The 2024 South African Hockey IPT got underway on Monday at St. Stithians College in Johannesburg. There were goals galore as the four tournaments began took their first steps of a week-long journey.
Women’s B Section
The Seven women’s teams play in round robin format, and they knew that you under that format you can’t have a slow start if you want to be lifting the title on Saturday morning.
Lisa February scored an early goal for SA Country Districts against Mpumalanga but early in the second quarter Marche Swarts cancelled it out. That was all the scoring for the game as it ended 1-1.
Northern Daisies were trailing 1-0 at half time to Eastern Province who had scored through Asithandile Nama. But the Daisies fought back and earned a victory through Nadia Kitshoff and Bulelwa Mzimela (2).
The early pace setter s in the B Section is the KZN Mynahs who submitted the challenge of Eastern Gauteng with a 10-1 win. Emily Macquet scored a hat-trick, while Jessica Fletcher got her own four goals as the KZN based team were just too good for their East Rand opponents.
Men’s B Section
Like the women’s B Section, the men’s B section is a round robin, however, thanks to being a team less there will be a final that the top two teams will qualify for.
Free State got their tournament off to a perfect start winning 6-0 over Northern Cape. A brace a pair for Michael Baiden and Neilyandro van Schalkwyk as well as two late goals for Willie Pretorius and Matthias Visser added gloss to the score line for the central province.
The SG Nuggets led 1-0 early through Miguel de Jesus but the SA Country Districts fought back through former SA Junior national Courtney Halle to make it 1-1 at the break. The second half saw SACD put the game to bed. Tjoff van Staden scored twice and in the final three minutes Robbie Corker and captain Tristaan Loock put the game to bed. 5-1 for SACD.
An absolute thriller rounded off the opening day in this tournament with KZN Mynahs taking a lead just before the hooter at half-time when Grant Prins struck. They held this lead for 29 minutes but in the final minute of the game the Northern Daisies struck a telling blow securing the draw thanks to Devin Allen’s finish.
Women’s A Section
This tournament is played over two pools with cross pool quarter finals on Thursday.
In the opening Pool A game, Western Province, the defending champions, started the tournament in the worst possible way being outplayed by the SA Under 21 side. The junior national team were superb in their first assignment under Cindy Brown and galloped to a 4-0 win through Germarie Spershott, Olympian Ntsopa Mokoena and a further brace from Thabelani Metu.
North West were too good for the challenge of SG Witsies. A goal in each quarter scored by Chanel Genis, Tarmarie Myburgh, Charne de Wet and Kim Hubach saw them to a comfortable 4-0 victory in hopes of emulating the U21 title winners.
Pool B started with a well contested battle between Northern Blues and KZN Raiders. Hanrie Louw opened the scoring for the Blues, but Raiders pulled level with a Tatum Lardant goal. Jean-Leigh du Toit and Maikemisetso Marokoane scored either side of the third break to eventually win the points for the Blues.
Southern Gauteng scored in the first minute of their match against Free State and never looked back. Kiara Fitzhenry got two, Kiara Meyers got two while Shanna Medonca, Kelsey Stark and Julianne Du Plessis completed the rout and a great start to the tournament.
Men’s A Section
This tournament is played over two pools with cross pool quarter finals on Thursday.
In Pool A it was a thriller that saw KZN Raiders, and the defending champions Western Province play out a 2-2 draw. Hans Neethling struck first for the trophy holders but saw his goal cancelled out by Tyler Tomsett. Nicholas Giger re-established the lead but again it was cancelled out by the Raiders, this time through Nhlanhla Nyawo to confirm a draw.
The immediate benefactors of that result would be the winner of the second pool game between SG Witsies and WP Peninsula. And in truth there was only ever one winner in that game once they took the lead in the 11th minute through Ozair Pillai. Caleb Oliphant added two of his own, while Phindile Tsolekile, Tristan Cooke and James Flint added to the Cape tally. Witsies got two consolation goals from Brynn Cleak and Tristan le Forrestier, but they were forced to settle for a 6-2 loss.
In Pool B the Northern Blues opened their campaign with three points inspired by a brilliant opening half leading 5-0 against Eastern Province. Brad Sherwood, Keanan Wax, Calvin Davis, Michael le Forestier & Luke Lourens all filled their plates. Wax added a second for himself and a sixth for Northerns, but it was a spirited fight from Eastern Province scoring through Winray Christoffels (2) and Jacques Potgieter to end the game 6-3 in favour of the Blues.
In the final game of the day Southerns came out firing and took a 2-0 lead through Ross Breytenbach and Marvin Simons. SA Under 21 started to settle and create a few chances pulling back one through Carloon Mentoor leaving the score 2-1 at half time. Liam Hermanus would make it 3-1 before Jaydon Brooker pulled another back. A late brilliant save from Cullin de Jager secured a victory for the hosts.
Fixtures – 10 September 2024
by South Africa
