask,” he told SuperSport Schools Plus.
RESULTS
Jeppe High School for Boys 5–0 Queen’s College
Glenwood High School 3–2 Selborne College
Kearsney College 2–0 Pearson High School
Maritzburg College 2–0 Hoërskool Eldoraigne
KES 1–1 Northwood School
Waterkloof 2–1 St Charles College
Parktown Boys’ High 1–0 Helpmekaar Kollege
