SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge Highway Regional - Westville Girls’ High School: Saturday 21 March

Nearing the halfway mark, Westville Girls’ High School hosts the Highway Regional, the fifth regional out of ten in the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge on their astro turf on Saturday 21 March.

In one of the more competitive regions, eight hopeful teams walk on to the pitch in the hopes of claiming the Highway trophy. One-time winners, Westville Girls’ High School will lead the charge with home ground advantage, taking on Curro Hillcrest; Gelofte Skool; Hillcrest High School; Kloof High School; Pinetown High School; defending champs, St Mary’s D.S.G and Thomas More College.

The teams will be split into two pools for this tournament, with St Mary’s D.S.G.; Hillcrest; Westville Girls’ and Gelofte being drawn in Pool A and Thomas More; Curro; Kloof and Pinetown filling out Pool B. All games will be a quickfire 20 minutes long. Once the pool games are all wrapped up, the teams will then meet in a cross-pool playoff, with the semi-finalists playing an extra game. 

Games tip off early at 7.30 with the defending champions, St Mary’s D.S.G. taking on Gelofte Skool in the opening fixture. St Mary’s have lifted the Highway Regional trophy an impressive 14 times and also gone on to win the overall title on seven occasions since the tournament began in 2011.

In the build up to the final, after each game the teams will be awarded points on their logs. A win results in 4 points, while a draw with goals adds 2 points to the team’s tally, a goalless draw only increases your total by 1 point while a goalless draw registers zero points. 

Five more tournaments are still to be played in the 16th challenge. Currently four teams have secured their berth at the Grand Finals that will be taking place at St Mary’s D.S.G. in July. They are Our Lady of Fatima (DBN North Regional) followed by Amanzimtoti High School (DBN South Regional); St John’s D.S.G. (PMB Central Regional) and St Anne’s Diocesan College (PMB North Regional).

At each of the regionals, Matrics participating in the challenge can enter a lucky draw with the possibility of winning a year’s bursary at eta College, a leading Sport Science, Coaching and Management tertiary institution in Durban. The bursary will be awarded at the Grand Finals.

If you are unable to get to watch the action live, you can catch the action on SuperSport Schools with all the games being on the SuperSport Schools app.

For more information, follow the tournament on Facebook: SparSchoolGirlsHockeyTournament and Instagram sparkznhockey or TikTok spar.kzn.hockey or use the hashtags: #ChixWithStix; #HeartoftheCommunity; #SuperLocal; #MyKZNSPAR #MySPAR

Westville Girls High School presents THE WIZ with help from some of Durban’s top theatre personalities

As part of its celebration of 50 years of excellence, Westville Girls’ High School presents the groovy, soulful and feisty version of the classic tale of Dorothy’s journey to Emerald City, The Wiz from Friday, March 21 to March 27.

The Wiz, the urbanized retelling of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which is present by kind permission of DALRO, promises great entertainment for the whole family as the audience is taken down the yellow brick road with ever-earnest but resolute Dorothy, scaredy-cat Lion who seeks some courage, a rusty Tinman who seeks a heart and the adorable Scarecrow who joins this motley crew in the hopes that he will get some brains from the Wiz.

“We are thrilled to present this delightful musical production as part of our 50th celebrations,” says Catherine Raw, Principal of WGHS. “We chose a musical to give our pupils the opportunity to showcase the huge variety of talent they possess and to involve as many girls as possible.”

Over 100 girls from the school are performing in the musical with some male contrinbutions  from Westville Boys High. The show is directed by drama teacher Claire Spinelli assisted by Roxanne Fuller, with costume co-ordination by Chelsea-Rae Martin.

The show boasts involvement of top Durban theatre professionals with Evan Roberts as musical director,  set by well-known Durban theatre personality Bryan Hiles and graphics by MC, poet and artist Ewok Robinson.  Award-winning lighting designer Michael Broderick adds his ambient-magic to the show and the technical stage management is being run by Jane Cross and Megan Levy of Darkhorse Productions.  Some impressive choreography by Lyn Tottem and Chantal Laubscher of ‘The Studio’ allows the talented cast of learners to shine in a variety of dance forms including ballet, tap and hip hop.

This updated and vibrant musical of the timeless tale of determination againast all odds, will be presented in the WGHS new Mary Johnstone Centre, which will be transformed into a unique performance space.

Shows are at 7pm on March 21, 24, 26 (special Gala/VIP performance) and 27 with matinees on March 22 at 2pm, March 25 at 3.30pm and a special performance for primary schools on March 27 at 10am. 

Tickets are R50 for adults and R30 for scholars with a special price of R20 for the primary schools’ production and can be booked through the school on 031-2661258 or emailed to  tickets@wghs.co.za.

For more information go to the Facebook site Westville Girls’ High School High – Alma Mater

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