DGC and Fatima in Grand Final
TWO more schools qualified last weekend for the Grand Final of the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge to be played at St Mary’s DSG in July. They were Durban Girls College and Our Lady of Fatima, respective winners of the Durban Central and Durban North regional tournaments.
Durban Girls College (DGC), the overall SPAR champions in 2013, 2014 and 2015, served up due notice of their intention of reclaiming the title they lost to St Mary’s DSG last year with a comprehensive display of skill, speed and teamwork to predictably win the Durban Central region.
On their way to the semifinals they rattled in 18 goals without reply in their three Pool A games against Port Natal (6-0), Durban Girls Secondary (11-0) and St Henry’s Marist College (1-0) and went on to win their semi-final against Maris Stella (2-0) and the final against St Henry’s 3-0 bringing their goals tally to 23.
Durban Girls High (DGHS) were Pool B winners with victories over Inanda Secondary (2-0), INK (1-0) and runners-up Maris Stella (1-0).
Surprise package St Henry’s came second to DGC in Pool A and went on to defeat DGHS in the semi-finals in a sudden death one-on-one shoot-out that got them into the final.
The Durban North Regional tournament was won by Our Lady of Fatima Convent School which beat near neighbours Danville Park 2-1 in a final that could have gone either way.
The seven-team round robin ended up with these two schools tied at the top of the log with 19 points each from four wins and two draws, Danville claiming the honours with a better goal difference (11 to Fatima’s 7) which qualified both to meet in the final.
Crawford College (CC) La Lucia were third, CC North Coast fourth and Northlands Girls fifth on the log. Previous winners in 2013, 2015 and 2016 and defending champions, Ashton International College, had a disappointing tournament finishing sixth and Reddam House uMhlanga seventh.
Hosts Crawford College La Lucia can consider themselves unfortunate not to have made it to the final as they did not concede a single goal in their six games in the round robin.
Fatima did not have things all their own way in the final and were a goal down after only three minutes when their goalkeeper, Tathum Nimmo, did well to block a rasping shot by Danville only for Kate Gerard following up to smack the loose ball into the net.
Fatima were soon on level terms after good work on the right wing by Bella Thompson who set up team captain Genevieve Marshall to send an unstoppable shot past the Danville goalkeeper.