Westville remain the kings of the pool

By Brad Morgan , in Water Sports | Featured Water Sports | News , at 2024-02-12 Tags: Water Polo, Westville Boys' High School

Life is unpredictable. However, some things are more predictable than others, like Westville Boys’ High ruling the roost in swimming galas.

Over the weekend, they claimed victory in two of the season’s biggest galas against top opposition from KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The action began on Friday night in the Chad le Clos Pool at Westville, with the Nestor Pierides Gala. The event, which consists of relays in different strokes and different age groups, is a stern examination of a school’s strength in depth, and when it comes to depth Westville is the gold standard.

Only once in the past decade has Westville been beaten – by St Benedict’s College, in case you were wondering – and they swiftly avenged that setback.

Bennies were the Griffin’s closest challengers on Friday evening, with Durban High School (DHS), whose swimming trajectory keeps pointing upwards, in a close third place.

Only 12 points separated the next four teams – Grey College, Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies), Clifton College and St David’s Marist Inanda – in the final standings.

On Saturday, many of the Nestor Pierides participants were back in action at the Alan Burt Gala, hosted at Crawford College La Lucia.

Different day, same winner, but this time DHS secured second, pushing Westville all the way.

Pretoria Boys High, 10^th on Friday, were a totally different beast on Saturday and surged up the leaderboard to take third place, ahead of three schools that had finished ahead of them the previous day.

RESULTS

Nestor Pierides Gala

1st: Westville Boys’ High – 299
2nd: St. Benedict’s College – 246
3rd: Durban High School – 236
4th: Grey College – 194
5th: Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool – 189
6th: Clifton College – 185
7th: St. David’s Marist Inanda – 182
8th: Maritzburg College – 133
9th: Kearsney College – 128
10th: Pretoria Boys High School – 97
11th: Northwood School – 74
|12th: Glenwood High – 56

Alan Burt Gala

1st: Westville – 248
2nd: Durban High School – 229
3rd: Pretoria Boys’ High School – 176
4th: St. David’s Marist Inanda – 138
5th: Maritzburg College – 136
6th: King Edward VII – 127
7th: St. Stithians College – 115
8th: Kearsney College – 108
9th: Glenwood High – 51

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Brad Morgan

A product of Clifton (Nottingham Road) and St Andrew's School (Bloemfontein), Brad Morgan played schools' provincial cricket and hockey. He has worked in radio, online and for newspapers. He also previously handled media matters for the Natal Canoe Club, which hosts the Dusi Canoe Marathon, and for the Midmar Mile. Brad has, furthermore, co-authored books on the Dusi Canoe Marathon and the Comrades Marathon. He holds no particular biases towards South African sports teams but, beyond South Africa's borders, is a big fan of the Green Bay Packers and Liverpool FC. Brad enjoys photography and music, and likes working to some good dub techno in the background.