SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge Pietermaritzburg Central and North Regionals Saturday 14 March & Sunday 15 March

Action-a-plenty awaits schools from the greater Maritzburg area in the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge with Epworth School hosting the Pietermaritzburg Central Regional on Saturday 14 March and St Anne’s Diocesan College welcoming schools for the Pietermaritzburg North Regional on Sunday 15 March.

The busy weekend of hockey will see 12 schools taking to the turf in the hopes of being crowned regional champion. On Saturday, joining Epworth School on their astro are Alexandra High School; Carter High School; Maritzburg Christian School; Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School; Russell High School and St John’s D.S.G. 

On the prowl for their fifth title, Epworth School looks forward to defending the Pietermaritzburg Central Regional on their astro on Saturday 14 March for the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge. Lining up for the host team are Cara Macfarlane and Siphokazi Mpontshane. Pic by Val Adamson

Sunday sees five schools head to St Anne’s for the annual contest. The guest schools are Howick High School; Riverwood College; Treverton College and The Wykeham Collegiate. 

The weekend’s fixtures have all teams meeting in a round robin format, with games in the Central Regional lasting 20 minutes, and 25 minutes in the North Regional. A victorious team will earn themselves 4 points on the log, while drawn games – both teams will share the points. If both teams have the same number of goals, they will each earn 2 points while a goalless draw will add 1 point to your tally. A loss registers zero points. 

There have been five schools that have had the honour of representing their regions at the Grand Finals since the tournament’s inception in 2011. The top ten schools from around KZN converge on St Mary’s D.S.G. in the hopes of being crowned overall champion in the challenge. Both hosts schools are defending champs.

Leaders of the pack. St Anne’s Diocesan College’s Hannah Schwegmann (vice-captain), Holly Hofmeyr (captain) and Willow Crawford (vice-captain) prepare to defend their title in the Pietermaritzburg North Regional at the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge. The only matrics donning the St Anne’s kit this year, the trio will be welcoming teams onto their turf on Sunday 15 March. Pic by Val Adamson

The two home teams will be walking on to the fields as defending champs. St Anne’s have lifted the regional trophy 11 times while Wykeham Collegiate have three. In the Central tournament, Girls High have their name engraved on the trophy seven times, followed by Epworth with four wins and St John’s three successes. 

Two teams have already secured their spot at the Grand Finals in the 2026 edition. First to qualify was Our Lady of Fatima waving the Durban North Regionals flag and joining them is Amanzimtoti High School from the Durban South Regional who were victorious last weekend. 

Matrics present on the day should keep an eye out for eta College. The leading Sport Science, Coaching and Management tertiary institution in Durban is offering a year’s bursary at eta College, which one lucky player could win. The bursary will be awarded to a lucky young lady at the Grand Finals.

All games at these two tournaments will be livestreamed by SuperSport Schools, so if you can’t make it to the sidelines to support, you can still catch all the action online. 

For more information, follow the tournament on Facebook: SPARSchoolGirlsHockeyTournament and Instagram  sparkznhockey or TikTok spar.kzn.hockey or use the hashtags: #ChixWithStix #HearthoftheCommunity #SuperLocal #MyKZNMySPAR 

St Mary's DSG take the honours in Highway Regional

SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge

Highway Regional

Westville Girls’ High School: Sunday 13 March

St Mary’s DSG continued their domination of the Highway Regional at the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge with a determined performance ensuring their tenth title. 

They squared off against a hard-working team from Thomas More College in the regional final at Westville Girls’ High School on Sunday 13 March. From the first whistle, Saints pushed the game up to the Thomas More circle with the first threat coming just seconds into the game. The defending champion’s intentions were obvious as they continued the pressure but Thomas More’s keeper Tiaasha Naicker and her defenders braved the various wave of attacks. 

Saints opened up their account with their first goal being scored midway through the first half. Captain for St Mary’s DSG, Amy van Rooyen shared, “The first goal was quite an early one. I received the ball from one of my mids, and then plugged it straight in to the D and Anna Birt touched it. It was quite a lucky touch, but she got it in. It was quite nerve-wracking because I had to go and review it with the umpires. But it was awarded.”

Nearing the end of the first half, Saints perseverance paid off. Play moved down from the right, shuffled along the baseline and into the centre. The umpire blew up a foul and Thomas More quickly tried to get the play away from their danger zone. Intercepting the clearance, Saints caught Thomas More defence on the back foot with a blitz into the circle, and the daring Elizabeth Anderson firing off a rocket from two paces into the D.

Talking about the day, van Rooyen continued, “We were so excited going into the tournament. We started off quite shakily with drawing zero zero against Curro but we just got better and better and it was such a great day.” 

Heading into the final, van Rooyen said she felt really nervous, “I trusted my team mates. We kept moving the ball, which was our aim and doing this we knew the goals would come as the space was very limited in the D.”

After three quarters of game time, Thomas More were given some space to play, taking their opportunity up to the Saints circle. In a good passage of play, Thomas More kept the ball up in the Saints 22, camping there for nearly 3 minutes but were just unable to capitalise on their good fortune. 

Talking of this pressure, van Rooyen said, “I was worried, especially going back and forth setting up for the 5 meters but I kept talking to my team and we kept encouraging each saying defend, defend, defend. It really did help us that we were 2 nil up which made us feel a lot more confident, and with all the numbers dropping back to defend.”

The final score was 2 nil in favour of St Mary’s DSG. They are the fifth team to secure a spot at the Grand Finals which takes place on their home turf in July. They are joined by Our Lady of Fatima after yesterday’s Durban North Regional, Newcomer Pionier Hoërskool was the first team through, followed by St Anne’s College (PMB North Regional) and St John’s D.S.G. (PMB Central Regional).

Umpire of the Day went to St Mary’s DSG’s Letho Mngadi. 

For more info like the tournament’s Facebook page or follow on Instagram. All games are livestreamed by SuperSport Schools

Overall results:

1 St Mary’s 21 points, 2 Thomas More College 16 points, 3 Westville Girls’ High School 14 points, 4 Curro Hillcrest 8 points, 5 Kloof High School 7 points, 6 Hillcrest High School 6 points, 7 Gelofte School 0 points

ENDS