Easter Sports Festival comes to thrilling end

The St Dunstan’s College Easter Sports Festival came to a thrilling conclusion with top-drawer matches on the final day on April 1.

While rugby and hockey grabbed the attention of the supporters on the first two days of the three-day event, the netball playoffs delivered the goods.

Reddam Bedfordview ended the festival unbeaten and as the team of the tournament after beating Curro Salt Rock 15-11 in a closely contested gold medal match.

But it was the bronze medal cracker between hosts St Dunstan’s College and Reddam Waterfall that had the spectators biting their nails. Both teams fought relentlessly and Reddam claimed the honours with a 12-11 victory.

Reddam Bedfordview’s Eunice Kabeya was named the netball player of the festival.

She complimented Curro for giving them a run for their money in the final, adding she was happy with her team’s overall performance.

“I’m ecstatic. I’m super proud of myself and my team. This wasn’t our usual team. We did a good job considering that we hadn’t played together before this festival,” she said.

Nicole Weyers from Reddam Waterfall was named the best shooter while St Dunstan’s Hannah Gomes won the best attacker award. Kearabetswe Kau from Benoni High was named the best defender.

Rugby

It was one-way traffic from the visiting Zimbabwe schools as St John’s College, The Heritage School and Lomagundi College ended the festival unbeaten.

St John’s began with a 14-12 win against St David’s and beat Parktown Boys 24-3 in their second match. They outplayed Beaulieu College 55-0 in their final game.

Lomagundi scored a total of 137 points in the tournament. They thrashed Parktown Boys 36-0 in their first match, outmuscled Benoni High 40-22 and thrashed Potchefstroom Boys 61-0 in the last match.

Heritage beat Thomas More College 27-20, St Dunstan’s College 32-7 and Beaulieu 32-12 while Hellenic Academy defeated Reddam Bedfordview 49-0 and Springs Boys High 27-24. They drew 11-11 against St Peter’s College.

St John’s College scrum-half Marcus Eckard was awarded the player of the festival award for his contribution to his team’s overall performance.

“Our goal was to build a team and brotherhood. I feel good. It was a brilliant tournament. We deserved the wins,” Eckard said.

Hockey

On the Astros, the tournament concluded with a thriller between St Dunstan’s and Hellenic. It was a tough match played at a high tempo and in the end, the hosts claimed a 1-0 victory.

The girls’ hockey was dominated by St Dominic’s Catholic College for Girls while Beaulieu College claimed the bragging rights in the boys’ tournament.

St Dominic’s Leilani Moyo was named the player of the tournament and Devin Works of Beaulieu received the boys’ award.

St Dunstan’s College rector Warwick Taylor said they were delighted to host all the 29 schools that participated in the festival.

“Thank you to the number of teams who have travelled as far as Zimbabwe and KZN to be here. Your trust in our ability to deliver a superb experience for all is not taken for granted. We have worked hard as a school to deliver a memorable experience for all spectators and participants,” he said.

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