A Myriad of Mid-Term Sport

Over the mid-term break, St David's Marist Inanda held three concurrent festivals in both the Prep and College phases, for the sporting codes of Basketball, Cricket, and Water Polo, inviting well over 1 000 young sportsmen from schools across South Africa to enjoy our campus and share in the love of the game.

With the Inanda Hoops Classic Challenge continuing to evolve, this year’s edition was bigger and better! The theme this year was “Promoting Positive Social Change Through Sport”

Kicking off on Thursday, 20 October, the tournament played host to 32 teams from 18 schools from 4 provinces, and over 500 participants. As our tournament continues to grow in popularity, more and more schools are seeking invitation to the tournament. We were pleased to have Hilton College from KZN joined us this year, as well as returning St Andrew’s College from Eastern Cape.

With growth comes challenges, but the addition of an extra court helped spread the games around, ensuring that we did not run overtime. Although the weather provided a challenge all weekend long, we were lucky enough to be able to play all but 4 games on our campus - with the inclement weather affecting play, Sacred Heart College was gracious enough to allow for affected matches to be continued on their facilities. All games on all 4 courts were live streamed on the SuperSport Schools platforms with the final matches being shown on SuperSport TV.

All of the St David’s teams showed dedication and enthusiasm on the court, demonstrating the level of skill and play present on the Marcellin Basketball Courts at every practice and match. Our First Team were red hot in the round-robin stages; beating all opposing teams by an average of 18 points, but our podium hopes were dashed when we lost to Pretoria Boys in the quarterfinals. 

In the end, the St David’s teams were ranked as follows:

• First Team- 7th
• 2nd team- 15th
• U15- 12th

The overall tournament results were:

• U15 Section: 
  • Winners- St John’s College
  • Runners up- Michael Mount Waldorf

• U18 Section:
  • Winners - St Stithians College
  • Runners up- Sacred Heart College

St David’s own Siyanda Radebe was voted as one of the All-stars of the tournament.

Thank you to all our sponsors; supporters, parents, staff and too many people to mention individually for all their ongoing support in making this year’s Inanda Hoops Classic Challenge a grand success. A special thank you to the tournament organising committee for all the work they did behind the scenes.

The annual ‘St David’s Marist Prep T10 Festival’ for Grade 6 players and below, was once again a huge success where seven schools participated over two days in some fun filled cricket on the College fields.

The format allowed for participation cricket – meaning that each and every boy got the chance to at least bat or bowl in a match and also for quite a few more times throughout the festival. The standard of cricket was superb throughout and there was literally no such thing as an easier match. 

The teams who took part this year were the Rivonia Rangers, the St Stithians Supermen, the Jan Celliers Chiefs’, the St Peters ‘Pirates’, the Montrose ‘Meteors’, the St David’s ‘Dragons’, and invitational team the Temba Bavuma ‘Tigers’. 

After managing to get through 6 rounds of matches before the rain and lightning got the better of things,  the Montrose ‘Meteors’ were declared the winners after winning most of their matches with a few of their players putting in some superb individual performances. St David's pupil, Cian Sullivan, was awarded Batsman of the festival

The inaugural Inanda Cup Water Polo Tournament ran from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 October, with Prep teams from schools and clubs across South Africa battling it out in the Fourviere and Jubilee pools.

The tournament was wonderfully organised, and persisted despite some weather stoppages. Over the course of the tournament, spectators were entertained by many great, tightly contested fixtures. The level of play was impressive, and it was clear to all that every player gave their ball in every game. 

A huge thanks must go to Director of Water Polo, Sports Department, their teams, and all our sponsors. With their involvement and collaboration, the tournament's success was ensured and the boys were able to play to the best of their abilities.

We were fortunate enough to make use of both St David's pools, with the eight Prep Stayers (u12) teams playing their matches in the Fourviere pool, and the ten u14 teams competing in the Jubilee pool.

At the tournament's end, St David's Marist Inanda emerged victorious in both sections. Our u12 team beat St Benedict’s Prep in the final with a winning score of 5 – 2. The u14 final was between St David’s and Luck Dragons Academy (a club with many St David's boys as members), with St David’s winning 5 – 4 in a penalty shoot. Congratulations to each boy who participated and especially to the St David's students who played superbly and emerged as champions.