Term 1 Sport Highlights
Equestrian
The Equestrian Team has had a prosperous kick-off to the riding year, participating in various disciplines like Show Jumping, Dressage, Prix Caprilli, Equitation and Performance Riding. Qualifier One took place at Eaton Farm on the 19th and 20th of February and Qualifier Two on the 26th and 27th of March at KEP. The riders exhibited skill and commitment and were placed in all events. Riders have been involved in other shows apart from the SANESA shows, where they proved their competency. We look forward to witnessing our team thriving again in Term two.
Tennis
The Girls’ Tennis at St Peter’s College has reached new heights with a total number of 15 girls competing in the Tennis Championships for a position in the Top Twelve. We have enrolled an ‘A’ side as well as a ‘B’ side for the Girls’ Tennis League. Our girls are competing in the A2 league. Diya Naicker, Rachel Rostron, Hanna Aitken and Jessica Cassidy played in the Inter High A and were placed 12th out of 26 schools. This is a phenomenal achievement. The Top Six Girls were exposed to the Sun City Tournament where their strength and ability were tested. The Top Four Girls played in the St Dunstan’s Mixed Doubles Tournament and were announced the winners of the tournament. Under the gracious leadership of Jessica Cassidy, our Tennis girls had some tough competition, but they have managed to play with passion, skill and determination – representing St Peter’s College with pride.
The Boys’ Tennis at St Peter’s College had a very successful season. They played in the ‘B’ League and have only lost one match out of the nine matches that they have played these past two terms. The Top Four Boys had the opportunity to play at the St Benedict’s Festival as well as at the Inter-High where they were placed 10th out of 24 schools. Bailey Rousseau, Luke Hutchison, Kishan Khimjee and Kabelo Theku displayed phenomenal strength and skills at these events. The Top Eight Boys played in the St Dunstan’s Mixed Doubles Tournament where they won their matches. The Top Four Boys together with the Top Four Girls won the St Dunstan’s Mixed Doubles Tournament. The Sun City Tournament added to the players’ fitness and skills level. Under the phenomenal leadership of Bailey Rousseau, our boys excelled and gave their best against their competitors.
Cross Country
We have been very busy with pre-season training, focusing on general fitness and endurance with some strength work too. Our first event is coming up soon. I am really looking forward to the season with this group of athletes. Their passion and commitment have been exceptional.
Swimming
The 2022 Swimming season was eagerly anticipated as a result of the 2021 season being unable to go ahead. The girls kicked off the season at the WITS Girls 50m Invitational Gala and made the Team incredibly proud by placing 3rd. Along with the five Thursday Galas the Swimming Team participated in, they also participated in the Goue Liga Gala where we placed 4th and, our favourite, the St Peter’s College Invitational Night Gala which we were delighted to have placed 1st at. The team showed tremendous spirit on the evening by cheering our team on until the very last race. All of the early morning training sessions and weekly galas served as preparation for the most important event of the season; the A-league Inter-high Gala. We were delighted to have placed 4th in an extremely tough field. This result means that the Swimming Team remains in the A-league for yet another season. A number of swimmers qualified for the Prestige Gala and I commend them for performing excellently at an incredibly competitive event. The Swimming Team showed true sportsmanship and determination throughout the season and I could not be more proud of their efforts.
Cricket
Our First XI Cricket Team have had a progressive season on the cricket field this term. With a new Coach stepping in, our boys have adapted well to the new coaching methods and environment. We have had some stellar individual performances this term, which in turn has aided the growth of our First XI Cricket Team. The highlight of our Term 1 season would be winning the 2022 Plate Trophy at our annual Old Petrian’s T20 Tournament. We look forward to having our boys back in action during our Term 3 season.
The emphasis on our junior cricket in Term One was to bridge the gap between Prep Cricket and High School Cricket. Much of our practice sessions were devoted to getting our players accustomed to batting and bowling with a 156g cricket ball. The progression to 50 over cricket and batting for long periods of time were key factors in our planning. Unfortunately, most of our fixtures this season were either rained out or affected by lightning, nevertheless, we were able to get in some valuable game time. The highlight of our season was beating Edenglen High with Owen Barrow scoring an unbeaten 109 and Oneo Ntsimane taking a much deserved five wickets. Our cricket is still developing and with the talent on show now, we are sure that this team will soon be competing at the level we know that they are capable of.
Chess
The Chess sporting team has made many advances over the last three months. The code has grown to over 30 active members of the team and now stepping into the digital world of e-sports. Chess can be played at school but also from the comfort of your own home. Chess has been part of the Dainfern College league competing against 20 other schools, this has been excellent exposure for our players. Although St Peters College has been ranked 17th, we show much room for improvement. A hearty well done to Jiya Khandoo for placing 5th overall in the girl’s category and Matthew Erasmus for best up and coming player of the season.
E-Sports
St Peters College is exceptionally proud to present E-sports as an official undertaking of the school. Since its conception in 2021 the sport has focused on developing teamwork, communication, healthy competition and skills that pertain to the gaming industry. St Peters currently offers Minecraft, CSGO, Valorant, and FIFA and we would like to thank all our participants for joining us this Term. The sport has seen has some tremendous activity and we have managed to build a few teams around the games mentioned above. A particular highlight includes St Peters’ very own internal FIFA tournament which was hosted at the beginning of the Term and which saw the finals take place during the Derby Day against De La Selle. This also provided an opportunity for our sportsmen and women to play against another school for the very first time, an incredible milestone. St Peters E-sports would like to thank two individuals for their unbelievable hard work and passion which helped to build this sport – congratulations to Lee Janssen and Liam Moodley.
Basketball
Basketball was fortunate enough to return to the Inter-Schools Competition in Term 3 2021. The girls managed to play four fixtures in 2021 and two fixtures in Term 1 of 2022. Our boys managed to play five fixtures in 2021, as well as five fixtures in 2022. Unfortunately, the lightning and weather conditions did not play in our favour and we had to cancel some of the scheduled fixtures.
In 2021, our 1st Team Boys were afforded the opportunity of playing in both, the St John’s Tournament and the St David’s Inanda Tournament. Our boys were extremely committed and excited for these tournaments and they practised fervently throughout the August Holiday for these tournaments, and we commend them for their commitment.
In 2022, our 1st Team Boys and 1st Team Girls attended the St Dunstan’s Challenge. Our 1st Team Boys did extremely well, winning Gold at this Challenge and our 1st Team Girls won Silver.
Our 1st Team Boys and our U15 Boys had the privilege of attending the St John’s Tournament this year. Witnessing their improvement and resilience at this tournament, has been most gratifying.
We hosted the inaugural Old Petrian’s 1st Team Girls Basketball Tournament this year and our girls were honoured to be part of this special event. Twelve schools competed in this event and our girls placed seventh overall.
We are looking forward to another successful season of Basketball, with the added excitement of using our brand-new Indoor Centre.
Water Polo
1st Boys
The boys had a wonderful season for 2021-2022. They won two tournaments in 2021 – Regional Co-Ed’s and Reef Cup. At the Co-Ed’s tournament, Aidan Davies, Ethan MacLeod and James Crossley were selected as part of the tournament team. At the Reef Cup Tournament, Aidan Davies was named attacker of the tournament.
The boys were part of 2 leagues this season. The 1 was part of playing a knockout league against the top schools in Gauteng. We placed 5th, beating Jeppe in the positional game. The standings were as follows:
St John’s College
St Stithians College
St Alban’s
St David’s Marist Inanda
St Peter’s
Jeppe
KES
Affies
Pretoria Boys
Parktown
St Benedicts
Reddam Helderfontein
The second league was held at Reddam Helderfontein with opponents such as Fourways, Crawford Lonehill, Beaulieu College, etc. We are top of our pool and have positional playoffs in October.
Having played a total of 45 games, the team won 29 and lost 16. Goals scored: 424, goals conceded: 278.
1st Girls
The 1st team girls had a busy season. They took part in the A League fixtures (top 8 teams in Gauteng), 1 Festival and 7 tournaments from mid-September 2021 – early March 2022. They played a total of 62 games: winning 25, drawing 1 and losing 36 games. They scored a total of 312 goals and conceded 378.
Tournaments included:
-Wahoo Festival (preseason festival)
-Prestige Cup 2021
-Regional Co-Ed’s
-Saint’s Stayers Tournament
-Reef Cup 2021
-Prestige Cup 2022
-Old Petrian’s
-Reef Cup 2022
The team placed 3rd at the 2021 Regional Co-Ed with Georgia Moralee and Jamie-Rose Standfest announced as the tournament team. At the 2021 Reef Cup Tournament, the team placed 5th out of 8 schools, with Georgia Moralee selected as part of the Tournament Team.
It was a rollercoaster season for the girls with some amazing wins and confusing losses. The Covid break did these girls an injustice and they struggled to get back into the swing of things. I believe the team had a lot of potential and didn’t get the results that they could have gotten. With 9 matric’s in the team it should’ve been an incredible season for the team but they couldn’t seem to find their groove and work as a team consistently.
Junior
The U15 girls started their season in September 2021 as U14s that would play in the U15 section, as that is how the league is run – a U15 and a 1st Team (unless U14 games were organized). As a fairly new team, we are almost always playing against schools that play in primary school, so we are trying to catch up in skill and lack the experience. They did exceptionally as both U14s in 2021, and as U15s with U14s in their team in 2022. Players started to establish their positions and start shining in the pool.
In 2021 the girls played 9 league matches (some were additional to the league matches) and 1 tournament with 6 games. They won 6 of the 15 games that they played at the beginning of the season. In 2022 they played 6 league matches, 1 U16 Festival of 5 games and 1 tournament with 7 games. They won 6 of the 18 games (with 5 games being in a U16 Festival).
Throughout the season of 34 games, the team won 11 games and lost 23 games. The goals we scored were 165 and the goals conceded were 256.
Morgan Bands and Jamie Hardy both played for the 1st team in the Reef Cup Tournament in 2021 and 2022, and both played in the Central Gauteng U14B team.
Junior Boys
In 2020 we only had 2 boys part of the U14 team, which eventually moved to 1 boy who played in the 1st Team at the end of the year. Tyrone took part and was eager to learn no matter how daunting it was for a new player to be part of the top team in our school.
In 2021 we had a large intake of boy's water polo players, and they took part in a number of matches.
After only 2 weeks of training (some pupils having even less time), they played their 1st games vs Pretoria Boys High School and St Stithians Boys College. Our boys were given a bit of wake up, but they enjoyed it and came back to training to become stronger. They have had to play as a U14 team with 1 U15 boy, against U15 teams and the scores were very impressive.
Played 13 games, won 5, drew 2 and lost 6. Goals scored: 66; goals conceded: 77 (28 goals from their first 2 games).
#makeanimpact!