By the narrowest of margins, the Northern KZN Regional have a new winner at the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Fast 5’s Netball Challenge that took place at Amajuba High School on Saturday 20 September. 

Only one point separated the two top teams in the regional final, with Ferrum High School taking ownership of the trophy, adding to their earlier success of being crowned at this year’s SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge, defeating Vryheid High School 12-11. 

In the hotly contested concluding game, there was absolutely nothing between the two teams. At the break, the local team led by 6-4 with the captain, Enhle Machi playing a vital role in feeding her identical twin sister, Esihle Machi with the ball in the circle. Esihle slotted in all six points for Ferrum while Vryheid’s forwards shared the spoils down the other end, Amahle Ntuli and Olwethu Ntuli both netting two points. 

In the second half, Vryheid dominated putting on a gritty performance scoring 7 points to Ferrum’s 6, including back-to-back 2 pointers by their Goal Attack, Ntuli, nudging the total up by 4 points in 41 seconds midway through the half. Unfortunately, their feisty play wasn’t quite enough to topple Ferrum. 

In their second regional final appearance in the last two years, Vryheid had to work hard to reach the last game with an epic duel against two times winner, Dundee High School’s The Smurfs. In that semifinal, the final whistle blew with both teams perched on 8 points. The decider going to sudden death, Vryheid pulled out a fast flying move that resulted in their victory, pocketing a single point within seconds in the extra time. 

Ferrum met their neighbourhood rivals, Newcastle High School in their semi. Not straying too far from their gameplan, the result went Ferrum’s way with a handsome margin of 19-9. Since the tournament’s inception in 2022 in this area, Ferrum have featured in the top four in every year, with Vryheid finishing second in both of their main appearances. 

Only two more regionals remain in this year’s challenge. First, it heads to Curro Hillcrest this weekend, (Saturday 27 September) for the Highway Regional after it was rained out from earlier this month. Mid-October, the tournament wraps up at Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School on Saturday 18 October. Picture credit: Val Adamson

Results

Regional Final
Ferrum High School 12 vs Vryheid High School 11

Semifinals
Ferrum High School 19 vs Newcastle High School 9; Dundee High School 8 (0) vs Vryheid High School 8 (1)

Pool A
1 Ferrum High School 12pts; 2 Vryheid High School 9pts; 3 Hoërskool Pionier 6pts; 4 Dundee High School 3pts; 5 Sarel Cilliers High School 0pts

Pool B
1 Dundee High School 12pts; 2 Newcastle High School 9pts; 3 Volksrust High School 6pts; 4 Amajuba High School 3pts; 5 Utrecht High School 0pts