Another successful Easter Sports Festival

Between 17 March and 28 March 2016 we hosted over 1 600 players for an exciting 12 days of sporting excellence. Players were able to participate in basketball, cross country, hockey, netball, rugby, squash, and tennis.

The Prep Festival, held from 17 – 19 March 2016, was a success. Though many of the fixtures from the first day had to be rescheduled to the second day due to rain, the festival was enjoyed by all the participants and all the supporters. 

Prep Festival athletes participated in netball, rugby, and tennis games over the festival. Hockey players had the opportunity to participate in a hockey clinic with Springbok hockey players.

Easter Sports Festival athletes from Botswana, Zimbabwe, and from across South Africa competed in seven different sporting disciplines. Namely, basketball, cross country, hockey, netball, rugby, squash, and tennis.

On Wednesday 23 March 2016, all the Easter Sports Festival players and coaches that had arrived at St Stithians participated in a group photo. They then proceeded to sing the national anthem together. It was a great start to a great festival.

Access all the final Prep Festival results here and all the final Easter Sports Festival results here.

The Tennis Tournament, which took place as part of the Easter Sports Festival for the fifth consecutive year, saw six top tennis schools compete for the Kevin Anderson trophy. The tournament began on Wednesday 23 March 2016 and ended on Saturday 26 March 2016. The final results are as follows:

1. St Stithians Boys' College – 355 points
2. Pretoria Boys' High School – 288 points
3. Grey College Bloem – 271 points
4. Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool – 216 points
5. Clifton School – 199 points
6. St Benedict's College – 192 points

The Basketball Tournament saw teams from Zimbabwe and from across South Africa face off in the hopes of being named champions. The final results are as follows:

1. Heideveld High School – 18 points
2. St Stithians College – 15 points
3. Pretoria Boys High School – 12 points

The Most Valuable Player was Keagan Bester of Heideveld High School.

Two Saints players and two Heideveld players were named tournament All Stars. These players are Ephraim Ozabor and Paul Siderski from Saints; and Ameer Abrahams and Sherwin King from Heideveld.

Congratulations to Heideveld High School, the tournament winners, on being unbeaten at the Easter Sports Festival.

There were 52 squash fixtures for both boys and girls which meant our squash teams played a number of games. Various teams enjoyed various victories and festival players had a great time. Access the full list of squash results here.

Most sporting codes hosted their players for an opening dinner on Wednesday 23 March 2016. As some squash teams arrived later than most, the squash players enjoyed a breakfast on Thursday 24 March 2016. The breakfast was particularly special as it was attended by 2015 Comrades Marathon winner Gift Kelehe.

There were 12 boys' teams that participated in this year's squash fixtures. Of these, 10 teams played five games each and two teams played four games each. Of those that played five games, the Egoli Development team were the only ones who won all their games and were unbeaten at the Easter Sports Festival. PBHS won four of their five fixtures. Wynberg Boys' High School only played four fixtures and they won all four of these games so they too were unbeaten.

There were eight girls' teams that participated in this year's squash fixtures, including two teams from St Mary's DSG Pretoria. All these teams played five fixtures each. Of these, the most successful team was St Stithians Girls' College who won all five of their fixtures making us unbeaten in the Easter Sports Festival. Northcliff High School won four of their five games and lost only one game.

Netball was the most played sport at the festival with regard to the number of fixtures. There were 56 netball fixtures played over the course of the Easter Sports Festival. Players played on four different courts and teams had the opportunity to play various other teams from across South Africa.

There were 17 teams that participated in netball fixtures. Of these, 15 represented individual schools. Of those games played by participating schools, the most successful team was Diocesan School for Girls, Grahamstown as they played six fixtures and won all six of their fixtures. As a result, they were unbeaten in the Easter Sports Festival. Other teams that did well are Trinity House and Krugersdorp High School who both won six of their seven fixtures. St Stithians Girls' College, St Peter's College, and Bryanston High School who all won five of their seven games.

Access the full list of netball results here.

The festival hockey games were exciting: players participated in an action-packed 60 minutes of pure hockey against various teams. We were happy to be able to stream live games on Monday 28 March 2016. You can still access the streams of the following games which were played on Astro 1 on Monday 28 March 2016:

• St Stithians Boys' College vs Pearson High School played at 08h00
• St Stithians Girls' College va Pearson High School played at 09h10
• Hoërskool Menlopark vs Epworth High School played at 10h40
• Pretoria Boys' High School vs Pearson High School played at 11h50
• St Andrew's School for Girls vs St Cyprian's High School played at 13h20
• St Stithians Boys' College vs St Andrew's College played 14h50

There were 10 boys' teams that participated in this year's hockey fixtures. Six of the teams played five games and four teams played four games. Of the teams that played five games, Pretoria Boys' High School had the best run with four wins and one draw – one of these wins was a 9-0 win over Durban High School. As a result, they were unbeaten in the Easter Sports Festival. St Andrew's College also did well with three wins and two loses.

Of the teams that played four games, Westville Boys' High School had the best run with three wins and a draw. As a result, they too were unbeaten in the Festival. Wynberg Boys' High School also enjoyed a good run wth three wins and one loss.

There were eight girls' teams that participated in this year's hockey fixtures. Six of the teams played five games and two teams played four games. Of the teams that played five games, Pearson High School had the best run with five wins – one of these wins was a 6-1 win over St Andrew's School for Girls. As a result, Pearson were unbeaten in the Easter Sports Festival.

Access all the full list of hockey results here.

2016 was the inaugural year of the cross country events. The Cross Country involved a voluntary 2km run for all Junior Prep children. The Junior Prep participants were are all in Grades R, 1, and 2. There was also a run for teachers.

The schools that participated in the cross country are Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, Bryanston High School, King Edward VII School, Pretoria Boys' High School, St Stithians Boys' College, St Stithians Girls' College, and Trinity House.

Most of the festival rugby games had the grandstands filled with supporters hoping to see their team claim a victory. There was great #SaintsSpirit at the Old Boys' 7s game where the OSA Old Boys played the Durban High School Old Boys. Our Old Boys managed to win the game 22 – 0. After this, our first rugby team played Durban Boys' High School. Unfortunately, we lost the game by one point. The final score was Saints 16 – 17 DBHS.

There were 12 teams that participated in the rugby fixtures. Each team played three fixtures over the three Easter Sports Festival days. The most successful teams were Grey High School who won all their festival games. As a result, they were both unbeaten in the Easter Sports Festival. Wynberg Boys' High School, though they didn't win all three of their games, were also unbeaten as they drew one of their fixtures. St Stithians Boys' College, Durban High School, and St Andrew's College all won two of their three games.

Access the full list of rugby results here.

View albums of great photos captured at the festival on our Facebook page. Photographs were taken by Wessel Oosthuizen and by our talented Photographic Club students from the two colleges.

Thank you to all our generous sponsors for your support. Thank you to all our vendors. Here is a full list of all the sponsors and vendors for the festival.

Thank you to all our dedicated staff, parents, and alumni who helped make this Festival such a success. It could not have happened without you.