The Glenwood 1st Water Polo team competed in the prestigious 13th Annual Jam Clifton Water Polo Tournament this weekend from 21st Sept to 24 Sept 2017.
They faced Kearsney (8-0), St David’s (7-3) and Reddam (4-0) in their pool games on Thursday and Friday, with comfortable wins in all three games. The QF game was played against Westville on Saturday 23rd September. With a team focused on getting to the finals, some cracker shots were scored with Diego Rodrigues scoring 3 of the goals and some awesome saves by Alex van Rooyen, the final score was 10-4.
In the Semi-Finals the team faced St John’s, this proved to be a tough game. The St John’s team matched goal for goal and fought hard against the Glenwood team. At half time it was even at 4-4 but in the last 2 chukkas, the stamina and heart of the Glenwood team pulled through, with multiple goals by Joshua Jacoby and Gabriel Stopford, the team finished with a win of 6-4 which meant they would be once again facing the formidable Clifton team in the finals on Sunday 24th September.
With Clifton School having won this tournament 7 times since 2005, they were the school to beat. Past winners also include Maritzburg, St John’s and Reddam. The Final match took place on Sunday 24th September at 13h00. The team were focused and determined that this year they would bring home the trophy. With new coaches Glenwood Old Boy, Donn Stewart and Lee-ann Keet, they were ready for the challenge ahead. It was a tense game to start but with a cracker of a 1st goal by Luke MacDonald early on Glenwood took the lead. With 2 more goals by Joshua Jacoby and a great shot by Slade Du Randt, they went into half time with just a marginal lead for Glenwood of 4-3. Clifton was fighting hard to defend their title. The 3rd chukka started off very tense with Glenwood fighting to get a lead on Clifton, with goals from Gabriel Stopford and Diego Rodrigues, the chukka ended with a 6-3 lead. With the start of the 4th Chukka the team knew that they would have to fight hard to keep the determined Clifton team at bay, Clifton scored 2 more goals but with another 2 goals by Gabriel Stopford and James Livingstone and some awesome saves by keeper Alex Van Rooyen who was superb throughout the whole tournament, the Glenwood team were victorius with an 8-5 win. Winning the tournament for the first time, Gabriel Stopford was named Defender of the Tournament.
The Team, Coaches, School and Parents are exceptionally proud of these boys and the determination and heart that they displayed throughout.
A great big thank you to the Coaches, Management and Supporters of Glenwood.
Report and photos by Mrs C Stopford