The St Andrew’s U16A and first teams took part in the Independent Schools Hockey Festival in Grahamstown, in which St Andrews’ hosted ten schools from across the country.
The St Andrew’s U16A and first teams took part in the Independent Schools Hockey Festival in Grahamstown, in which St Andrews’ hosted ten schools from across the country.
Matches took place at the St Andrew’s Webster Astro as well as at the Kingswood College City Lords Astro. The St Andrew’s first team had a good start to the festival beating St Andrews’ from Bloemfontein 3-2, but after this the opposition proved to be tough.
The matches against Michaelhouse and York were tightly contested with St Andrew’s losing 1-0 on both occasions.
Both St Albans and St Davids outplayed St Andrew’s and the St Andrew’s side was lucky to escape with 2-0 defeats on both of these occasions.
“The learning curve for the young team has been huge, and we cannot underestimate the value of playing tough opposition so early in the season,” said St Andrew’s hockey coach, Gary Frayne.
The U16A side came up against some strong opposition and managed to push some of these teams to the final whistle but did not manage to come away with a win.
The most notable performances were against the strong Holiday hockey hype St Albans and St Davids sides in which they lost 1-3 and 1-0 respectively.
“The U16A side gained a great deal from the tournament,” said Frayne. Meanwhile, the 1st XI took part in the St Stithians’ Easter Festival, and although they only won one match out of five, “the improvement in the performance of this young and inexperienced side was a pleasure to witness,” said Frayne. Attempts to get results from Kingswood for their sides failed.
