Glasby gets deserved recall for Proteas squad to contest World Cup

THE South African woman’s hockey team has been announced for the Women’s World Cup to be held in London from July 21 to August 5.

The team qualified for the prestigious event by ending fifth at the FIH World League semi-final in Johannesburg in June last year where they did a sterling job to qualify.

South Africa last played together at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April but did not perform as well as they expected. They were aiming for a semi-final spot but could only manage sixth place after defeats to India and Canada.

The Western Cape is well represented in the 18-player squad with four locals making the cut. The notable returnee is striker Tarryn Glasby, who was left out of the Commonwealth squad. She has been in imperious form for her club side, WPCC, and has bagged an impressive 15 goals in eight league matches.

Her team has scored 35 goals to date and her contribution has been immense with a staggering return of 43% of the team’s goals.

Other local players are stalwarts Quanita Bobbs, Candice Manuel and Jade Mayne.

The three are seasoned campaigners and fully deserve their spots. Central keeper Nicole le Fleur was not avail- able for selection and her place is taken by Marlize van Tonder, the South Gauteng keeper.

South Africa will participate in Group C and will face Germany, Spain and Argentina. Teams that finish first will progress straight to the quarter-finals, teams finishing second or third will move to the play-offs while the fourthplaced team will be eliminated. SA will do well to progress out of the pool stage and will target Spain for a win and hope to get a point against Germany or Argentina.