St Andrew’s show grit to win top water polo event
St Andrew’s College reigned supreme at the 43rd annual Vides Water polo tournament once again as the team from Grahamstown defended their title in an electrifying penalty shoot-out against Reddam from Cape Town, after the match finished level at 4-4 after full time.
It is St Andrew’s fourth Vides title in the last six years and continues their recent dominance of the event as they defended their title superbly against a tough field, where Paul Roos and Grey High were tipped as main favourites but ended up battling it out for the bronze, with Grey emerging victorious 7-2.
“It was a great tournament. We had a fantastic three days of water polo. Everything went smoothly at Selborne and Hudson, and then we had a wonderful final to end it all off,” said tournament organiser Mike Cousins.
“St Andrew’s are deserved winners. I think the top four teams who made the semis were the best teams in the tournament, and then in the final St Andrew’s just managed the bigger moments better than Reddam, so they are worthy champions.”
In the final it was a good start from Reddam that saw them leading 2-1 at the end of the first chukka, thanks to goals from Jack Bremer and Riccardo Pizzimbone, while St Andrew’s replied through Joshua Cowen.
The second chukka was then all St Andrew’s, but they struggled to break through the Reddam defence, and missed out on a number of man-up opportunities.
Just as it looked like they would go into half -time trailing, Matthew Hillary slotted in the equaliser with 30 seconds remaining, making up for missing a sitter a minute earlier.
The third chukka was then an even affair, with both teams’ solid defence forcing each other to shoot from long range, which both goalkeepers dealt with easily enough, until Reddam’s Thomas Ackerman found himself open in the hole to slam the ball past the hapless ’keeper with a minute and 25 seconds left in the chukka.
Reddam thus went into the final chukka with a 3-2 lead, but a frantic minute and a half period halfway through the final stanza saw St Andrew’s pull level through Joel Vides, Reddam go back in the lead through Ackerman’s second goal and St Andrew’s equalise again through Hillary’s second.
This sent the game to penalties, and it was St Andrew’s who held their nerve as they scored all three shots, while a save from St Andrew’s goalkeeper Nicholas Sutherland against Reddam’s Bremer proved to be the difference.
“We are thrilled to come away with the Vides title again. It is a testament to these boys’ mental strength, their captaincy and their hard work leading up to this tournament,” said St Andrew’s coach, Graeme Lucas-Bull.
“I think it comes down to a bit of grit from the boys. Although they are young, six of them have over 100 caps for the first team, the captains have almost 300 caps between them.
“So it is an enormous achievement for these young men.
“It was a bit tighter than we would have hoped. I think we created enough opportunities. Unfortunately, I think with a young side the occasion got to them a bit, but I am really thrilled with the guys that three games in a row now managing to come back from behind and pull it off.
“This is a very special tournament for the team to win and as a coach I have been here four times and won it three times, so it is very special for me, too.”
In other results Grey College from Bloemfontein enjoyed a good tournament and rounded it out, edging St Albans 5-4 to finish sixth.
Hosts Selborne College had to settle for seventh place after they were just beaten by St Andrew’s 8-7 in the quarterfinals, then pipped 5-4 by Grey Bloemfontein in the positional play-offs, which set them up with a local clash against Stirling, which they won 6-5 to end their tournament well.