{"id":38809,"date":"2024-03-21T22:55:17","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T20:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=38809"},"modified":"2024-03-21T22:55:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T20:55:17","slug":"four-teams-unbeaten-after-day-one-of-nomads-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=38809","title":{"rendered":"Four teams unbeaten after day one of Nomads Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Grey
Grey High School staged a gritty fightback to come from two goals down to defeat Maritzburg College 3-2 on the opening day of the 2024 Nomads Tournament.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spectators who made their way to Maritzburg College<\/strong> to witness the first day of the annual Nomads Hockey Festival<\/strong> with the hope of catching exciting action on Pape’s Astro<\/strong> were not disappointed. There were close contests, a couple of blowouts, and some upsets.<\/p>\n

The biggest margin of victory was 4-0, while most of the rest of the matches were closely contested, with a couple of come-from-behind wins that kept those present on the edge of their seats.<\/p>\n

The event features 10 of the country’s top hockey-playing schools and runs through to Saturday, 23 March. Of the 10 participants, only four – Selborne College, Grey High,<\/strong> Hilton College and Grey College <\/strong>– remain undefeated after the first day.<\/p>\n

Coach Andrew Beynon<\/strong>‘s Grey High arrived in the KZN Midlands on a high. They had dismissed all opposition at the Tony Godding Festival<\/strong> the previous week, going five for five, to emerge as one of the three undefeated teams at the festival.<\/p>\n

The Gqeberha-based side went into their first encounter brimming with confidence but were soon deflated after they found themselves 0-2 down at halftime, despite dominating large parts of the first half.<\/p>\n

Maritzburg College caught them on the counterattack and finished well when opportunities came their way.<\/p>\n

At halftime, Beynon spoke to his charges about the team’s principles and the need to stick to their processes. “We just said, look, we let ourselves down defensively. We let the opposition into the contest and it’s our own fault. Let’s not make more work for ourselves than we need to,” he explained.<\/p>\n

Grey High was a side transformed in the second half. They played with purpose and fired three goals past the hosts without reply to win 3-2. “They showed real character to come from 0-2 down. I am really proud of the boys,” said Beynon.<\/p>\n

Having learned from their mistakes earlier in the day, Beynon’s team did not repeat them when they took to Pape’s Astro to play the last fixture of the day. Grey High met a St John’s College<\/strong> outfit that was seeking redemption after being well beaten by Wynberg <\/strong>in their morning match. However, Grey High executed their instructions well and did not give coach Gilbert de Villiers’<\/strong> boys an inch as they subjected them to a 4-1 defeat.<\/p>\n

Selborne College, also unbeaten at the Tony Godding Festival, carried that momentum into the Nomads Festival. They looked well organised and played with good structure in their first two matches.<\/p>\n

Like Grey High, the team from the Amathole<\/strong> region dominated possession, forcing their opposition onto the defensive. A testament to that was their 5-2 win over King Edward VII School (KES).<\/strong> Waeden Plaaitjies<\/strong> led the charge with a brace and the other goals came from captain Tre’ Gilbert<\/strong>, Cade Kock<\/strong> and Thomas Caswell<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While his team played well, coach KJ Friend<\/strong> admitted that KES had not been as crisp as they could have been and allowed his side a little more space to manoeuvre in than most other teams would allow.<\/p>\n

“What we need to work on is our closing down on the opposition better, managing the game and playing to our structure, not falling into the trap of the opposition,” he said.<\/p>\n

When they faced Pretoria Boys High School (PBHS)<\/strong> in their second match of the day, Friend’s charges executed the coach’s plan better. Boys High gave Selborne a good run for their money but couldn’t found a way through the East London’s school’s stout defence.<\/p>\n

In the end, it was Selborne who found a way past PBHS, with a penalty corner goal from Gilbert, who was their top scorer last week, winning it 1-0.<\/p>\n

Hilton College<\/strong> came out of the gates well. Last year, they kicked off their campaign with a win over KES and a draw against Pretoria Boys High on the opening day. Day two brought them a win over St John’s and a draw with Wynberg. In their last outing, however, they were beaten 2-0 by a very good Jeppe team.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, coach Damian Kimfley<\/strong>‘s charges got off to a winning start, defeating Jeppe, with a 2-0 margin going in their favour this time around.<\/p>\n

Jeppe, who drew one and won four at Nomads last year, seemed to have lost their mojo as they suffered a second loss later in the day to Grey College<\/strong>, coached by Wayne Coetzee<\/strong>. The Bloemfontein boys quietly bagged two victories to join the two Eastern Cape sides and Hilton in the ranks of the unbeatens.<\/p>\n

With the ghosts of yesteryear banished and a loss avenged, Hilton College thumped KES 4-1 in their second match. That victory has set them up for a mouthwatering contest against Grey High on the morning of day two.<\/p>\n

Maritzburg College, edged out by Grey High in the morning, bounced back with a narrow 1-0 win over Wynberg, who had cruised to victory over St John’s College earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeppe 0-2 Hilton, Grey College 2-1 PBHS, Selborne 5-2 KES, Wynberg 4-0 St John’s, Grey High 3-2 Maritzburg College, Jeppe 0-1 Grey College, PBHS 0-1 Selborne, KES 1-4 Hilton, Maritzburg College 1-0 Wynberg, Grey High 4-1 St John’s.<\/p>\n

Fixtures<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday
\n<\/strong>
\n08:00<\/strong> –<\/strong> KES vs Grey College, 09:10 –<\/strong> Grey High vs Hilton College, 10:25 –<\/strong> Wynberg vs PBHS, 11:35 –<\/strong> Maritzburg College vs St John’s College, 12:50 –<\/strong> Jeppe vs Selborne, 14:00<\/strong> –<\/strong> Grey High vs KES, 15:15 –<\/strong> Hilton College vs PBHS, 16:25 –<\/strong> Grey College vs St John’s, 17:40 –<\/strong> Jeppe vs Wynberg, 18:50 – <\/strong>Maritzburg College vs Selborne.<\/p>\n

Saturday
\n<\/strong>
\n07:30 –<\/strong> Grey High vs PBHS, 08:40 –<\/strong> KES vs Wynberg, 09:55 –<\/strong> Selborne vs St John’s, 11:05 –<\/strong> Hilton College vs Grey College, 12:15 – <\/strong>Maritzburg College vs Jeppe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spectators who made their way to Maritzburg College to witness the first day of the annual Nomads Hockey Festival with the hope of catching exciting action on Pape’s Astro were not disappointed. There were close contests, a couple of blowouts, and some upsets. The biggest margin of victory was 4-0, while most of the rest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":38823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38809","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\/38809","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\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}