Boishaaier 2022

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BO L AND U 1 6B Xandi Jacobs BO L AND U 1 6 C Minnaar Oosthuizen, AJ Fourie, AJ Mostert BO L AND U 1 4

ho c k e y

Martin de Bruyn, Da-Niell Willemse, Lefa Kgopa, Ullrich Drotschie, Brody Dazel, Milani Tisana, Nelius Swart A special word of mention goes out to Josh van der Merwe who was selected to represent Namibia’s U18 side in a three-match test series against South Africa to be played in Stellenbosch during the July holiday. The third term at Paarl Boys’ High is potentially every sportman’s favourite term as it sees the world’s largest Interschools come to light. After two years of hunger and anticipation all the hockey teams took the field with extreme determination, and it showed. Our U14s performed exceptionally well with the U14B team winning 8 – 0 and the U14A team winning 1 – 0. The U16s, despite their 0 – 1 loss, played an incredible game and had one or two bounces of the ball gone their way they might have had a different result. It has to be said that the game of the day was undoubtley the first team hockey game. Nobody gave this team a chance as Paarl Gim had one of their strongest first teams in their history; however, you never tell a Boys’ Higher that he cannot. This team pitched on the day and played the game of their lives. Unfortunately, in the last five seconds, Paarl Gim managed an equaliser and the final score ended 2 – 2. We are immensely proud of this team and the way they played. The first team hockey travelled to Bloemfontein the week after Interschools to compete in the Guschkie Top Schools Hockey Tournament hosted by Grey College. The team ended an overall fifth at the tournament – a fantastic achievement as we had to take three younger players up when the players immune systems shut down after Interschools and sickness creeps in. At the same time, we are very proud to have hosted the U14 Top Schools Hockey Festival, which saw twelve of the best schools from around the county compete at our venue. Our U14 team performed admirably and ended an overall sixth out of the twelve competing schools.

The second term always sees the start of the hockey season. After a long-awaited two-year break, the boys were very excited to get going without any restrictions holding us back. This could arguably be described as our most successful term, in which the first hockey team played 17 games in the first two weeks of the season, winning 15 of those games, drawing one and losing one. We beat the likes of St Stithian’s, Affies, Clifton, York, and many other top hockey schools. The U14A side took part in the DF Malan Hockey Festival where they also won all their games, and our U16A side took part in the Paarl Gimnasium Hockey Festival, where they ended in an overall fourth place. Paarl Boys’ High also hosted its own U14B Hockey Festival with ten teams participating. Other highlights of the term include a dramatic 4-all draw in Bloemfontein after being behind twice in the game. Our boys showed tremendous character. This year Boys’ High had the most ever hockey players representing the U18 Boland hockey team with four of our players in the A side and one player in the C side. We also had five U16 players representing Boland and seven U14 players representing the province. BO L AND U 1 8A Anrich Wessels, Marcus Mead, Tristan Didloff, Josh van der Merwe

BO L AND U 1 8 C Erwin Meyer BO L AND U 1 6A Tiaan Liebenberg

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bo l and hokk i e o . 1 8

Tiaan Liebenberg

Marcus Mead

Tristan Didloff Josh van der Merwe Anrich Wessels

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