The 2025 Chronicle

ship of Messrs Snyman and Crawford helped them improve throughout the festival, leading to a fantastic overall season. Statistically, the U16A team remained competitive, with nine wins, a 56% result ratio and eleven players earning provincial colours. Excellent work done by the coaching staff ensured that the short-term future for Michaelhouse hockey is good. The U16C squad demonstrated their potential with a 60% result ratio, outscoring their opponents 27 to 19 across ten matches. U14 AGE GROUP The U14s displayed great heart and growth. The U14A team played 23 matches, securing 11 wins and two draws. Standout performances included a 5-0 victory over St Charles and a 2-0 win against Pretoria Boys. The U14B team also had a resilient year, achieving a 57% re sult ratio with a balanced record of three wins, four draws and four losses. The tutelage of Old Boy Dominic Leslie proved sen sational for these boys. Although the U14C team found the sea son more challenging, the focus remained on the spirit of the game and building technical foundations for the years ahead. The success of Michaelhouse hockey is increasingly measured by its result ratio (the percentage of matches won or drawn), which reflects the growing depth of the sport at the school. The school achieved an overall result ratio of 54%, with a win:loss ratio of 1.03, and we lost fewer games on average. These are slightly below the four-year average for these trends, but the significance is that these numbers were achieved by the upper teams (A and B), indicating that work needs to be done in the lower teams. In terms of long-term growth, compared to 2019, when the school faced 94 defeats in 169 matches, the 2025 results demonstrate a more stable and competitive foun dation across all levels. The 2025 season stands as a testament to the school’s long term strategy to improve its hockey, balancing elite perfor mance with the enjoyment of the game for all boys. We are in year two of the medium-term vision to achieve the best year that the school has seen.

10

0 0

9 0

1 0

0% 0%

U14C U14D TOTAL

1

174 72

79

21

41.4%

FIRST XI HOCKEY

With ten players returning from the 2024 season and the same coaching staff in volved for a second successive season, the 2025 first-team hockey season was set to be an exciting one. We started pre-season in February with six high-intensity weeks of technical and tactical astro sessions, short corner sessions and HPC sessions – all of this on top of the boys’ academic, cultural and summer sport commitments, which meant that managing our players week by week was critical. Having won all three of our practice matches against St Charles, Hilton and College we were set to open our season with North wood away. Unfortunately, they had to postpone, so the game became a midweek Punchbowl clash. There is no better way to launch a season than an electric Punchbowl under lights. Our season started with a bang. Goals from Yeadon, Love and Deutscher had us 3-1 up. Northwood pulled one back, but we responded immediately – Deutscher and Love scored again, making it 5-2. A shakey finish saw us concede two late goals, turning a comfortable lead into a tense 5-4 win. A clear re minder: you can’t take your foot off the gas at this level. But the positives were clear – we were not going to be short of goals in 2025. DHS made the trip up the following week, giving us a shot at back-to-back wins against two of KZN’s top sides. But we were far too loose defensively and trailed 2-0 at half-time. Chasing the game, we conceded late in the third quarter. A penalty stroke from a short corner gave us one back, but DHS sealed it 4-1. Tough lessons learnt, and our focus shifted to the Coastal Cup. We headed down to Durban for our first tour of the season, making our debut at the Coastal Cup. We faced Parel Vallei first up, and a poor start meant we found ourselves 2-0 down ear ly on. A strike from Deutscher fell kindly for Simukonda, who slotted it from the penalty spot. Parel responded again, and we trailed 3-1 going into the final quarter. But in what became a season-defining 15 minutes, we scored three unanswered goals to seal a huge 4-3 win. Next up was a sharp Garsfontein side. It was a tight, tactical battle, and we struggled to get our short corners going. Even tually, Springate stepped up and buried a flick into the side board. We had a chance to go 2-0 up with a penalty corner on the final whistle but couldn’t convert. Still, a massive win that gave us real momentum. Following a win versus St Alban’s we played Paul Roos in our final match of the cup. Two unbeaten teams, a big-stage clash, and a real chance for us to make a statement. Unfor tunately, we started far too timidly. We conceded twice in the first quarter, once in the second, and again in the third to fall 4-0 behind. We pulled two back in the final quarter, the first

RESULTS TEAM

P

W

L

D

WR %

23

16

4

3

69.6%

1ST XI

17

12

2

3

70.6%

2ND XI

10

3

6

1

30%

3RD XI

10

3

5

2

30%

4TH XI

4

0

3

0

0%

5TH XI

18

9

8

1

50.0%

U16A

17

6

8

3

35.3%

U16B

10

5

5

0

50%

U16C

10

2

7

1

200%

U16D

10

2

8

0

20%

U16E

23

11

10

2

47.8%

U14A

11

3

4

4

27.3%

U14B

171