East Cape schools excel at water polo events

SEVERAL Eastern Cape schools teams excelled in various water polo tournaments at the weekend.

Playing in the annual Oakhill Waterfront Chukka Festival in Knysna, the Pearson under-15 team won six of their seven matches, losing only to Pinelands 3-1.

This tournament is the only open water festival of its kind in Africa and Pearson did well to beat their older opponents, with Ashleigh Vaughan being named the team's most valuable player. Collegiate and Kingswood attended the U14A Dave Pitcairn tournament hosted by Reddam High in Cape Town, ending fourth and sixth respectively.

Collegiate were hit by injuries and illness, but still managed to finish as the highest-ranked Eastern Cape school. They met Kingswood in the quarterfinals in a tense affair.

After missing two penalties in an even encounter, Kingswood were shaded 2-1. After losing their opening game 10-1 to Reddam, Kingswood hit back to register wins over Rustenberg Girls (9-2) and Wynberg (5-2).

The Grahamstown school then needed to win all three of their games on the second day to finish second in their pool and they achieved this against Reddam B (13-0), Bloemhof (12-0) and Pearson (2-1). After defeating Wynberg 4-2 in a play-off, Kingswood lost to Roedean in the fifth position play-off.