Kearsney team net water polo victory
Three water polo players from Kearsney College were also hand-picked to play in the 2019 SA National Water Polo Tournament in March.
Water polo
Kearsney beat Maritzburg College 12-6
Kearsney’s 1st water polo team played against Maritzburg College on Saturday and hoped to avenge their surprise defeat in the top 10 last year.
Kearsney showed their intent from the start and were rewarded with two early goals. Maritzburg used a driving attack to create opportunities and were soon back in the game with a couple of goals of their own. This galvanised the Kearsney attack and they restored their two-goal lead and finished the 1st chukka 4 – 2 ahead.
Kearsney started the 2nd chukka at a furious pace and were unlucky not to score early. A prolonged period of impatient attacks saw them make basic passing errors and handed Maritzburg a number of counter attack opportunities. The opposition refused to let the attackers pass and put the pressure back on Kearsney with more accuracy in front of goals and scored three goals to Kearsney’s two. The half-time score was 6 – 5, in Kearsney’s favour.
In the 3rd chukka Kearsney switched their defence to a tight mark. They pressured Maritzburg into mistakes and were soon getting counter attacks of their own. Kearsney began to take control of the game and kept Maritzburg scoreless to end the chukka with 8 – 5 ahead.
The 4th chukka was more of the same as Kearsney strangled Maritzburg’s attack and converted the counter attacks into goals. The end score of 12 – 6 to Kearsney.
Triathlon
Joshua Steytler, a Grade 11 learner at Kearsney College, was selected to represent KwaZulu-Natal’s U18 team at the 2019 SA Triathlon Championships in Durban on 24 March.
In the recent Tinman Triathlon, Josh won the 16 to 18 year age category in what was his first race in the senior sprint category. He was the only teenager to take a podium finish out of 140 competitors overall as he finished second in the 750m swim, 21km cycle and 5km run across.
ALSO READ: Kearsney snaps up another basketball victory
Cricket
Kearsney’s 1st X1 participated in the St Alban’s Cricket Festival in Pretoria at the weekend. Despite losing two of their three matches, the team showed great character and fortitude.
The first game was a two-day match against St Benedicts, played at Tukkies. Although the match ended in a draw, Kearsney were on top throughout, with only stubborn batting from St Benedicts in their 2nd innings (22 runs off 39 overs) saw the match end inconclusively.
1st Innings: Kearsney 1st XI 164/9 declared; St Benedicts 78/10
2nd Innings: Kearsney 1st XI 135/7 declared; St Benedicts 22/4
Match drawn
On Saturday the team played St Stithians in a 50-over match and came within one run of defeating one of the top-ranked sides in the country.
St Stithians 1st XI 198 Stocks 3/35; Kelly 3/41
Kearsney 1st XI 197 Bamber 85; Hulett 42*
Kearsney lost by 1 run
On Sunday Kearsney faced a strong St Johns College team in a 50-over game, narrowly losing by 1 wicket.
Kearsney 1st XI 191 Carmichael 65
St Johns College 1st XI 192/9 Murray 3/31; Brien 2/23; De Bruyn 2/23
Kearsney lost by 1 wicket in the 49th over
Basketball
Kearsney travelled to compete in the St Johns U19 Basketball Tournament, one of South Africa’s premier schools’ tournaments. Thirty two schools participated from across South Africa, as well as Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Kearsney had a good run and won all seven of its pool matches.
Pool results:
Pineland High School (Cape Town) 51-9
Falcon College (Zimbabwe) 39-33
Soweto Academy (Gauteng) 43-2
St David’s Inanda (Gauteng) 30-23
Jeppe Boys High School (Gauteng) 34-28
International School of South Africa (Mafikeng) 31-5
Trichardt Academy (Mozambique) 41-25
As top of their pool, Kearsney progressed to the top 16 round where it beat Heideveld High School (Cape Town) 52- 37; followed by a 40-28 win against Dominican Convent (Gauteng) in the quarter finals.
Progressing to the semi-finals, for only the second time in the 10 years of attending the tournament, Kearsney played St Albans College (Tshwane). The game was closely contested with the lead changing hands on numerous occasions. There was no clear winner until the final whistle blew and St Albans secured a 22-28 victory.
The third and fourth place play-offs against Pretoria Boys High School proved a bridge too far as Kearsney missed easy baskets and showed signs of exhaustion from the 11 games in three days. Pretoria won 28 – 18.
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