The Paul Roos Gimnasium (PRG) under-19A hockey team won their third international hockey title recenbtly.
They participated in the prestigious annual Spur International hockey festival in Cape Town. PRG were the defending champions going into the 2017 edition.
They opened their account on Wednesday 26 July against Parel Vallei and Stellenberg – winning both these encounters 3-0. Thursday 27 July saw the Maroon Machine take on two teams from the UK in Felsted and Merchant Taylors.
The young men from Stellenbosch sailed passed their international opponents and moved into the last pool match on Friday with much confidence.
Friday is traditionally known as quarter-finals day with the top two teams in their pools progressing to the Friday Lights – Quarter Finals.
Paul Roos managed to brush aside Clifton (Durban) in their last pool match to progress into the quarter-final versus Merchant Taylors’ 1st team at the home of hockey, Hartleyvale.
The quarter-final was a knock-out match and the tension was for all to see. PRG put together a stellar second half display to beat their much fancied English opposition 3-1, which meant they were into Sunday’s semi-final against Windhoek High School from Namibia.
The semi-final was a pulsating encounter between two very different styles of hockey, but once again the PRG u-19As held their nerve to win 3-1 and make it to the final for the third year in a row.
The final match of the hockey festival was a repeat of the 2016 final between Wynberg Boys’ High School and Paul Roos Gymnasium. These two power houses of schools hockey had many SA School representatives in their respective line-ups and the match was bound to deliver an encounter to remember. PRG opened the scoring with a slick penalty corner and captain William Eveliegh was called in to making some superb saves to keep his team in the clash. The second half produced some enthralling counter-hockey from both teams which made for huge entertainment for the full stadium of supporters. PRG managed to score another goal and then went on to win their third and unprecedented title.
