{"id":90682,"date":"2026-02-18T13:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90682"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:54:10","slug":"st-johns-and-st-davids-to-do-battle-for-kes-night-league-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90682","title":{"rendered":"St John&#8217;s and St David&#8217;s to do battle for KES Night League title"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_89365\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89365\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-89365\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/St-Andrews-Shield-Day-3-8-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-89365\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Noel Lewis and Rupert Schonborn will try to help St John&#8217;s College lift the KES Night League title. Photo: <strong>Toni Butterworth<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The inaugural <strong>King Edward VII (KES) Night League<\/strong> will conclude on Thursday when <strong>St John&#8217;s College<\/strong> battles <strong>St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda<\/strong> in the final at the <strong>KES Aquatic Centre<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The clash takes place at 19:20 and will be streamed <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/live.supersportschools.com\/\">LIVE<\/a> on SuperSport Schools<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament, which kicked off on 15 January, has produced some jaw-dropping action and bucketloads of goals. It has also revealed where the power in the province lies in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Both finalists have impressed, and they go into the final having suffered only one defeat each.<\/p>\n<p>St David\u2019s lost their opening match, going down 3-5 against <a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/a-team-first-approach-elevates-saints-water-polo\/\"><strong>St Stithians College<\/strong><\/a>, but coach <strong>Dean Whyte&#8217;<\/strong>s boys bounced back with a vengeance after that setback.<\/p>\n<p>They thumped<strong> St Benedict&#8217;s College<\/strong> 22-6 before beating <strong>Jeppe High School for Boys<\/strong> 14-7, St John&#8217;s 7-5, and KES 11-8.<\/p>\n<p>Barring their loss to St David&#8217;s, St John&#8217;s was on fire in their other games, outplaying Jeppe 12-3, Saints 17-9, and KES 14-9.<\/p>\n<p>There will be very little to separate the sides in the title game. Both are brimming with confidence after strong showings in tournaments played last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>St David&#8217;s won the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/character-and-grit-key-as-st-davids-claims-back-to-back-vides-titles\/\">Vides Water Polo Tournament<\/a><\/strong> in East London for a second year in succession, while St John\u2019s finished as the runner-up at the <strong>Pretoria Boys High 125th Water Polo Tournament<\/strong>, losing out to <strong>Afrikaanse Ho\u00ebr Seunskool<\/strong> <strong>(Affies)<\/strong> after a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n<p>While St David&#8217;s and St John&#8217;s meet for the title, KES faces St Stithians for third place.<\/p>\n<p>Saints will fancy their chances of winning a third bronze medal of their 2026 campaign after finishing third at the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/bishops-outmaneuvers-rondebosch-to-win-sac-shield-in-style\/\">SAC Shield<\/a><\/strong> and third in Pretoria last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Led by coach <strong>Michael Stewart<\/strong>, St Stithians came up just shy of qualifying for the final, missing out by two points. Their opponents, KES, will be the underdog, but they will draw inspiration from their supporters.<\/p>\n<p>The fifth-place playoff will feature St Benedict&#8217;s College against Jeppe High School for Boys.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fixtures<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>17:30<\/strong> \u2013 St Benedict&#8217;s College vs Jeppe High School for Boys (5th\/6th playoff)<br \/>\n<strong>18:25<\/strong>&#8211; King Edward VII vs St Stithians College (3rd\/4th playoff)<br \/>\n<strong>19:20<\/strong> \u2013 St John&#8217;s College vs St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda (Final)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The inaugural King Edward VII (KES) Night League will conclude on Thursday when St John&#8217;s College battles St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda in the final at the KES Aquatic Centre. The clash takes place at 19:20 and will be streamed LIVE on SuperSport Schools. The tournament, which kicked off on 15 January, has produced some jaw-dropping [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":89365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90682","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\/90682","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=90682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/89365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}