Ferrum fifth consecutive with win SPAR

Ferrum High School (FHS) made it a whole handful when they successfully defended their title in the Northern KwaZulu-Natal Regional at the SPAR KZN Regional Hockey Tournament in Vryheid on Saturday February 21.

Ferrum is the only name engraved on the regional trophy for five consecutive years, having dominated the tournament since its inception. The school met Dundee High School (DHS) in the final, and managed to slot one goal in, in the first half, which was enough to win the title.

In the second half, DHS, after a well-constructed attack, slipped the ball into the box during a penalty corner but disappointingly the umpire’s arms signalled a 16, disallowing the goal and destroying their hopes of levelling the game, and their chances to dislodge FHS from the top spot.

FHS and DHS met in the first round of the pool games, where FHS took that game three-nil.

Top goal scorer for FHS was their captain, Ruvette Schoeman, who led by example with four goals out of 17 goals in the team’s six games.

Host school, Pionier High School showed a few holes in the FHS defence when they attacked, but was unable to pierce the last line of defence. Under the passionate guidance of recently imported coach, Susan Currie, Pionier came close to topping Ferrum in the semi-finals.

At the final whistle, the score was nil-nil, with the decider going down to a penalty shoot-out. The home team seemed uncertain how to cope with the rolling penalties and went down four-one to the defending champs.

Ansie Joubert from St Dominic’s Academy was nominated as the Most Promising Umpire for the region. Having only umpired one game last year, the up-and-coming ref showed no signs of hesitancy with the whistle. Fellow umpires said she was completely calm under pressure and au fait with the rules. She has since been invited to join Ferrum at the Grand Finals in July in Durban.

Altogether, 10 teams took to the field in two pools to compete for the title of Northern KZN Regional. The games lasted 24 minutes, with a change of sides after 12 minutes. Halfway through the pool games, all teams had to leave the field as a rumbling electric storm moved in. Games came to a halt for about half an hour while players took shelter.

Marketing Director for SPAR KZN, Rob Philipson said, “Despite the interruption from the highveld storm, the teams returned to the field and played some fantastic hockey. I am sincerely impressed with the quality of hockey in the region; it certainly has improved over the last year.”

The next regional will be on Saturday, March 7 where the second team will be revealed to join Ferrum at the Grand Finals at St Mary’s DSG and Thomas More College in Kloof in July.

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