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Bloemfontein braced for top hockey

───   14:42 Wed, 07 Aug 2019

Bloemfontein braced for top hockey | News Article
Oranje vs. Menlo Park - Morgan Piek

The 2019 FNB Private Wealth Super 12 tournament starts in Bloemfontein on Thursday morning with the top girls’ hockey teams in the country going head-to-head.


The hosts, Hoër Meisieskool Oranje, are the top-ranked team in the country, as well as four-time champions.

Last year was the first year that they failed to defend their title, and this does make it much more competitive this year.

Hoërskool Menlopark from Pretoria were crowned as the champions in 2018, and apart from Oranje are the only other team in the country to have won the prestigious tournament.

The tournament will feature all 10 of the top-ranked schools in the country, as well as, the 13th ranked Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof (Stellenbosch) and 14th ranked St Cyprian's (Cape Town).

As the hosts and top team, Oranje will have a target on their back, and the pressure will be on to win their tournament again.

The Oranje coach, Morné Odendaal, told OFM Sport but warned that this year it will be very open and every single team can win the tournament.

“We can’t wait for this year's tournament. I’ve always said the toughest year will be the year after we weren’t able to win it.

“Being number one and hosting it there is definitely some pressure, but the girls are up for it. We’ve been working so hard for this moment and we cannot wait for it to start.

“This year especially I think that the tournament is very open. In the previous years, there were a lot of teams playing but in reality, there was always only one or two teams that could win it.

“This year eight or nine teams can win it, and Menlo Park winning it last year has made that it will be incredible this year.

“Voortrekker is a definite dark horse again this year. They are almost undercover because people will think that because they are from Bethlehem they won’t be expected to be a threat. I think that they will get very close to the end again this year.”

Odendaal added that they as a team are settled in their new five-year period and there were definite lessons learnt last year.

“Last year’s tournament was the start of our next five-year phase. In the previous five-year phase we had a lot of success, so last year was the first of the new five-year phase and it was definitely a rebuilding period.

“In the rebuilding phase there were a lot of lessons learnt, and in that same period, the other teams always started picking their respective programmes. The biggest lessons we learnt was to take our chances, utilise our whole squad better and to have Lekker Gees in the team.”

Fixtures:

Thursday - 07:30 Oranje vs. St Cyprians; 08:20 St Annes vs. Collegiate; 9:10 St Mary's Waverley vs. Rhenish; 10:00 Herschel vs. Voortrekker; 10:50 St Mary's Kloof vs. Bloemhof; 11:40 Paarl Gimnasium vs. Menlopark; 12:30 Collegiate vs. Oranje; 13:20 Rhenish vs. St Cyprians; 14:10 St Annes vs. St Mary's Waverley; 15:00 Bloemhof vs. Herschel; 15:50 Menlopark vs. Voortrekker; 16:40 St Mary's Kloof vs. Paarl Gimnasium; 17:30 Oranje vs. Rhenish; 19:10 St Cyprians vs. St Annes; 20:00 Herschel vs. Menlopark.

Friday – 07:30 Paarl Gimnasium vs. Bloemhof; 8:20 St Mary's Kloof vs. Voortrekker; 09:10 St Mary's Waverley vs. Oranje; 10:00 St Annes vs. Rhenish; 10:50 St Cyprians vs. Collegiate, 11:40 Paarl Gimnasium vs. Herschel; 12:30 Menlopark vs. St Mary's Kloof; 13:20 Bloemhof vs. Voortrekker, 14:10 Oranje vs. St Annes; 15:00 St Cyprians vs. St Mary's Waverley; 15:50 Rhenish vs. Collegiate; 16:40 Voortrekker vs. Paarl Gimnasium; 17:30 Bloemhof vs. Menlopark; 18:20 Herschel vs. St Mary's Kloof; 19:10 A5 vs. B6 (Match A); 20:10 B5 vs. A6 (Match B).

Saturday - 07:30 A3 vs. B4 (Match C); 08:30 B3 vs. A4 (Match D); 09:30 A1 vs. B2 (Match E); 10:40 B1 vs. A2 (Match F); 11:50 Position 11/12 (Losers A + B); 12:40 Positions 9/10 (Winner A + B); 13:30 Positions 7/8 (Losers C + D); 14:20 Positions 5/6 (WinnersC + D); 15:10 Positions 3/4 (Losers E + F), 16:10 Positions 1/2 (Winners E + F).

@MorganPiek OFM Sport

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