Cambridge High School’s junior and senior netball teams showed their dominance as they swept to victory in the SPAR Emma Kirchoff Memorial Tournament in East London on Saturday.
Cambridge crushed nearest rivals Clarendon Girls’ High 20-4 in the U/19 open final and snatched a narrow 10-8 victory from them in the U/15 section to take the floating trophies in both age groups.
The annual inter-schools tournament, hosted by Stirling High School, saw 191 players and officials descend on the Hudson Park indoor courts where six junior teams and 10 senior squads battled for glory in two pools.
In the Pool A semi-final, Clarendon’s U/19 team edged out Bloemfontein’s Hoërskool Sand du Plessis 6-5, while Cambridge trounced Stirling 14-5 in Pool B to set up an all-local decider.
The final saw a consistently stronger Cambridge side prevail from start to finish, after building up an unassailable 11-2 lead at halftime.
In the U/15 section, Cambridge defeated Hudson Park 6-1 en route to the final, while Clarendon managed an 8-6 win over East London Science College.
The junior finalists appeared to be more evenly matched than their senior counterparts, with eventual winners Cambridge holding on to their two-point halftime margin (6-4) to take a closely contested victory.
In addition to their trophies, each member of the winning sides received a R100 SPAR voucher.
Tournament coordinator Maria du Plessis said she was very pleased with the results and that the standard of netball had been very high.
She said SPAR Eastern Cape’s involvement would contribute to the continued growth of the sport in the Border region.
Du Plessis said the retailer had offered to sponsor the tournament on the back of Friday’s U/14 coaching clinic at Grens High School, in which 148 girls participated.
“The SPAR-NMMU Netball Club holds these development clinics throughout the province. This weekend’s one was excellent and the players and coaches really learned a lot.”
