{"id":62728,"date":"2025-01-19T11:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T09:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=62728"},"modified":"2025-01-19T11:39:16","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T09:39:16","slug":"kearsney-hilton-and-clifton-grab-emphatic-wins-in-kzn-openers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=62728","title":{"rendered":"Kearsney, Hilton, and Clifton grab emphatic wins in KZN openers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kearsney
Kearsney College got their season off to a winning start against Michaelhouse. Photo: Kearsney College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were 50 goals <\/strong>scored between Kearsney<\/strong>, Hilton<\/strong>, and Clifton College<\/strong> on the first weekend of schools’ water polo action in KwaZulu-Natal<\/strong> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Kearsney beat Michaelhouse<\/strong> 11-8 in home waters, while Hilton thumped Glenwood High<\/strong> 15-1, and Clifton breezed to a 24-2 win over St Charles College<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It was a display of dominance from the three teams, who enter the new season aiming to build on the foundations laid in 2024.<\/p>\n

Kearsney, led by coach Nicholas Rodda<\/strong>, was impressive last season, while Hilton and Clifton have welcomed new coaches, with Paul Martin<\/strong> moving from Clifton to Hilton, and Pierre Le Roux <\/strong>returning from New Zealand to take charge of Clifton.<\/p>\n

Kearsney won the Northwood Stayers<\/strong><\/a> tournament at the end of 2023 and then built on that platform in 2024 by winning the Reef Cup<\/strong><\/a>, before going on to land the KZN Top 10<\/strong><\/a> and St Stithians Invitational Water Polo<\/strong><\/a> titles. They picked up where they left off against Michaelhouse.<\/p>\n

Head Boy Luca Sandri<\/strong>, who featured for KZN at the Schools Water Polo South Africa Inter-Provincial<\/a><\/strong> tournament, was the enforcer and scored four times.<\/p>\n

He was joined on the scoring sheet by SA Schools’ star James “Chippa” Pohl<\/strong>, Thomas\u00a0Aylward<\/strong>, and Thomas Francke,<\/strong> who all netted braces. Levi Thom<\/strong> also scored to help the Botha’s Hill boys to victory.<\/p>\n

Kearsney had only a one-hour session during the week to prepare for the clash. Given that limitation, Rodda was impressed by his side’s performance.<\/p>\n

\"The
The DHS defenders get their arms in the air to block a shot from Northwood’s powerful KZN Schools’ player, Lian Terblanche, at Northwood on Saturday, 18 January 2025. Photo: Brad Morgan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“The lack of preparation was not ideal, but the boys coming back relatively fit was good,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We were hoping for a solid win while bleeding some new youngsters into the team and giving them an opportunity to play at 1st team level.<\/p>\n

“We are looking for more competition within the squad to push players ahead of our first time in a long time back at the KES Water Polo Tournament<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Kearsney faces Durban High School (DHS)<\/strong>, Northwood<\/strong>, Glenwood<\/strong>, and Maritzburg College<\/strong> in the coming weeks, but they won’t be attending the prestigious SAC Shield<\/strong> in Makhanda. Their focus will, instead, be on their trip to Johannesburg for the KES tournament in March.<\/p>\n

In other matches around the province, DHS, led by SA Schools’ defender, Kirk Wilson<\/strong>,\u00a0 scored an impressive 9-3 win at Northwood. while Westville Boys’ High<\/strong> outplayed Maritzburg College, <\/strong>winning 15-8.<\/p>\n

The KZN sides will resume action next weekend without Westville, Clifton, and Hilton, who will all be in the Eastern Cape for the SAC Shield.<\/p>\n

RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kearsney College 11-8 Michaelhouse
\nHilton College 15-1 Glenwood High School
\nMaritzburg College 15-8 Westville Boys’ High
\nDurban High School 9-3 Northwood
\nClifton College 24-2 St Charles College<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were 50 goals scored between Kearsney, Hilton, and Clifton College on the first weekend of schools’ water polo action in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday. Kearsney beat Michaelhouse 11-8 in home waters, while Hilton thumped Glenwood High 15-1, and Clifton breezed to a 24-2 win over St Charles College. It was a display of dominance from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":62729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62728","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\/62728","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=62728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}