25 January 2024
Clifton College and Hilton College met in neutral Makhanda waters on Thursday afternoon, matched up in the opening outing for both teams at the St Andrew’s College (SAC) Shield Water Polo Tournament.
The KZN powers are in Pool A, up against SACS, Grey High, Bishops, Selborne College and St Stithians. Meanwhile, Westville Boys’ High and Michaelhouse are in Group B, alongside St Andrew’s College, St John’s, Rondebosch Boys’ High, and the defending champions, Paul Roos.
Even before Clifton and Hilton met, Bishops had already played twice and made a statement by defeating St Stithians 10-8 in the tournament opener before upsetting SACS for a second time this week.
In the Western Province League, on Tuesday evening, they fought back from a 1-4 deficit at half-time to crush SACS, ranked number one in South Africa last year, 10-5. It was much tighter in Makhanda, with Bishops sneaking an 11-10 win.
In the KZN derby, Clifton took an early lead over Hilton through Ethan Lyne. The boys from the KZN Midlands came close to equalising with their next attack, but they were twice denied by the frame of the goals. They weren’t to be denied for long, however, and they levelled with a ripping backhand shot.
At the end of the first chukka, it was 1-1, with Clifton ‘keeper Josh Strauss stopping a last-second snapshot.
Three minutes into the second chukka, Hilton captain Meyer Malherbe put his side in front, scoring from a penalty past Strauss, a team-mate of his in the KZN u19A team in 2023.
Clifton turned to another of their KZN u19A stars, Ollie Ditz, to level and like the Hilton captain, the Clifton skipper scored from the spot, beating Hilton net-minder Trent Chubb, who was the hero of KZN’s shootout win over Western Province in the u16 final at the Inter-provincial Tournament in Gqeberha at the end of 2023.
Very quickly, though, Hilton went ahead again. A super shot from Hanu Pieterse into the side netting to the right of Strauss made it Hilton 3-2 Clifton, with a minute to play in the first half.
Second stanza
Early in the second half, Hilton came close to extending their lead, but a shot to the right of the goalie bounced high off the water and struck the intersection of the crossbar and upright and stayed out.
It was a narrow escape, but Clifton coach Paul Martin seemed to have imparted some sound advice during the break as his charges upped their game. They moved the ball down the pool and Jack Slater gratefully accepted an accurate pass onto his right hand from Nathan Burger before powering it past Chubb from close range to bring the Durban school onto level terms.
Shortly after that, Chubb pulled off a stunning stop, but Slater, in the hole, beat him moments later to give Clifton the lead.
When Hilton suffered an exclusion, Clifton made full use of their one-man advantage, with the school’s Head Boy, Ethan Lyne, firing a powerful shot from range into the back of the Hilton net to make it Clifton 5-3 Hilton.
That two-goal advantage didn’t last long as Retief Malherbe found space in the hole and scored in the right-hand corner.
At the conclusion of the chukka, after owning it 3-1, Clifton was one goal to the good.
Fourth chukka
Early in the last chukka, Hilton’s Thomas Taylor, in space, tried a lob, but his effort passed narrowly over the top of the Clifton goal.
Then, with a one-man advantage, Hilton moved the ball nicely around the perimeter before Garrick Phillips, wide on the left, pulled the trigger and made it a 5-5 game midway through the final quarter.
Hilton surged back onto the attack, but when they were repulsed, Clifton opened up a two-on-one on the counterattack. Daniel Northard kept the ball to himself as Hilton’s sole defenceman blocked a pass to the supporting player. Northard then finished sharply to the ‘keepers’ left to edge Clifton in front once more.
Coach Jason Sileno‘s team had an opportunity to level, when Clifton had a player excluded, but Thomas Taylor’s shot to the goalie’s left was stopped. There was just 2:20 left to play, but three goals were still to come.
Hilton was made to pay for that miss when Clifton quickly netted to make it 7-5. In the blink of an eye, however, Hilton responded through their captain Meyer Malherbe. It was 7-6 to Clifton with just over a minute remaining.
Then, Ethan Lyne, in a carbon-copy of his second goal, powered a long-range shot past Chubb, in the Hilton goal, to secure Clifton a hard-fought 8-6 win.
Clifton on song
The second time out, only three hours later, Clifton took it to Grey High School and ran away to an emphatic 11-4 victory over the team from Gqeberha, which left last year’s leading KZN team with a clean record for the day.
Meanwhile, Hilton faced SACS In their second outing and the Cape Town powerhouse, who had beaten Selborne 10-5 in their second match, got themselves a second win by outplaying Hilton 13-6.
Meyer Malherbe and company completed their first day’s programme with a mid-evening clash against Grey High. They sparkled in their third outing, overwhelming Grey 13-3.
Cracking Michaelhouse clash
Michaelhouse tackled the defending champions in the match that followed the Clifton vs Hilton showdown, and they shocked Paul Roos by going up 3-1 early on. As they had done earlier against St Andrew’s, PRG staged a fightback. They levelled with only 11 seconds left in the game from a penalty shot to take it to 6-6 and force a penalty shootout.
With Michaelhouse up first, the teams traded goal for goal. It went to 5-5, but Adam Lawrence then pulled off a stop and Adam October won it for the boys from Stellenbosch, who escaped with a narrow win for the second time in succession.
Michaelhouse were the second of the KZN quartet in action on the opening day, taking on Rondebosch Boys’ High. They put up a good fight, but Bosch ran out 10-7 winners.
In an evening game at 19:00, they narrowly went down to St Andrew’s College by an 8-10 scoreline.
Tough day for Westville
Westville had opened their account in the preceding game against Paul Roos and went down 5-10 to the Western Cape side. They came to play, however, against a strong St John’s team later in the day.
The sides went blow-for-blow before, for the second match in succession, the outcome was decided from the penalty spot. The teams had ended regulation time at 7-7 and the Joburg boys then sneaked a 3-2 win from the spot.
In an evening game, the Griffin went down 8-12 to Rondebosch.
Results
Pool A
Bishops 10-8 St Stithians
SACS 10-5 Selborne College
St Stithians 11-7 Grey High
Bishops 11-10 SACS
Selborne 6-3 Grey High
Clifton 8-6 Hilton
SACS 13-6 Hilton
Clifton 11-4 Grey High
Hilton 13-3 Grey High
Pool B
Paul Roos 10-5 Westville
Rondebosch 10-7 Michaelhouse
St John’s 10-8 St Andrew’s College
Paul Roos 7(2)-(1)7 St Andrew’s College
St John’s 8-6 Rondebosch
Michaelhouse 6(5)-6(6) Paul Roos
Westville 7(2)-(3)7 St John’s
St Andrew’s 11-8 Michaelhouse
Westville 8-12 Rondebosch
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