Hillfox Hornets set unique first as all 14 teams come with superleague medals
Eight gold medals from nine grand finals wraps up impressive season for Weltevreden Park-based arena.
After a clean sweep, excellence has a new standard bearer.
Hillfox Hornets sent their purple and green netball army to the Benoni Action Arena in search of a sack of medals on November 5. The revolving carnival was concluded and it was the East Rand arena that became a netballing mecca as they hosted the finals of the Action Netball Gauteng Junior Superleague on November 5. In a unique first, every team entered by the Hillfox arena not only qualified for the finals but came home with a medal too.
Winners of the round robin section automatically qualified for the final while the teams finishing second and third faced off for a spot in the final. The loser of that match would then play the winner of the playoff between the fourth and fifth placed teams for the bronze medal. Of the 14 teams entered by Hillfox in age groups ranging from U11 to U19, nine had finished top of the log while no team finished lower than third.
Nothing can be taken for granted in knockout games but the girls were efficient in taking care of business. The U11 A and B as well as the U13 As secured their bronze medal with wins over Benoni twice and Centurion, respectively. Unfortunately, there were no fairy tale endings for the B teams from the U13, 16 and 17 age groups as they each received silver medals after going down to Centurion, Sandton and Pretoria North-based Zambezi, respectively.
The U12 A and Bs were the first gold medal recipients after both beat Benoni 31-20 and 21-17. The U14 A and B as well as the U15 A and B teams repeated the feat with victories over their Centurion and Vaal counterparts. The U16 A recorded the day’s biggest winning margin in a final when they beat Benoni 41-25 while the U19’s made it eight gold medals for Hillfox when they beat Meyersdal 31-26.
The weekends momentum began on the Friday evening before the Saturday finals where each team were given a heroes send off at the Hillfox arena. Each player received a commemorative cap and small gift from head coach René Blok to prepare them for the following day’s battles. Ecstatic with the arena’s performance, René congratulated the teams, saying,
“Thank you to everyone for a job well done today, I am so proud. 14 hours of netball. Exhausted but worth it”.
