Epworth School
In their second Grand Finals appearance at the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge, Epworth School finished fourth overall.
Representing the PMB Central Region, the team were drawn in Pool A where they took on St Mary’s DSG (Highway Regional Winners), Kokstad High School (Southern KZN Regional Winners), Ferrum High School (Northern KZN Regional Winners) and Wartburg Kirchdorf School (Umvoti, uThukela and Umzinyathi Regional Winners).
In their first game, they went 2 nil up against travelling team Kokstad College followed by 6 nil victory against Newcastle’s Ferrum. In Epworth’s third pool game they went 2 nil up against midland’s team Wartburg. In their final pool game they met defending champs, St Mary’s in a tough conclusion to their fabulous first day where they went down 2 nil.
Epworth’s day two of the tournament started in a Pietermaritzburg derby where they took on St Anne’s College in the first semi final. It was not to be Epworth’s time with St Anne’s Sophie Rebeck and Lusanda Mtshali netting two goals for their Hilton based team.
In the bronze medal game, Durban Girls’ College met Epworth School for the second year running at the Grand Finals. Only ten minutes were left when Grade 11 star, Bulelwa Mzimela was perfectly in place for a fantastic base line run and a quick fire pass up to Mzimela waiting on the P who confidently tapped in her shot to take the win for the local team.
Coach, Hayley Coombes enthused, “The weekend has been absolutely incredible. And SPAR - wow – thank you for reviving schoolgirls’ hockey. A tournament like this is something to look forward to and during the season we have worked hard for it. If this tournament wasn’t around, I don’t think it would make our season as exciting as it has been and what they put on for a weekend like this is just phenomenal. Since the regionals, we have been building up to this weekend so simply - thank you.”
Chatting about the bronze medal game, Coombes continued, “We haven’t played DGC this season so it always nice to play someone fresh. I think some very good hockey was played between the two schools, some exceptional individual play and some fantastic team play. It is never easy to lose but we have huge respect for DGC. We were thrilled to be in the bronze match and we will be back next year hopefully.”
Epworth School - Pietermaritzburg Central Regional Winner – Bronze (2018), Fourth (2019)