{"id":217854,"date":"2022-02-28T13:06:12","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T11:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=113364"},"modified":"2022-02-28T13:06:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T11:06:12","slug":"spar-schoolgirls-hockey-challenge-ready-to-bully-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/spar-schoolgirls-hockey-challenge-ready-to-bully-off\/","title":{"rendered":"SPAR Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge ready to \u2018bully-off\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1 \">\n<aside id=\"republication_tracker_tool-2\" class=\"republication_tracker_tool clearfix\">\n<h5 class=\"adtitle\">Republish for Free<\/h5>\n<div class=\"license\">\n<p><button name=\"Republish This Story\" id=\"cc-btn\" class=\"republication-tracker-tool-button\">Republish This Story<\/button><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"license\" rel=\"noreferrer license noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" class=\"lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spar-schoolgirls-hockey-challenge-ready-to-bully-off.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spar-schoolgirls-hockey-challenge-ready-to-bully-off.png\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"message\">\n<p>Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<figure id=\"attachment_113365\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-113365\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?attachment_id=113365\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"225\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" class=\"wp-image-113365 size-thumbnail lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spar-schoolgirls-hockey-challenge-ready-to-bully-off.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-113365 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spar-schoolgirls-hockey-challenge-ready-to-bully-off.jpg\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-113365\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">DSG, winners in 2019, will be chasing another title when the SPAR Eastern Cape Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge gets under way with the PE Inland Regional leg in Makhanda on March 6. The tournament has not been held for two years because of Covid-19. Photo: Full Stop Communications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Excitement is in the air as players prepare to \u201cbully-off\u201d at the SPAR Eastern Cape Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge, which gets underway in Makhanda on Sunday (March 6).<\/p>\n<p>The popular tournament, where matches are played on a shortened format, is finally back after languishing in the Covid-19 wilderness for two years.<\/p>\n<p>The PE Inland Regional event will take place at DSG with six schools vying for bragging rights and the chance to represent their school in the provincial finals in August.<\/p>\n<p>SPAR EC sponsorships and events manager Alan Stapleton said they were \u201creally pleased\u201d to have the Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge back on track.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is always a lot of fun to visit Makhanda and to move back to some form of normality on the school playing fields,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is very special to be able to welcome a spectrum of schools to these events, to give them the opportunity to compete, have fun and to make friends with some of the schools against whom they don\u2019t often play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that the event was the perfect opportunity to showcase the values which SPAR promoted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt helps us to underline SPAR\u2019s commitment to supporting women\u2019s sport, while also being able to interact with the youth and spread a message of community and family support within a competitive but fun-based environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tournament director Matt Blair said everything was proceeding as planned after players and organisers suffered from Covid disruptions in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince the beginning of Covid, this has been the first tournament where there has been no disruption or hesitation in the lead-up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo far 2022 seems like it will be the first year where school sport returns to normal and we are incredibly excited to get back on the turf for the Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The teams competing in Makhanda are DSG, Kingswood and Victoria Girls\u2019 from Makhanda, Union High and Volkskool from Graaff-Reinet and Brandwag from Kariega.<\/p>\n<p>Blair said the fixtures still had to be finalised but that the tournament would be played on a round-robin basis, with the top two teams contesting the final.<\/p>\n<p>The PE Inland leg was last played in March 2019, when DSG were the winners.<\/p>\n<p>Following the tournament in Makhanda, the PE Coastal leg will take place at Woodridge on March 9.<\/p>\n<p>Then there will be a two-month break before it resumes with the Southern Cape tournament in George on May 7, followed by the EL Coastal leg in East London on May 15 and the EL Inland leg in Queenstown on May 22.<\/p>\n<p>The provincial finals will be played at Collegiate in Gqeberha on August 13 and 14.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/contact\/featured\/\">CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-pagination pagination\">Pages: <span class=\"post-page-numbers current\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>1<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/spar-schoolgirls-hockey-challenge-ready-to-bully-off\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>2<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\">Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republish for Free Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. DSG, winners in 2019, will be chasing another title when the SPAR Eastern Cape Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge gets under way with the PE Inland Regional leg in Makhanda on March 6. The tournament has not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":217855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9021,1],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-217854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mypr","8":"category-south-africa","9":"tag-mypr","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spar-schoolgirls-hockey-challenge-ready-to-bully-off.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}