Kingswood College hosted a successful edition of the annual Brian Baker Water Polo, girls 1sts tournament this last weekend, with Stirling beating Pearson in the final.
Kingswood College hosted a successful edition of the annual Brian Baker Water Polo, girls 1sts tournament this last weekend, with Stirling beating Pearson in the final.
The first game of the tournament was played early on Friday afternoon, while the final came to an exciting conclusion at 5pm on Sunday.
This 1st Team Girls’ tournament has become a favourite among teams – both within the Eastern Cape and from other provinces.
According to organiser and head of sport at Kingswood, Pieter Serfontein, he believes the popularity of the tournament is due to its “very gruelling format,” where teams end up playing 6 to 8 full length (4 periods of 8 minutes playing time) matches in a weekend.
Teams taking part this year were: Diocesan School For Girls and Kingswood (Grahamstown), Hudson Park and Stirling (East London), Pearson, Woodridge, Alexander Road and Collegiate (Port Elizabeth), Glenwood House and Oakhill (South Western District), Reddam House Invitational and Somerset College(Cape Town).
Hosts Kingswood, played some committed water polo, earning the respect of their various opponents throughout the weekend.
On the first day Kingswood competed well before eventually losing to Collegiate 1-5.
In what proved to be a great sporting spectacle in the final match of the opening day, particularly for the passionate Kingswood spectators, the host team played well to beat local rivals DSG 5-2 in an intense affair.
The next day saw Kingswood faced with three tough assignments – in matches against Stirling, Reddam House Invitational and Pearson – Kingswood lost all three matches but covered themselves in glory with regards to their ability to compete with these top ranked teams.
On the last day of the event Kingswood beat Somerset College 9-4 and then went on to trounce Hudson Park with a score-line of 13-4 in Kingswood’s favour.
Serfontein said this year’s event was tightly contested with several of the teams standing “a very good chance of emerging as the overall winner".
Pearson and Stirling, playing some outstanding water polo, emerged out of the pool stages as the two strongest teams.
In the pool match between the two sides, Stirling were eventual winners with an 8-5 margin.
The two teams met each other again in the final – with Stirling coming out on top with a winning score line of 8-4.
“Both teams are to be congratulated for the manner in which they competed as well as the level of water polo they played throughout the tournament,” said Serfontein.
“The 2016 tournament, having been blessed with splendid weather, was again a great success for water polo in the country and a ‘feather’ in the host school’s cap," he added. See photos on page 24.
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