Hockey Newsletter No. 4

Hi Moms and Dads!

For many of you the past Easter Weekend would have been spent at the various Nomads Festivals and to all of you that supported your sons and Hilton College a great “THANK-YOU” for keeping the Hilton flag flying at College, Jeppe and KES. For those of you who emailed your concern for the well being of the veteran last seen floating away in a cooler box in Port Elizabeth will be relieved to hear that he washed up at the KES Festival none the worse for wear. KES is the equivalent of “Cooler Box Haven” and no sooner had our hero “beached” than he was welcomed by a number of fellow veterans who had earlier drifted in on the tide. Surprisingly, when the tide ebbed later that evening it was of concern that all of them had been stranded in a big white tent next to the Astro. Of even greater concern was that none of them seemed even the slightest bit worried! These veterans are a law unto themselves.

At the U14 A Festival at College in Pietermaritzburg Mike Mill’s team put up a strong showing despite the non-availability of three core members of the team. Fears of a “whitewash” fortunately did not materialize as the team showed strength of character and resolve in playing some determined hockey. Mike Mill is an excellent coach and there is already indication that the players have benefitted greatly from his input.

For the record their results were as follows:
Vs KES lost 0-3
Vs St Johns (JHB) won 5-1
Vs Jeppe drew 1-1
Vs St Albans lost 1-3
Vs PBHS lost 0-4

The Jeppe U16 A Festival proved to be a challenging event for our team who were with “caretaker coach” Nick Holtzhauzen who was standing in for Mike Todd who was competing in the Argus Cycle Tour. As a number of you have heard, Mike Todd will be returning to England at the end of the Second Term and we thank him for his contribution to hockey at Hilton College over the past three seasons. His position as coach of the U16A team will be taken by Matt Coombes for the last three weeks of the season. From all accounts the U16’s lacked consistency in performance and structure and failed to put away their chances – this added to a lack of festival fitness soon ended in frustration for the players. There is much potential in the group and once the basics are attended to there should be a vast improvement in performance.

For the record their results were as follows:
Vs KES lost 1-4
Vs St John’s drew 2-2
Vs Jeppe lost 0-1
Vs St Benedicts lost` 1-4
Vs PBHS lost 0-4

Jeppe U16 Festival Photos

The First team at the KES Festival moved into top gear after their previous unbeaten weekend tour to PE and played some scintillating hockey until being undone by some perplexing umpiring decisions during their last match. Perhaps the harshest lesson learnt was that human error and interpretation will always be part of sport and often victory and defeat will unfortunately hinge on one or two crucial decisions by the umpires in control of the match. Perhaps there will be greater appreciation of the despair experienced by the Indian cricketers who claimed the wicket of Symonds only for the umpire to rule an obvious catch “not-out”. The batsman proceeded to score a massive century, the Australian team went on to win the match and with it the test series. Sport is riddled with results influenced by incorrect interpretation by officials – perhaps next time we will be the team to benefit?

For the record the results were as follows:
Vs Paarl Boys won 3-1
Vs SACS won 6-2
Vs Rondebosch won 2-1
Vs KES drew 1-1
Vs Jeppe lost 1-2

KES Festival Photos

The First team Squad that attended the KES Festival are reminded that they are returning to school on Saturday 12 April prior to 10h00 to be part of the Newboys Weekend together with the First Rugby team and the Choir. We have still not received confirmation of a match against Cornwall on Monday 14 April and may have to anticipate that this might not take place. Every effort will be made to secure a fixture on the Sunday afternoon for the team.

Plans continue to be formulated for the First team tour to Spain and Holland in 2009. Departure is set for 26 March with the return being on the 11 April. With eight players from the present First Team squad returning next year we should have the touring squad finalized hopefully by mid-May 2008. As details unfold so these will be published in our newsletters.

Remember to keep an eye open for an update of our hockey website for action photos taken at the KES Festival. Have a great holiday with your boys and hopefully we will see you on Saturday 19 April for our first home match against Northwood. Once again, if you have any comment or suggestion be it either positive or negative please drop me a mail at gt@hiltoncollege.com

All the best!

Gavin