{"id":79499,"date":"2025-08-06T16:46:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=79499"},"modified":"2025-08-06T16:46:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:46:02","slug":"guschikie-top-schools-kicks-off-on-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=79499","title":{"rendered":"Guschkie Top Schools kicks off on Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Guschkie Top Schools Tournament logo. Photo: Grey College<\/strong><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Guschkie Top Schools<\/strong> hockey tournament gets underway on Thursday, at Grey College<\/strong>, in Bloemfontein.<\/p>\n

Northwood<\/strong>, who went back-to-back as champions in 2023 and 2024, will not be defending their title. They’ll be down in the Western Cape, facing Paul Roos Gimnasium<\/strong> and SACS<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Grey College, the runner-up to the Knights<\/strong> <\/em>in the past two years, will be focused on taking full advantage of their home turf.<\/p>\n

They’re in Pool A where they’ll face their local rivals, St Andrew’s School <\/strong>(Saints<\/em><\/strong>), Ho\u00ebrskool Garsfontein<\/strong>, Ho\u00ebrskool<\/strong> Montana<\/strong>, Worcester Gimnasium,<\/strong> and Ho\u00ebrskool DF Malan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Greys campaign starts against Worcester Gim at 10:00 on Thursday morning. <\/b>Then, they’ll face DF Malan at 16:00. With successive victories, the Bloemfontein boys could place themselves in a strong position to challenge for the title.<\/p>\n

Saints, meanwhile, will open the tournament bright and early at 08:00 with a very interesting match-up against Ho\u00ebrskool Garsfontein. The Pretoria side has enjoyed a solid season, which included a fourth-place finish at the Hibbert Shield<\/strong>. They’ll bear watching.<\/p>\n

St Andrew’s, meanwhile, will be back out on the turf against DF Malan at noon.\u00a0Worcester Gim and Garsfontein meet at 14:00.<\/p>\n

Victories on the opening day will be crucial for teams’ prospects of challenging for the title.<\/p>\n

Pool B features Paarl Gimnasium<\/strong>, Die Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark,<\/strong> Ho\u00ebrskool Eldoraigne, Ho\u00ebrskool Jim Fouch\u00e9<\/strong> (JF)<\/strong>, and Somerset College<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Paarl Gim appears to be the team to beat. Earlier in the season, they made it through to the final of the Hibbert Shield<\/strong><\/a>, the toughest tournament in the country, and later held SACS, to their only draw of the season thus far. Gim also beat Grey College 4-2 in Bloemfontein in April<\/strong><\/a>. That makes them serious title contenders.<\/p>\n

Gimmies <\/strong><\/em>open their campaign against Menlopark before facing a familiar foe in Somerset College. Menlo will return to the pitch at 15:00 for a showdown with Eldoraigne, another Pretoria side whose national profile is growing.<\/p>\n

Bloemfontein’s Jim Fouch\u00e9<\/strong>, another school whose hockey programme has made big strides in recent years, tackles Somerset College at 17:00.<\/p>\n

The action concludes with the playoffs on Saturday, starting at 09:00 with the ninth-place playoff. The other placement games will follow until the final, at 13:00, after which a new champion will be crowned.<\/p>\n

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

Thursday, 7 August<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pool A<\/strong><\/p>\n

08:00- Saints v Garsfontein
\n10:00- Worcester v Grey
\n12:00 – DF v Saints
\n14:00 – Garsfontein v Worcester
\n16:00 – Grey v DF<\/p>\n

Pool B<\/strong><\/p>\n

09:00 – Paarl Gim v Menlo
\n11:00 – Eldo v JF
\n13:00 – Somerset v Paarl Gim
\n15:00 – Menlo v Eldo
\n17:00 – JF v Somerset<\/p>\n

Friday, 8 August<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pool A<\/strong><\/p>\n

08:00 – Saints v Worcester
\n10:00 – Garsfontein v Grey
\n12:00 – Worcester v DF
\n14:00 – Saints v Grey
\n16:00 – DF v Garsfontein<\/p>\n

Pool B<\/strong><\/p>\n

09:00 – Paarl Gim v Eldo
\n11:00 – Menlo v JF
\n13:00 – Eldo v Somerset
\n15:00 – JF v Paarl Gim
\n17:00 – Somerset v Menlo<\/p>\n

Saturday 9, August<\/strong><\/p>\n

9:00 – Play off (9\/10)
\n10:00 – Play off (7\/8)
\n11:00 – Play off (5\/6)
\n12:00 – Play off (3\/4)
\n13:00 – Final<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guschkie Top Schools hockey tournament gets underway on Thursday, at Grey College, in Bloemfontein. Northwood, who went back-to-back as champions in 2023 and 2024, will not be defending their title. They’ll be down in the Western Cape, facing Paul Roos Gimnasium and SACS. Grey College, the runner-up to the Knights in the past two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":79510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79499","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\/79499","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}