The second day of the Ken Short under-14 water polo festival passed, thankfully, without a weather interruption and the event, in the way that these sorts of tournaments do, took on a life of its own.
There’s a rhythm that everyone gets into – the teams rouse themselves a bit before their next game starts and go down to the learn-to-swim pool adjacent to the main one for a few laps of warmup swimming and, being under-14s in this case, mostly some horseplay. A final talk, then the final whistle of the game before and a few shooting drills before the refs emerge from somewhere high up in the stands and the process starts all over again.
Everything about school activities should be about education, and the lessons learned through participating in a big tournament like this one have been missed in the two Covid years. It’s all about “hurry up and wait”, mostly. There are long periods of hanging about followed, inevitably, by your matches in quick succession, and you have to use that free time constructively.
In more serious, senior tournaments, you strategically pick which opponents to watch in action, plan for your next encounter, and generally keep your head in the game. At the Ken Short I suspect it’s more about stopping the kids from injuring themselves messing about and from stuffing themselves with unhealthy goodies from the tuckshop.
It’s a start for these newcomers, an experience that the two year groups ahead of them never got, and one got the feeling at Jeppe these last two days that the coaches, and parents, realise that and they are making the most of it.
In the water, there was a definite improvement in the overall standard of play as the teams got more time to know each other and the benefits of remedial coaching followed by a quick turn-around and back into action, as happens at a tournament, kicked in. There were also clear signs of fatigue towards the end of the day when the boys had to play their fourth game in, in a big pool, in one and a half days. And there are lessons to be learnt from that new situation too.
The gap between the top teams here and the rest was again apparent. Michaelhouse entered the fray on Friday and showed they are a force to be reckoned with. They went down by one goal to Bishops, but were very impressive in their other encounter. There were comfortable wins for St David’s and Rondebosch in both of their outings.
I’d heard that the Ken Short is a festival that everyone wants to go to and on Friday I saw why. Tournament director, Lucky Letshabo and George Ramutle, Jeppe’s transport manager scrambled to meet requests for busses and combis to ferry teams across to the other two tournaments or out for night team functions. They did it with grace and quiet efficiency.
My highlights of days one and two both happened after the official day’s play had ended. On Thursday it was the massive (25 per side, I’d guess) game of touch rugby played in the dark on the cricket oval after supper. And on Friday it was the extra game arranged between the coaches of St John’s and Martitzburg College. They told the organisers (who had been at the pool since 6.30am and were really ready to go home by then) that they didn’t need referees – they would share the reffing between themselves – and not to worry about someone operating the electronic scoreboard, they wouldn’t be keeping score any way.
That’s what it’s all about.
Results
Michaelhouse 9 SACS 2, St David’s 3 Kearsney 1, Hilton 8 St Stithians 3, Bishops 5 Michaelhouse 4, Selborne 3 Affies1, DHS 2 St Alban’s 1, Pretoria 5 Parktown 4, Maritzburg 5 Westville 0, KES 6 St Stithians 5, Bishops 5 Clifton 2, St David’s 15 Westville 4, Rondesbosch 5 Hilton 0, SACS 9 KES 4, Michaelhouse 10 St Stithians 3, St Alban’s 6 St Benedict’s 3, St John’s 3 Selborne 3, Grey College 8 Jeppe 2, Martizburg 8 DHS 1, St Benedict’s 6 Pretoria 4, Selborne 10 Parktown 4, Kearnsey 9 Clifton 1, Hilton 6 Grey College 4, Rondebosch 7 KES 1, Clifton 6 Grey College 4, Affies 7 Jeppe 3.
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