{"id":62057,"date":"2025-01-03T12:42:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T10:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=62057"},"modified":"2025-01-03T12:42:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T10:42:51","slug":"all-set-for-kearsneys-season-opening-ihlobo-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=62057","title":{"rendered":"All set for Kearsney’s season-opening iHlobo Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kearsney
Kearsney College’s picturesque AH Smith Oval. Photo: Brad Morgan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the first term of 2025 is yet to get underway, the schools’ cricket season in KwaZulu-Natal will make its bow on Monday, 6 January, with Kearsney College<\/strong> hosting the annual iHlobo Festival<\/strong> in Botha’s Hill.<\/p>\n

The event brings together eight 1st<\/sup> XIs, including two from Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

The hosts, Kearsney are joined by fellow KZN schools, Clifton College<\/strong>, Durban High School (DHS)<\/strong>, and Maritzburg College<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

St Alban’s College<\/strong>, from Pretoria, and Uplands College<\/strong>, from White River, Mpumalanga, complete the South African sides, while St John’s College<\/strong>, of Harare, and Falcon College<\/strong>, from Esigodini, are the Zimbabwean representatives.<\/p>\n

The event takes place over four days, with the first three featuring 50-overs-a-side matches, and T20 games scheduled for the final day, Thursday, 9 January.<\/p>\n

Arguably, the highlight of the opening day will be a showdown between traditional rivals, Maritzburg College and DHS, while Clifton versus Kearsney on Tuesday should reveal something about where the hosts find themselves heading into 2025, with Ross Coetzee<\/strong> (SA Schools<\/strong><\/a>) and Sandiswa Yeni<\/strong> (SA Colts) among the players that have matriculated. The Clifton line-up remains largely unchanged.<\/p>\n

The Zimbabwean teams add some spice to the festival, and St John’s, who will be up against all of KZN’s big guns a little later in the season at the Clifton T20 Tournament<\/strong><\/a>, are a team to keep an eye on. Last year, at their own St John’s Rams T20, they withstood the challenges of Clifton, Kearsney, and Maritzburg College to claim the title<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

All of the DHS matches will be played at DHS, with Kearsney hosting the remainder of the fixtures.<\/p>\n

FIXTURES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monday, 6 January, 50 over<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kearsney vs St John’s, AH Smith
\nUplands vs Falcon, Matterson
\nClifton vs St Alban’s, Osler
\nDHS vs Maritzburg College, DHS<\/p>\n

Tuesday, 7 January, 50 over<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maritzburg College vs St Alban’s, AH Smith
\nKearsney vs Clifton, Matterson
\nUplands vs St John’s, Osler
\nDHS vs Falcon, DHS<\/p>\n

Wednesday, 8 January, 50 overs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clifton vs Falcon, AH Smith
\nMaritzburg College vs Uplands, Matterson
\nKearsney vs St Alban’s, Osler
\nDHS vs St John’s, DHS<\/p>\n

Thursday, 9 January, T20<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kearsney vs Falcon, AH Smith
\nClifton vs Uplands, Matterson
\nMaritzburg College vs St John’s Osler
\nDHS vs St Alban’s, DHS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the first term of 2025 is yet to get underway, the schools’ cricket season in KwaZulu-Natal will make its bow on Monday, 6 January, with Kearsney College hosting the annual iHlobo Festival in Botha’s Hill. The event brings together eight 1st XIs, including two from Zimbabwe. The hosts, Kearsney are joined by fellow KZN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":62059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62057","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\/62057","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}