{"id":92229,"date":"2026-03-24T19:16:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=92229"},"modified":"2026-03-24T19:16:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:16:46","slug":"all-set-for-the-silver-jubilee-edition-of-st-marys-waverley-hockey-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=92229","title":{"rendered":"All set for the Silver Jubilee edition of St Mary’s Waverley Hockey Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The St Mary’s Waverley’s first team is braced for stiff competition at the 2026 edition of the St Mary’s Waverley Hockey Festival. Photo: St Mary’s Waverley on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This week, St Mary’s Waverley<\/strong> will open their gates to welcome 32 of the country’s top hockey-playing schools to the 25th edition of the St Mary’s Waverley Hockey Festival<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The festival, which runs from 25 to 28 March, began as a one-day event in 2000. It is now a four-day extravaganza that attracts schools from across South Africa.<\/p>\n

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

The teams will get their campaigns underway in four pools of eight. They’ll play seven pool matches each before the competition splits into different sections.<\/p>\n

The defending champions, St Mary’s DSG Kloof,<\/strong> will kick the festival off with a match against Parel Vallei<\/strong> on Thursday morning. The ladies from KwaZulu-Natal will be aiming to win the title for a fourth time. Joining them and Parel Vallei in Pool A<\/strong> are their KZN Coastal rivals, Durban Girls’ College,<\/strong> Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof,<\/strong> St John’s DSG<\/strong>, Afrikaanse Ho\u00ebrmeisieskool<\/strong>, Pretoria (Affies),<\/strong> Roedean School,<\/strong> and The Wykeham Collegiate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Six-time champions, Oranje<\/strong>\u00a0will headline Pool B<\/strong>. The ladies from Bloemfontein have to contend with Paarl Gimnasium,<\/strong> Ho\u00ebrskool Bloemhof<\/strong>, Ho\u00ebrskool Garsfontein<\/strong>, Clarendon High,<\/strong> St Stithians Girls College<\/strong>, Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High,<\/strong> and Reddam House Constantia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The festival hosts, St Mary’s Waverley, are in Pool C<\/strong>. They face Die Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark,<\/strong> St Cyprian’s<\/strong>, Collegiate Girls’ High<\/strong>, Somerset College,<\/strong> Windhoek High,<\/strong> Penryn College,<\/strong> and Eunice High<\/strong>, who are usually among the title challengers.<\/p>\n

St Andrew’s School for Girls<\/strong> collected the St Mary’s Festival title in 2012 and 2013, but they haven’t been able to claim it for a third time since. They are in Pool D,<\/strong> where they will battle it out with Rhenish Girls’ High<\/strong>, Our Lady of Fatima<\/strong>, Pearson<\/strong>, St Anne’s DSG<\/strong>, Herschel Girls School<\/strong>, Paarl Girls’ High,<\/strong> and the St Mary’s Waverley Festival XI<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s format remains unchanged. Matches are 25 minutes in duration. Therefore, the emphasis will be on teams scoring as many goals as possible in the limited time.<\/p>\n

A change has been made, though, with the event now featuring promotion and relegation, which will add spice to the competition.<\/p>\n

The festival is one of the annual highlights of the schoolgirls’ hockey calendar, with an invitation to compete in it considered an honour. Over the years, the organisers have increased the event to 32 teams. They don’t plan to expand it further. Hence, the introduction of a B section and a promotion and relegation system.<\/p>\n

It will pit the top two teams in the B section against the two lowest-ranked teams in the A section. Not only will the title be on the line for the top teams, but a battle to survive relegation awaits those who struggle.<\/p>\n

The result is that all matches will be important. There will be little opportunity to take the foot off the accelerator, which will be a win for the spectators and fans. Whether they’re watching at the venue or on the SuperSport Schools App<\/strong>, they’ll be guaranteed all-out action and high-quality hockey.<\/p>\n

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

Thursday<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

07:45 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0St Mary’s DSG Kloof vs Parel Vallei, 08:10 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0St John’s DSG vs Affies, 08:35 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Waterkloof vs Roedean, 09:00 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Durban Girls’ College vs The Wykeham Collegiate, 11:15 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Waterkloof vs Affies, 11:40 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0St John’s DSG vs Parel Vallei, 12:30 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0St Mary’s DSG vs The Wykeham Collegiate, 12:30 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Durban Girls’ College vs Roedean, St Mary’s DSG vs Roedean, 15:10 \u2013 <\/strong>Durban Girls’ College\u00a0vs Affies, 15:35 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Waterkloof vs St John’s DSG, 16:00 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0The Wykeham Collegiate vs Parel Vallei.<\/p>\n

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

07:45 \u2013 08:10:<\/strong> Garsfontein vs Clarendon, 08:10 \u2013 08:35:<\/strong> Oranje vs St Stithians, 08:35 \u2013 09:00: <\/strong>Paarl Gim vs Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High, 09:00 \u2013 09:25:<\/strong> Bloemhof vs Reddam House, 11:15 \u2013 11:40<\/strong>: Oranje vs Clarendon, 11:40 \u2013 12:05:<\/strong> Paarl Gim vs St Stithians, 12:05 \u2013 12:30:<\/strong> Garsfontein vs Reddam House, 12:05 \u2013 12:30:<\/strong> Bloemhof vs Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High, 14:40 \u2013 15:05:<\/strong> Paarl Gim vs Clarendon, 14:45 \u2013 15:10:<\/strong> Bloemhof vs St Stithians, 15:30 \u2013 15:55:<\/strong> Oranje vs Garsfontein, 15:55 \u2013 16:20:<\/strong> Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High vs Reddam House, 18: 15 \u2013 18:40<\/strong>: Bloemhof vs Clarendon, 18:40 \u2013 19:05<\/strong>: Paarl Gim vs Garsfontein, \u00a020:00 \u2013 20:25:<\/strong> St Stithians vs Reddam House, 20:25 \u2013 20:50:<\/strong> Oranje vs Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High.<\/p>\n

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

09:30 \u2013 09:55:<\/strong> St Cyprian’s vs Collegiate, 09:55 \u2013 10:20:<\/strong> St Mary’s Waverley vs Somerset College, 10:20 \u2013 10:45:<\/strong> Menlopark vs Windhoek High, 10:45 \u2013 11:10:<\/strong> Eunice vs Penryn, 13:00 \u2013 13:25:<\/strong> St Cyprian’s vs Penryn, 13:25 \u2013 13:50:<\/strong> St Mary’s Waverley vs Collegiate, 13:50 \u2013 14:15:<\/strong> Menlopark vs Somerset College, 14:15 \u2013 14:40: <\/strong>Eunice vs Windhoek High, 16:30 \u2013 16:55:<\/strong> St Mary’s Waverley vs St Cyprian’s, 16:55 \u2013 17:20:<\/strong> Menlopark vs Collegiate, 17:10 \u2013 17:35:<\/strong> Windhoek vs Penryn, 17:20 \u2013 17:45:<\/strong> Eunice vs Somerset College, 19:30 \u2013 19:55:<\/strong> St Mary’s Waverley vs Windhoek High.<\/p>\n

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

09:30 \u2013 09:55:<\/strong> Rhenish vs St Mary’s Waverley Festival XI, 09:55 \u2013 10:20:<\/strong> Our Lady of Fatima vs St Andrew’s School, 10:20 \u2013 10:45:<\/strong> St Anne’s vs Herschel, 10:45 \u2013 11:10:<\/strong> Pearson vs Paarl Girls’ High, 13:00 \u2013 13:25:<\/strong> St Anne’s vs St Mary’s Waverley Festival XI, 13:25 \u2013 13:50: <\/strong>Rhenish vs St Andrew’s School, 13:50 \u2013 14:15:<\/strong> Our Lady of Fatima vs Paarl Girls’ High, 14:15 \u2013 14:40:<\/strong> Pearson vs Herschel, 16:20 \u2013 16:45:<\/strong> Rhenish vs Paarl Girls’ High, 16:45 \u2013 17:10:<\/strong> Our Lady of Fatima vs Herschel, 17:45 \u2013 18:10:<\/strong> Pearson vs St Anne’s, 19:05 \u2013 19:30:<\/strong> St Andrew’s School vs St Mary’s Waverley Festival XI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, St Mary’s Waverley will open their gates to welcome 32 of the country’s top hockey-playing schools to the 25th edition of the St Mary’s Waverley Hockey Festival. The festival, which runs from 25 to 28 March, began as a one-day event in 2000. It is now a four-day extravaganza that attracts schools from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":92232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92229","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\/92229","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=92229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}