THE fixtures and umpires for the eighth SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge were recently announced. The 10 teams participating in the event will head to St Mary’s DSG in Kloof to face each other in the much anticipated grand finals on 21 and 22 July.
In Pool A, host school and defending champions St Mary’s DSG will take on St Anne’s from Hilton; King Edward High School from Matatiele, Amanzimtoti High School and Greytown High School. In Pool B, the only team to have a 100 per cent appearance rate at the finals, Durban Girls’ College take on Epworth School from Pietermaritzburg; Our Lady of Fatima from Durban North, Ferrum High School from Newcastle and Felixton College from Richards Bay.
Leading the fixtures, the Highway Regional champions, St Mary’s DSG will take on the uMvoti regional winners. Following them are two of the three newcomers this year, Epworth School will meet Felixton in the first game for Pool B. St Anne’s College will meet the feisty King Edward team. Durban Girls’ College will take on Fatima in the fourth game and Toti will play the other newcomers, Greytown.
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The pool games will last 22 minutes, with four points being awarded for a win, two points for a draw with goals, one point for a goalless draw and zero points for a loss. The playoffs will have two halves lasting 15 minutes each way, and if the game ends on a tie, the result will be decided in a penalty shoot-out.
Officiating at the Grand Finals are umpires from across KwaZulu-Natal. Leading by example is the renowned Wanri Venter from Thomas More College.
Venter will be joined by Sonika Buys at the grand finals. The two senior umpires will be joined by eight up-and-coming umpires during the weekend. Overseeing the officials with Venter is Queensburgh’s Michael Lees.