{"id":62962,"date":"2025-01-22T13:22:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T11:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=62962"},"modified":"2025-01-22T13:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T11:22:27","slug":"its-all-systems-go-for-the-brian-baker-water-polo-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=62962","title":{"rendered":"It’s all systems go for the Brian Baker Water Polo Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kingswood College 1st Team Water Polo goalie Julia Hough blocks a shot from Woodridge in 2024. Photo: Jackie Clausen.<\/p>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Spectators can expect high intensity and action-packed early season rivalries in the pool.”<\/p>\n

That was the promise from Kyle Kumm<\/strong>, the organiser of the 2025 edition of the Brian Baker Water Polo Tournament<\/strong>, which will be played at Kingswood College<\/strong>, in Makhanda, from 23 to 26 January.<\/p>\n

The tournament is in its 14th year and is named after Brian Baker, a passionate educationalist and a deep lover of sport to whom much of the success of girls’ water polo in South Africa is attributed. Baker was a fierce competitor who also believed that sport offered valuable life lessons to competitors and everyone around them.<\/p>\n

“We continue to hold these beliefs close to our hearts and hope that our 2025 tournament will foster lifelong friendships, grit, determination, and a genuine love for water polo,” Leon Grov\u00e9<\/strong>, the Kingswood College Head, stated in a press release.<\/p>\n

Kumm, the tournament organiser, shares those sentiments. “We encourage teams to play hard, play fair, and enjoy the excitement that comes with participating in a tournament,” he said.<\/p>\n

Kumm also coaches the Kingswood first team, so, because of his coaching commitments, he will relinquish control of the organising to the highly respected Ian Melliar<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Catch the action LIVE on SuperSport Schools and the SuperSport Schools app<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The early season showdown offers an opportunity for teams to assess themselves and to improve on their performances from last year, while the dominant outfits will be keen to carry on from where they left off before the holidays.<\/p>\n

Herschel<\/strong>, the defending champion<\/strong><\/a>, will be one of the 20 teams battling for supremacy at the showpiece.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Alex Hawkins’<\/strong>\u00a0side overcame Reddam House Constantia<\/strong> 14-11 in a thrilling final. They will begin their title defence with a Pool C showdown against DSG Makhanda<\/strong>. They’ll also face Collegiate Girls’ High School<\/strong>, Hudson Park,<\/strong> and St Mary’s Waverley <\/strong>in the group phase of the event.<\/p>\n

While Herschel went on to add the Old Petrians<\/strong>‘ title to their list of achievements, last year’s runners-up, Reddam House Constantia, enjoyed success later in the year,\u00a0 beating Herschel to win the Mackenzie Cup<\/strong> <\/a>in home waters, and they also won the St Anne’s Water Polo Tournament<\/strong> <\/a>against a high-quality field in KZN. They gave Herschel a good run for their money in the 2024 title game, and it was only in the last chukka that their Cape Town rivals pulled clear.<\/p>\n

Reddam will be aiming to go a step further at Kingswood this time around. They’re in Pool B<\/strong>, where they will compete against Durban Girls’ College (DGC)<\/strong>, Glenwood House<\/strong>, Pearson<\/strong>, and Reddam House Bedfordview<\/strong>. DGC <\/strong>claimed the National Aquatics Festival<\/strong><\/a> honours in early 2024, while Reddam House Bedfordview lifted the Roedean Prestige Cup<\/strong> <\/a>in October.<\/p>\n

Perennial favourites, Roedean<\/strong>, finished in third place last year and closed off the tournament with a 14-7 victory over Clarendon<\/strong>. They will, also, be aiming to go all the way in 2025 after winning the St Stithians Invitational<\/strong><\/a> at the end of October. They are in Pool D<\/strong> with the hosts, Kingswood, Alexander Road<\/strong>, St Anne’s<\/strong>, and Stirling<\/strong>. The KZN girls, runners-up in their own St Anne’s Water Polo Tournament, will likely prove to be Roedean’s toughest group-stage opponents.<\/p>\n

Pool A<\/strong> should be very competitive and it would be no surprise if one, two, or even three teams from the group challenge for the title.<\/p>\n

Last year’s fourth-place finishers, Clarendon, take on Rhenish<\/strong>, St Dominic’s<\/strong>, St Stithians, <\/strong>and Woodridge.<\/strong> St Stithians, especially, has a proven record of excellence and will be one of the teams to watch out for. They, together with St Domonic’s and Rhenish, completed last year’s Brian Baker tournament with a victory. Woodridge found the going tougher, but they’ll be keen to improve on last year’s performances despite a very tough Pool D lineup.<\/p>\n

The first whistles will sound at 12:00 on Thursday, when Roedean takes on Kingswood at Kingswood, while DSG Makhanda locks horns with Collegiate at DSG Makhanda.<\/p>\n

Day one fixtures<\/strong><\/p>\n

12:00:<\/strong> Roedean vs Kingswood, DSG Makhanda vs Collegiate
\n12:50:<\/strong> Reddam Bedfordview vs DGC, St Dominic’s vs Woodridge
\n13:40:<\/strong> Pearson vs Glenwood, St Mary’s vs Hudson
\n14:30:<\/strong> Roedean vs Alexander Road, St Stithians vs Rhenish
\n15:20:<\/strong> St Anne’s vs Stirling, Clarendon vs Woodridge
\n16:10:<\/strong> Reddam Bedfordview vs Pearson, St Mary’s vs Collegiate
\n17:00:<\/strong> Herschel vs DSG, Reddam House Constantia vs DGC
\n17:50:<\/strong> Kingswood vs Stirling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Spectators can expect high intensity and action-packed early season rivalries in the pool.” That was the promise from Kyle Kumm, the organiser of the 2025 edition of the Brian Baker Water Polo Tournament, which will be played at Kingswood College, in Makhanda, from 23 to 26 January. The tournament is in its 14th year and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":33606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62962","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\/62962","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=62962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}