On Sunday 21 May, our 1st hockey team participated in the Spar School Girls’ Hockey Challenge. This tournament, renowned in KwaZulu-Natal, has finally made its way to Gauteng. The tournament consists of two pools, with five teams in each pool. The matches are each 20 minutes, one way, after which teams cross over directly with the other pool. This tournament allowed St Mary’s to play against and watch teams we do not usually play during a season.

The St Mary’s 1st hockey team opened with a 4-0 victory against Trinity House. Our team continued the pool matches with three more wins: beating Rand Park High School 2-0, Roosevelt High School 10-0 and Roedean School (SA) 1-0.

This meant that the St Mary’s 1st team topped their pool and would meet Kingsmead College in the final. The St Mary’s 1st hockey team took the Spar School Girls’ Hockey Challenge title with a 1-0 victory over Kingsmead.

The teams have been busy with matches for the past two weeks. There have been tough and exciting friendlies for both the A and B teams of each age group. Both Transvalia and Affies are notoriously competitive games for our teams. Results show a successful day of matches for the St Mary’s team, and their striving for excellence on the field.

The 1st team played an exciting and nail-biting match against Affies. With the match at 2-2 until the last two minutes, we successfully converted a short corner to take the 3-2 win. The C teams as well at thirds and fourths have displayed courageous play against their oppositions’ 1st, 2nd and A teams. St Andrew’s fixtures on Saturday 27 May created competitive rivalry. With nine matches played, not one team lost. Well done to the players.

Well done to Caitlin Breytenbach, who was selected for the U14 Gauteng team. This is a team selected from Southerns, Northerns and Eastern Gauteng.