28 January 2024
Saturday’s action at the St Andrew’s College (SAC) Shield Water Polo Tournament brought success for Michaelhouse, who broke through with a win over Grey High School, but successes were few and far between for the four participants from KZN.
Playing in arguably the most stacked event of them all, it was only Hilton College, Michaelhouse’s great rivals, who also won on day three.
‘House, who had produced some storming finishes the previous day without a victory, finally put together a winning recipe and won 8-5 against Grey. Hilton, meanwhile, accounted for St Andrew’s College 9-6.
Clifton College played their last Pool A match at the start of the day against the highly regarded SACS, who had been on a tear since losing their opener to Bishops by a single goal. The Durban boys, for three chukkas, gave the Cape Town powerhouse everything they could handle, and it was 6-6 with one chukka to go.
Unfortunately for coach Paul Martin‘s charges, SACS created and converted their chances in the final quarter while Clifton didn’t put theirs away, and a tight contest ended in a 6-10 defeat that didn’t reflect how hard-fought the match was.
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Later, Clifton faced Paul Roos in a cross-pool playoff and, once again, it was a Western Cape side that had the final say, this time by a 6-3 margin.
Westville Boys’ High took on a hard-nosed Selborne College outfit in a cross-pool playoff. It, too, was close – that was a common theme for the KZN sides in the early season event – but they went down by two goals, 6-8.
Michaelhouse, in their cross-pool playoff, pushed St Stithians hard, but they, too, came up two goals shy of the opposition, losing 7-9.
Clifton advanced to the quarterfinals, but their reward for finishing fourth in Pool A was a showdown with St John’s College, the winners of Pool B, with a clean record. Wouldn’t you know it, the result was 7-9? Once more, a KZN team finished two goals shy of their opposition.
Westville, having finished fourth in Pool B, had to face Bishops, the unbeaten winners of Pool A. It was a very evenly contested game, but it also contained one major difference: Bishops’ six-foot-nine SA Schools’ goalkeeper Jordan de Sousa, and his long levers. His spectacular performance stymied the Griffin time and again. A final score of 2-8 didn’t do justice to the Westville effort.
In the semi-finals, Bishops continued their fantastic form, outplaying Rondebosch Boys’ High, their big rivals, 10-4. It was much closer in the SACS vs St John’s semi, with SACS coming from behind to edge it 10-9.
That win booked them a third match against Bishops this week. On Tuesday, in the Western Province League, Bishops turned a 1-4 halftime deficit into an astonishing 11-5 win. Then, on day one of the SAC Shield, there was only one goal in it. What might the final, and the pressure that comes with playing in a title-decider, bring?
Results and Fixtures
Results: Day 3
SACS 10-6 Clifton College
Bishops 9-7 Grey High School
Selborne College 7 (5)-7(4) St Stithians College
Michaelhouse 8-5 Grey High School
Hilton College 9-6 St Andrew’s College
Selborne College 8-6 Westville Boys’ High
St Stithians College 9-7 Michaelhouse
Paul Roos 6-3 Clifton College
Quarterfinals
Bishops 8-2 Westville
SACS 13-7 Paul Roos
Rondebosch 8-3 Selborne College
St John’s College 9-7 Clifton College
Semi-finals
Bishops 10-4 Rondebosch Boys High
SACS 10-9 St John’s College
Day 4, Sunday, 28 January, @ St Andrew’s College
08:00 – (48) Michaelhouse vs St Andrew’s (11th/12th); 08:50 – (49) St Stithians vs Hilton 43 (9th/10th); 09:40 – (50) Westville vs Clifton College; 10:30 – (51) Selborne College vs Paul Roos (5th/6th); 11:20 – (52) Rondebosch Boys vs St Johns College (3rd/4th); 12:10 – Finalists line up; 12:20 – (53) SACS vs Bishops.
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