While the national hockey tournaments were split between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg this year, Mbombela was the host for the 2024 U16 Girls Northern Regional Tournament in July.

The tournament features the reserve sides’ (B, C or D) teams from the northern regions of South African hockey – the Northern Free State, KZN Inland, Southern Gauteng, Northern Gauteng, North West, Eastern Gauteng, Limpopo and the hosts on this occasion, Mpumalanga.

The schools that were given the opportunity to host the tournament were Hoërskool Nelspruit and Penryn College, who previously jointly hosted the U18 edition of the tournament last year. Altogether 11 teams from the seven unions took part, split into two pools – one of six teams and one of five teams – and the tournament was held between July 3 and 6.

Northern Gauteng C and D, Mpumalanga B and C, Southern Gauteng C and D, Limpopo B and KZN Inland C were the eight teams to make it to the quarter-finals. From there, the four teams from Northern and Southern Gauteng progressed to the semi-final stage.

It was the Northern teams who were victorious there and made it to the final. Southern Gauteng C and D battled it out for bronze, which the C team dually won. In the gold final, Northerns C beat Northerns D 4-1 to win top prize.

Somewhat unexpectedly, Mpumalanga C finished higher than Mpumalanga B, as the former finished sixth and the latter finished seventh.