{"id":35908,"date":"2024-02-25T15:04:15","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T13:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=35908"},"modified":"2024-02-25T15:04:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T13:04:15","slug":"day-3-big-guns-finish-strongly-on-final-day-of-the-balling-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=35908","title":{"rendered":"DAY 3| Big guns finish strongly on final day of the Balling Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"There were wins for Oranje<\/strong>, Eunice<\/strong>, St Anne’s <\/strong>and St John\u2019s DSG<\/strong> on the third and final day of the Balling Hockey Festival<\/strong> in Bethlehem on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The pre-season tournament was an opportunity for coaches to test their team’s depth and combinations, and build confidence, ahead of a jam-packed 2024 season.<\/p>\n

A number of sides caught the eye, with the two unbeatens, Bloemfontein’s Oranje and St Anne’s, from Hilton, stealing the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Both went five for five, with high-flying Oranje closing off their campaign in style with an emphatic 8-0 win over Beaulieu College<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

St Anne’s, after defeating Eunice and Noordheuwel<\/strong> on day two, held off a resilient St Stithians team to end the event with a hard-fought 2-1 win.<\/p>\n

St John’s DSG<\/strong>, after victories in both of their games on Saturday, including a win over Eunice, continued their winning ways, downing Noordheuwel 2-0.<\/p>\n

They will return to Pietermaritzburg buoyed by their three victories. They also played to a 1-1 draw against Voortrekker on the opening day and gave Oranje their toughest game, before going down 0-3.<\/p>\n

Nika Coertzen’<\/strong>s Eunice side battled their way to a win on Sunday after a rather bumpy and inconsistent weekend.<\/p>\n

Nine players earned their first caps for Eunice in Bethlehem, which showed up on the field. They lost three of their five matches but finished strongly with a 3-2 win over Voortrekker.<\/p>\n

Coertzen and her troops will be aiming for rapid improvement and will take many useful lessons away from the festival. Following in the footsteps of 2023’s number one ranked team, they have big shoes to fill.<\/p>\n

In other matches on the last day, Wykeham<\/strong> Collegiate<\/strong> and St Dominic’s College<\/strong> scored three goals each as they recorded wins over Our Lady of Fatima<\/strong> and the Oranje second team respectively at the New Horizon Astro.<\/p>\n

Union High School remained winless, suffering a 1-4 drubbing at the hands of Monument, while Witteberg put five past Potchefstroom Volkskool.<\/p>\n

Day 3: Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marl\u00e9 Claasen Astro | Voortrekker <\/strong><\/p>\n

Monument 4-1 Union HS
\nOranje 8-0 Beaulieu College
\nEunice 3-2 Voortrekker
\nSt Anne’s 2-1 St Stithians College
\nSt John’s DSG 2-0 Noordheuwel
\nWitteberg 5-0 Potchefstroom Volkskool
\nEpworth 1-0 Ho\u00ebrskool Sasolburg<\/p>\n

New Horizon Astro<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wykeham 3-1 Our Lady of Fatima
\nSt Dominic’s College 3-0 Oranje II<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were wins for Oranje, Eunice, St Anne’s and St John\u2019s DSG on the third and final day of the Balling Hockey Festival in Bethlehem on Sunday. The pre-season tournament was an opportunity for coaches to test their team’s depth and combinations, and build confidence, ahead of a jam-packed 2024 season. A number of sides […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":35635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}