adminHarare Inter-schools (Golden Girls) Hockey Tournament at Arundel School.
It was a tight final against Girls College of Bulawayo, the teams being 1-1 after extra-time and still level after the first set of five penalty strokes for each team.
Eventually, Chisipite pulled ahead in the sudden death penalty strokes to reverse last year’s result with the same two teams.
The same very tight game was seen in the Silver Girls trophy final, with Peterhouse II pipping Midlands Christian College in the penalty strokes after a goalless draw.
Eighteen schools, fielding 24 teams, took part this year in the Golden and Silver Girls tournaments.
The Golden Girls Trophy was presented in 1980 by the City of Harare to the Zimbabwe Women’s Hockey Association to commemorate the gold medal won by Zimbabwe’s women’s hockey team at the Moscow Olympics.
The trophy is competed every year by first teams from all affiliated secondary schools in Zimbabwe.
To help cope with the growing number of teams and allow more participation, a Silver Girls trophy was later added.
While waiting for a full compliment of 24 schools, the six strongest schools are allowed to field a second team in the Silver event.
The tournament is the culmination of the winter term hockey season with affiliated schools playing each other in regional leagues.
The 12 teams competing for each trophy are divided into two pools of six, each team in each pool playing the other five.
The winners of each pool play the runners-up of the other pool and the third to sixth teams in each pool play the similar placed team in the other pool.
The third and fourth places for each trophy are decided in a play off, and then the tournament ended with the finals for the two trophies.
Each school plays at least six games during the three days of the festival, five within their pool, plus a decider with a team from the other pool in their trophy group to get the complete order of merit.
The two top teams in each pool get a seventh game.
With 76 hockey games to fit in, a lot of fields are needed which is one of the reasons Arundel has hosted the tournament for several years now, being the only Harare school able to stage four simultaneous senior hockey games.
Arundel is now also the first school in Zimbabwe that has upgraded one of its fields to full artificial turf and the tournament last weekend was the first opportunity many of the girls playing had to play on such turf.
The tournament in fact inaugurated this upgraded field.
The final order of merit was as follows:
Golden Girls
1.Chisipite
2.Girls College
3.Peterhouse
3.Harare Convent
5.Lomagundi College
6.Kyle College
7.Petra
8.Arundel
9.Hillcrest
9.Watershed
11.Gateway
12.Bulawayo Convent
Silver Girls
1.Peterhouse II
2.Midlands Christian College
3.Heritage
4.Girls College II
5.Chisipite II
6.Eaglesvale
7.St Johns College
8.Lomagundi II
9.South Eastern College
10.Goldridge
11.Arundel II
11.Harare Convent II
Pool A Results
H Convent 1, Gateway 0; Girls College 5, Hillcrest 0; Lomagundi 1, Petra 1; Girls College 3, Gateway 0; Hillcrest 1, Lomagundi 0; H Convent 3, Petra 1; Lomagundi 5, Gateway 0; Petra 1, Hillcrest 0; Girls College 2, H Convent 1; Petra 2, Gateway 0; H Convent 2, Hillcrest 1; Girls College 0, Lomagundi 0; Gateway 1, Hillcrest 1; Petra 0, Girls College 0; Lomagundi 5, H Convent 1; Arundel 3, Watershed 1; Chisipite 2, Peterhouse 1; Kyle 3, B Convent 1; Chisipite 2, Arundel 0; Peterhouse 4, B Convent 0; Kyle 1, Watershed 0; Arundel 1, B Convent 1; Peterhouse 1, Kyle 0; Chisipite 3, Watershed 0; Arundel 0, Kyle 0; Peterhouse 6, Watershed 0; Chisipite 8, B Convent 0; Peterhouse 1, Arundel 0; Chisipite 2, Kyle 0; Watershed 1, B.Convent 0.
Semi-finals
Girls College beat Peterhouse
Chisipite beat H Convent
Place play offs
3 v 3 in each pool – Lomagundi beat Kyle 2-0
4 v 4 – Petra beat Arundel 2-0
5 v 5 – Hillcrest and Watershed drew
6 v 6 – Gateway beat Byo Convent 2-1
Play-off for 3rd and 4th position (those who lost semi-finals)
Peterhouse and Harare Convent drew 1-1
Silver Girls Results
Heritage 2, H Convent II 0; ChisipiteII 0, StJ 0; Goldridge 1, Girls College II 1; Chisipite II 3, H Convent II 0; StJ 1, Goldridge 0; Heritage 2, Girls College II 1; H Convent II 1, Goldridge 0; Girls College II 1, StJ 0; Heritage 1, Chisipite II 0; Girls College II 6, H Convent II 0; Heritage 1, StJ 0; Chisipite II 3, Goldridge 0; StJ 1, H.Convent II 0; Girls College II 0, Chisipite 0; Heritage 1, Goldridge 0; Eaglesvale 1, Arundel II 0; Lomagundi II 1, Peterhouse II 1; SEC 2, MCC 1; Lomagundi II w/o Eaglesvale; Peterhouse II 4, SEC 0; MCC 1, Arundel II 0; Eaglesvale 3, SEC 1; Peterhouse II 3, MCC 3; Lomagundi II 1, Arundel II 1; Eaglesvale 1, MCC 1; Arundel II 0, Peterhouse II 1; Lomagundi II 2, SEC 0; Eaglesvale 0, Peterhouse II 0; MCC 1, Lomagundi II 0; Arundel II 0, SEC 0.
Semi-finals
MCC beat Heritage
Peterhouse II beat Girls College II
Play-offs
3 v 3: ChisipiteII beat Eaglesvale in penalty flicks (score was 0-0 at full time)
4 v 4: St Johns College beat Lomagundi II 2-1
5 v 5: SEC beat Goldridge 1-0
6 v 6: ArundelII drew 1-1 with Harare Convent II
Play-off for 3rd and 4th position: Heritage beat Girls’ College II 1-0.
Online Reporter