17 February 2024
In only their second visit to the Vides Water Polo Tournament, hosted by Selborne College in East London, Clifton College made it count, edging out Paul Roos 1-0 in a penalty shootout after regulation time in the final ended with the teams level at 7-7.
Captain Oliver Ditz scored a hattrick in Saturday evening’s title-decider, a feat matched by Luc O’Brien, and he then scored the only goal of the shootout to secure the title for his side.
Ditz was also involved in a fantastic goal scored by Ethan Lyne, finding the Clifton College Head Boy with a wonderfully judged lob, which Lyne slapped out of the air and into the goal to put Clifton 5-3 ahead, which was a handsome scoreline considering they had fallen behind 0-3 in the first chukka.
There was only one goal in it, heading into the final chukka, with Clifton enjoying a 6-5 advantage, but the Stellenbosch side pulled it back to 7-7. Then came the shootout in which goalkeeper Ross Strauss performed superbly to reject three Paul Roos shots.
Commenting on his team’s performances during the event, coach Paul Martin said: “Incredible performances from the boys to get a gold medal.
“We started off well, and I think the boys played very well and quite consistently the entire tournament. It was quite a controversial or interesting quarter-final where Grey PE were actually disqualified for a technical reason. They played players from their second team and their first team, so that made for a bit of a weird feeling…them being disqualified.”
The reason was that the tournament rules allowed for only 13 players to be registered for each team. By using some of their second team, Grey exceeded that number.
At the SAC Shield, Selborne College had started fast and convincingly beaten Clifton 13-8. In East London, those two sides met in the semi-finals. It was a really tough match, Martin said.
“We were up quite well (Clifton led 8-4) and Selborne came back and fought hard, as you would think the hosts would do. It was quite a hostile crowd towards the end of the game, so credit to the Clifton boys for pulling through in that that semi-final.” It finished 8-7 in favour of the boys from Durban.
Commenting on the final against Paul Roos, Martin was pleased with the way his team responded after falling into a three-goal hole. “The players stuck to their guns, and I must commend them on a huge team effort. Players that had a lot of pool time during the tournament stepped up when they had to, senior players stepped up.”
Four Clifton boys were named in the Team of the Tournament, with Oliver Ditz, Luc O’Brien, Ross Strauss and Nathan Burger all being recognised, while Ditz also earned the accolade of Player of the Tournament.
Martin declared himself happy with the recognition his players received and also with the team’s perfect six out of six record. He noted that the semi-final and final victories were over teams that defeated Clifton at the SAC Shield.
“I’m very happy with that,” he declared. “They showed good mental strength and character.”
RESULTS
Pool A
Clifton College 23-7 Pearson High
Clifton College 4-2 St David’s Marist Inanda
Clifton College 14-1 Grey High 2nd team
Quarterfinals
Clifton College – Grey High, Clifton advances, Grey High disqualified
Semi-finals
Clifton College 8-7 Selborne College
Final
Clifton College 7(1)-7(0) Paul Roos
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