It was inevitable that the Highveld would eventually deliver one of its thunderstorm masterpieces and dump it on our Ken Short Festival, and that happened at about 2 O’clock on Saturday. It sent everyone scurrying for cover, and then had them hanging around, waiting to see if and when the action would resume.
The new lightning protocols that all schools have had to adopt prohibit a return to the field until half an hour after the last strike within a 15km radius of the school is recorded. That was nowhere close to happening at Jeppe on Saturday, so a damp and saddened bunch of boys and parents had an early afternoon off.
The mere fact that no-one wanted to go home and the teams due to play were eagerly waiting for the all-clear shows that despite this being a “friendly” festival, showed that the boys and coaches are very competitive and wanted nothing more than to get at each other.
Earlier, the action seemed to have tightened up on the 1st two days' showing, with closer score-lines and some very competitive games.
I know we shouldn’t be looking at who is winning and who is losing but, so far, Bishops, Rondebosch and Michaelhouse have been the standout teams on display. All three recorded comfortable wins before the day came to a premature end, preventing them from most likely recording three more. St David’s, another of the impressive sides on show were supposed to play Michaelhouse later in the day and that result would have been very interesting.
I took a turn at the other two Joburg Festivals, KES and Parktown, in the morning and was reminded that water polo festivals are actually very serious affairs. The atmosphere, especially in the magnificent King Edward indoor facility, was electric and as the knockout stages approached, winning was very important to those boys and those coaches.
Like it or not, that is the future that the boys at the Ken Short Festival are being prepared for. This festival has been a very necessary return to normality, and an introduction to competitive polo, away from the quiet, familiar surroundings of their own school pools. Things are going to get more serious for them from now on.
Until then, they have one more morning of more (relatively) relaxed fun in what we all hope will be the Joburg sunshine.
Results
Maritzburg 6 St Benedict’s 3, Affies 7 Pretoria 1, Selborne 9 Jeppe 2, St Benedict’s 4 Westville 1, Kearney 4 Hilton 3, Rondebosch 7 SACS 3, Bishops 12 Affies 1, Michaelhouse 8 Clifton 3, SACS 8 Hilton 4, Jeppe 13 DHS 4, Grey College 9 Westville 2, Selborne 7 St Alban’s 1, Pretoria 5 Maritzburg 2, St John’s 8 Parktown 0. Michaelhouse 6 KES 1.
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