The successful Girls’ U18 hockey squad travelled to South Africa over the Easter break to take part in the highly prestigious St Mary’s Investec Hockey Festival. Their first stop was Cape Town where they visited Robben Island, Cape Point, Camps Bay and Table Mountain as well as playing Herschel Girls’ School in a warm-up fixture.
The party then transferred to the Pilanesberg National Park, where they spent an exciting two days enjoying numerous Game Drives, before moving onto Johannesburg for the Festival.
Further practice matches were played against St Mary’s School and St John’s DSG before the four day Festival started in earnest. The team enjoyed victories in the groups stage over Paarl Girls HS, St Mary’s Festival XI, St Andrew’s and Penryn College but losses against Herschel and Die Hoerskool Menlopark, combined with a draw against St Anne’s Diocesan College, meant that the squad could not qualify for the Cup competition, instead moving into the Plate competition. The squad progressed with ease to the Plate final, where they beat Hoerskool Garsfontein 1-0 to claim the trophy. At the closing ceremonies, Abby Gooderham received an award for scoring one of the best goals of the Festival and Molly Redgrove was voted as one of the best six players in the Festival by coaches.
We would like to thank our Tour sponsors, JSR Farming Group and Penny Farm Ltd, for their assistance in supplying playing and training kit for our pupils.
