The DHS U16 Water Polo Tournament was held over the period 26-29 September. Originally, we had received 20 positive responses but unfortunately, we had three late withdrawals from Kearsney, Reddam Umhlanga and Pearson from Port Elizabeth. We were still fortunate to attract the powerhouses of water polo from around SA.
The pool matches were all closely contested matches with no single result having a goal difference larger than 10.
The DHS team did exceptionally well and were very unlucky not to win or even squeeze a draw against a fancied Selborne College team. This saw our boys finish second in our pool and had us face Jeppe in the cross-pool playoff to qualify for the quarter finals. We ran out comfortable winners against Jeppe which had us paired against St John’s College in the quarter final.
This match ended in a draw and the result was decided by penalty shootout, which we lost 1-3. We then played Clifton for the right to play for 5-6 positions. This was an incredibly close game which Clifton won 3-5.
Our final match was against Glenwood for 7-8 position. We had an erratic start but in the end, we ran out 3-2 winners and secured 7th position.
Sam Spooner and Nqobile Phiri were selected into the Tournament Team and together with Mahle Makhanya, were also selected for the All Stars Team that will be traveling to Malta in July 2020.
DHS Results:
vs Affies won 7-2
vs KES won 7-3
vs Selborne lost 5-6
vs Jeppe won 8-5
vs St John’s drew 5-5
(lost 8-6 on penalty shootout)
vs Clifton lost 3-5
vs Glenwood won 3-2
Final Positions:
1 St Stithians
2 St John’s
3 St David’s
4 Selborne
5 Clifton
6 Westville
7 DHS
8 Glenwood
9 Jeppe
10 St Benedict’s
11 Hilton
12 Affies
13 Maitzurg College
14 St Andrew’s
15 Michaelhouse
16 KES
17 Northwood
