Maritzburg College’s 150th Winter Sport Festival – 29 March to 6 april 2013
Maritzburg College, which is KwaZulu-Natal’s oldest boys’ school and is celebrating its 150th birthday in 2013, is pleased to be able to release the details of its upcoming 150th Winter Sports Festival.
The overall festival, which is to be held over the entire Easter school holidays, incorporates three stand-alone tournaments, namely –
• The Maritzburg College 150th Rugby Festival (29 March to 3 April), at which 10 First XVs from leading rugby-playing schools will be playing;
• Tthe Nomads Hockey Festival (29 March to 1 April), which is a long-established annual festival for 12 of South Africa’s leading First XIs; and
• The annual Husqvarna Skonk Nicholson Rugby Festival (4 April to 6 April), at which eight teams will each be contesting matches in the U14 and U16 age-groups.
The Maritzburg College 150th Winter Sports Festival is but one of 30 special events that are part of the school’s year-long sesquicentennial celebrations, which have been five years in the planning.
The highlight of the Winter Sports Festival will undoubtedly be the (Open) rugby festival, which will feature many of the top rugby-playing schools in the country. Top of the bill are Pretoria rugby powerhouses, Affies, and they are joined by luminaries of the oval ball-game such as Hoërskool Monument (Monnas) from Krugersdorp, Grey High School (PE), Queens College (Queenstown), Dale College (King Williamstown), Rondebosch Boys’ High School (Cape Town), rising power Hoërskool Noord-Kaap (Kimberley), Jeppe High School for Boys (Johannesburg) and long-standing local rivals Durban High School.
The hosts themselves of course enjoy an enviable rugby pedigree that includes over 20 rugby internationals – including both South Africa’s Rugby World Cup-winning flyhaves (Joel Stransky and Butch James), and that pedigree will be sorely tested in the festival, when they face Grey High School on Saturday 30 March, Noord-Kaap on Monday 1 April and Queens College on Wednesday 3 April, in the final match of the festival. All the matches will be played on the school’s main field, Goldstone’s.
A huge beer garden will be provided, there will be jumping castles for children, and vendors will be on hand to ply their wares in what is anticipated to be a celebratory, carnival-like atmosphere. Entrance will be R10 per person, and secure parking will be provided on the school’s lower fields, off College Road.
The Nomads Hockey Festival will be held at the same time as the 150th Rugby Festival, albeit over one less day. It is the oldest and most prestigious schools’ hockey festival in the country, and will see the very best schoolboy hockey players from SA in action. The organisers of the festival are delighted to announce that Millfield, which is arguably the top sports school in the UK, will be attending, and their match against the host school, with whom they have a fierce rivalry in cricket and hockey – is sure to be a highlight.
Not only will Maritzburg College be hosting two premier Easter festivals but, in somewhat of a coup, they will a month later be putting on the invite-only Wildeklawer Rugby Festival (1-4 May), which will allow KZN-based rugby supporters to enjoy the very best schoolboy rugby, featuring the likes of Grey College (Bloemfontein), Paarl Roos Gymnasium (Stellenbosch) and the Paarl powerhouses of Paarl Boys’ High and Paarl Gymnasium.
| Participating Schools: Maritzburg College 150th Winter Sports Festival: Tournament |
Participating schools Maritzburg College 150th Rugby Festival (29 March to 3 April) (First XVs only):Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool (Affies), Dale College, Durban High School, Grey High School, Jeppe High School for Boys, Maritzburg College, Hoërskool Monument, Hoërskool Noord-Kaap, Queens College, Rondebosch Boys’ High SchoolNomads Hockey Festival (29 March to 2 April) (First XIs only):Grey High School, Hilton College, Jeppe High School for Boys, King Edward VII School (KES), Maritzburg College, Michaelhouse, Millfield (UK), Pretoria Boys High School, Selborne College, St Andrews (Bloemfontein), St Johns College, Wynberg Boys’ High SchoolHusqvarna Skonk Nicholson Rugby Festival (4 April to 6 April):U16:
Hilton College, Hudson Park High School (EL), Kearsney College, Hoërskool Marais Viljoen, Maritzburg College, Trinityhouse School, Westville Boys’ High School
U14:
Hudson Park High School, Jeppe High School for Boys, Hoërskool Marais Viljoen, Maritzburg College, Hoërskool Menlopark, Trinityhouse School, Hoërskool Voortrekker, Westville Boys’ High School
You can get the results of these matches on www.facebook.com/SchoolRugby & www.twitter.com/SchoolRugby
Related Posts
« SA woman referee Marlize Jordaan makes history in Brazil Blues to face the Crusaders »
