Ali Spencer Vice Captain; Bahati Dakile Co-Captain and Lucy Church Co-Captain from St Anne’s College. Pic: Rogan Ward

The SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge moves to Pietermaritzburg for the two highly competitive regionals at the beginning of March, with the exciting news that SuperSport Schools will be live streaming from both schools on the day.

St Anne’s College will host the Pietermaritzburg North Regional on their turfs on Saturday 5 March. They will be joined by five other teams in the sixteen game round robin tournament. Getting the weekend started will be hosts and defending champs, St Anne’s taking on Grace College on the lower astro. At the same time, Howick High School will meet Treverton School on the upper astro. The second game on the lower field sees The Wykeham Collegiate against Voortrekker High School.

The games at St Anne’s will all be 25 minutes one way with a five minute breather between games. The winner of each game will earn four points. A draw with goals will amount to two points and a goalless draw earning each team one point. The finals will be played at 12.15 and will feature the first placed and second placed teams from the round robin.

The following day, the action moves to St John’s D.S.G. astro, who are celebrating their 125^th birthday this year. St John’s will host the Pietermaritzburg Central Regional on Sunday 6 March welcoming four local schools.

Defending Champs, Epworth School meets Girls’ High School in the first game of the day. Carter High School then take on Maritzburg Christian School in the second with the hosts meeting Epworth in the third round robin game.

All games will be half and hour, with a quick one minute half time and change of play at fifteen minutes. Similarly to the St Anne’s format, a win earns the victorious team four points, a draw with goals two points and a goalless draw only one point.

The PMB Northern Regional has had only two victorious teams, one time winners The Wykeham Collegiate were crowned in the inaugural year and since then, St Anne’s College have dominated. The PMB Central Regional has seen three schools raise the regional trophy and advance to the Grand Finals. Girls’ High dominated the earlier days of the tournament with Epworth and St John’s doing battle most recently.

All the regional winners from around KZN will head to Kloof to compete against each other in the Grand Finals. This year, the Grand Finals takes place at St Mary’s D.S.G. over the weekend of 23 and 24 July. The first team to earn a spot at this year’s finals are Pionier Hoërskool from the Northern KZN Regional. They have won the last tournament in 2020 but have yet to participate in a Grand Final.

Links and info for the live coverage will be shared on the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ social media platforms in the build up to the regionals.

For more info like the tournament’s Facebook page or follow on Instagram.