South
Africa
hockey
and
netball
tour
by
Flora Evans
and Jessica
KennedyO
n 18th July, a group of 21
pupils and five members of
staff flew out to South
Africa for two weeks. This
trip was based around six
hockey and netball
fixtures, and began in Cape Town for three
nights, then flew us up to Durban for three
nights, ending our sports matches in Nelspruit
for two nights, before travelling up to Kruger
National Park for the remaining three nights,
then flying back from Johannesburg on 2nd
August.
Starting off with an overview of the hockey: the
first match we played was Langa, a township in
Cape Town. Our weaker opponents did not bring
out our best hockey but we managed to get a
good number of goals, boosting our confidence
for the matches to come. Pippa O'Neill had a
great game on her debut for the first team, being
awarded player of the match after scoring a hattrick!
After three games in one day, everyone
seemed worn out, on top of being relatively
apprehensive for the first night of being hosted -
a rather nerve-racking experience!
In our second game, we were unfortunate to
lose 2-1. It was a strongly fought match
against a side which reflected the attitude of
South African sport: determined and
competitive. Player of the match was
Hermione Warmington.
Day 5 brought hysterical laughing, screaming,
and a few drenched pupils as we all ventured
out to Seal Island by boat. After this
somewhat stressful expedition the next match
against Reddam was interesting for the team,
since it was to be played on grass which many
of us hadn't played on since the good old days
of prep school hockey. The grass didn't allow
us to use our skills to the highest level, and it
resulted in neither school scoring a goal -
player of the match was Lucy Sharp.
Durban Airport was a highlight for a few girls
who took it upon themselves to devour a
gigantic sized piece of cake - which was
inevitably regretted afterwards. That night the
staff treated us to a rather competitive game of
bowling where hidden talents were revealed
(Tory Clark)! We then faced our hardest
opponents, St Mary's. Playing in freezing cold
and hard rain, we thought coming from
England we might hold the advantage, but it
seemed not. We lost 6-1, Hannah Cartwright
the player of the match.
Day 9 saw the girls visiting a local township
school of Nogqaza, where we were greeted by
the most enthusiastic of head teachers.
Interacting with all the students really showed
us how passionate these children were about
their futures and career aspirations. We
donated netballs to the school after a heartwarming
set of performances from a selection
of pupils. After this we drew again, against St
John's, 2-2. The team really showed amazing
determination, playing better and better
throughout the tour, and we were unfortunate
not to win. Player of the match was Hatti
Mason.
Our last match was undoubtedly the best,
winning 3-0 against Uplands. It was here we
Aluredian
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