St Andrew’s hockey sides travelled to East London on Friday 18 May, to face Cambridge High School in various hockey fixtures.
The SAC First Team went 1-0 up in the first minute of their fixture, after some excellent skill from Joe Fisher, and then found it hard to beat the impressive Cambridge keeper. The hard-working SAC team showed maturity and patience to keep to their structures and finally broke open the Cambridge defence after excellent work from Ryan Stoddart, Peter Jarvis and Brad Landrey. In the end the pressure and fitness from the St Andrew’s side was too much for the Cambridge defence and the visitors dominated to win 5-1.
The Second Team also outplayed their counterparts with a dynamic passing game, and some clinical finishing from Seb Macintosh and Robbie Houghton, in particular. Tadj Orzechowski was dominant in the midfield as he showed composure in establishing the attacks.
The St Andrew’s thirds produced some excellent hockey to defeat their opponents 4-1 with huge thanks to the U16 B’s, who filled in to help field a full team, and to Sam Orsmond who managed and coached the side to great effect.
The U14 B team earned a 3-1 win, and the U14 A side won 4-0. The U16 C and U16 A sides both had hard fought 1-0 victories, while the U16 B side drew 1-1. The U1 6A defence was disciplined as they survived a skilful onslaught from Cambridge late in the match, with Matthew Pope, James Sparks and Jono Shamwana all showing outstanding composure under pressure.
Meanwhile, the St Andrew’s College hockey club had mixed success in the Makana league over the past week, where the Fourth Eleven were beaten by a physically superior Kingswood College Third Team. The St Andrew’s Thirds also lost to a talented and hard-running Port Alfred First Team. However, the U16 D team had a strong win over their Kingswood opponents, with Kai Lublinkof, Oisin van Niekerk and Nic Venter all making valuable contributions to the team in this victory.
Matches vs Cambridge:
St Andrew’s U14B 3-1 Cambridge
St Andrew’s U14A 4-0 Cambridge
St Andrew’s U16C 1-0 Cambridge
St Andrew’s U16B 0-0 Cambridge
St Andrew’s U16A 1-0 Cambridge
St Andrew’s 3rds 4-1 Cambridge
St Andrew’s 2nds 8-0 Cambridge
St Andrew’s 1sts 5-1 Cambridge
Results from Makana League matches:
St Andrew’s U16D 2-0 Kingswood U16D
St Andrew’s 4ths 0-6 Kingswood 3rds
St Andrew’s 3rds 0-2 Port Alfred 1sts
