With the music and excitement starting around 8am, Victoria Girls' High School hosted its first ever second team hockey festival on Saturday 17 March. Among the schools participating were Victoria Girls', PJ Olivier, Kingsridge High School and Port Alfred High, which brought two teams.
With the music and excitement starting around 8am, Victoria Girls' High School hosted its first ever second team hockey festival on Saturday 17 March. Among the schools participating were Victoria Girls', PJ Olivier, Kingsridge High School and Port Alfred High, which brought two teams. The day got off to a good start as the teams ran onto the field, ready to start their matches despite the rain. The girls from Kingsridge High School in King William's Town ran onto the field full of energy, even though they had woken up at 5am to get to Grahamstown in time for their first game. “We woke up early but it was so worth it, said Bunile Kalimashe, a Kingsridge hockey player. The people here are so nice and we’re so excited that we got to play so many games. We also won our match!” The two final matches of the day saw local schools Victoria Girls' and PJ Olivier play each other on one field, while Port Alfred 1 and Port Alfred 2 played each other on the next field. But at the end of the day it wasn't about winning or losing, according to festival director Prudence van der Linde. “Second team girls often get neglected and they don’t play as many matches as the first team. They also don’t get the chance to go on tour, van der Linde said. With this festival kicking off so early on, we wanted the girls to play as many matches as possible. We wanted them to have that experience.” The day's games resulted in Kingsridge 2 finishing top of the log with 13 points, followed by Port Alfred 2 also on 13 points. Kingsridge 1 was third with 9 points, followed by Victoria Girls', Port Alfred 1 and Westering all on 8 points. The organisers and players both agreed that the festival was a success and that it should definitely happen again – and preferably sometime this year. All the results from the day: Port Alfred 1 beat VGHS 3-2 Port Alfred 2 beat Westering 3-1 VGHS beat Kingsridge 1, 5-0 Westering beat PJ 5-0 VGHS and Kingsridge 2 drew 3-3 Port Alfred 2 beat PJ 12-0 KHS 2 beat Kingsridge 1, 6-1 KHS 2 beat Port Alfred 7-3 KHS 1 beat Port Alfred 4-2 KHS 1 beat Port Alfred 2-0 Port Alfred beat Kingsridge 2, 5-3 Westering and VGHS drew 1-1 Kingsridge 2 beat PJ 11-0 Westering and Port Alfred 1 drew 1-1 Kingsridge 1 beat PJ 10-0 Westering beat Kingsridge 3-1 Port Alfred 1 beat PJ 7-1 Kingsridge 2 beat Westering 6-2 Port Alfred 2 beat VG 3-0 Port Alfred 1 and Port Alfred 2 drew 4-4 VG beat PJ 4-0
