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The Netball Team that travelled to South Africa
Hereford Netball Academy South Africa Tour 2010
22nd May 2010
On the 30th March 2010, 12 students from Hereford Sixth Form College Netball Academy were invited to the Waterkloof Schools Sports Festival near Pretoria in South Africa. The netball festival was over three separate days and Waterkloof had invited schools from all over South Africa but Hereford Sixth Form College was the only English College so was expecting tough competition.
The girls arrived on a beautiful glorious South African day and were thrown straight into training to try and acclimatise ready for the following day’s matches. However, the weather was short lived and throughout the night the rain came.
The next day, with clouds in the sky but still warm temperatures, the girls played four 40-minute matches, which were difficult and physically demanding. The girls won one of the four played, but fully challenged all the teams throughout. The girls found that the game was played slightly differently and found that the umpires did not like players making any interceptions around the circle. We also found difficulty with the netball posts which were different again, causing our star shooters Helen Hancock, Kate Morgan, Charlie Evans and Julianne Clark to change their shooting technique quickly. The girls challenged every team and played extremely well considering the altitude, heat and the opposition’s physicality.
The following day was a rest day and the students were taken to Pretoria Mall for shopping and lunch. This was lucky as the rain was still falling.
Saturday came after a well-deserved rest at Pretoria Mall and was match day again - but this time the sun was out and the girls were feeling the heat. The girls had another four 40- minute matches to cope with, but this time in the sunshine - which really tested the girls’ fitness. The team worked hard and won one match, drew 1 and lost two, again all close matches. Unfortunately one student was injured and taken to hospital suffering from torn tendons with ligament damage during the third match, which saw the squad go from 12 to 11 but still remaining strong.
Sunday saw the whole tour party travel to Sun City which was around two hours from Pretoria. Here students were able to explore a magnificent complex of business parks, hotels, casinos, arcades, restaurants and most importantly a water park. On the return from Sun City, the tour party relaxed with a BBQ in preparation for the final day of fixtures.
Monday’s matches came with heavy rain and many teams decided to go home early. However, there were still three teams that wanted to stay and play the ‘English’ team. With the bad weather to our advantage, the girls won two out of the three matches played and only lost by 10 goals. Although the weather caused the day to be cut short and finish early, the girls played hard right to the end.
The following day, the tour group travelled to Rietvlei Nature reserve where the students were lucky enough to see Rhino, Springbox, Zebras and Ostrich. We then went for lunch and a tour of Loftus Versveld, the home of the Blue Bulls, which is also one of the World Cup stadiums.
The South African netball teams were strong and physical but Hereford Netball Academy worked extremely hard, showing determination and proving that they could hold their own so much so they had invitations from various other schools to return. Throughout the tour, the coaches and the players selected players of the match. The team’s player was Anna Mulderrig, also the Academy's Captain, and the coaches'player was May Blackman-Howard.