The Chronicle 2022

The annual tour to Bloemfontein to participate in the prestigious St Andrew’s festival is always special. This is the premier schools squash festival in the country, with champion teams from every province participating. We are one of the few schools that are able to enter a first and second team into the festival. It is always an eye-opener for the boys as they realize the level of squash in the country. We played in two domestic KwaZulu-Natal schools tournaments during the first quarter. These tournaments ran concurrently, the Super 8 competition and the KwaZulu-Natal schools selection tournament (top five players per school). Our domestic results were brilliant in the Super 8 competition and again established us as front runners in the province. Due to our depth, we comfortably won the Super 8 competition this year. The KwaZulu-Natal schools selection tournament was a closely fought tournament but our boys pulled through winning all of their matches and winning the KwaZulu-Natal school selection tournament. As a result of winning the KwaZulu-Natal school selection tournament Michaelhouse first squash team represented KwaZulu-Natal at the SA Top Schools Squash Tournament hosted this year by Selborne College in East London. This is an extremely prestigious event and the boys must be congratulated on making it to the finals. The tournament is traditionally hosted by Epworth but this year Selborne College is celebrating its 150th year and they have been given the privilege of hosting this year’s tournament. We did not achieve the results we were hoping for but we have built a solid foundation. We held a successful School Squash Championship this year. Joshua Hoatson and Nathan Hoatson played in the finals of the senior school champs. It was a hard-fought battle between the brothers. The match lasted just over an hour on a hot summer’s evening. There was incredible fetching from both players making it exceptionally difficult for either player to kill the ball. The boys must be congratulated on the spirit the match was played in. In the end, there can be one winner. Joshua won the match and took the school champ’s title three games to two. We welcomed Old Boy, Mr Bruere Venter, back to Michaelhouse this year and he shares his feelings about Michaelhouse squash in his first year. “The standard of Michaelhouse squash has been very respectable for many years now. The first team sets a high standard for themselves and plays very competitively both in and out of the province. This provides an excellent example for eager juniors who aim to reach and even surpass the same competitive level. We plan on building on this standard and reaching even greater heights in the coming future.” The third and fourth quarters are very quiet for schools squash, we did manage to play a few fixtures against our traditional rivals. It has been another rewarding year for Michaelhouse squash in general, thanks to the committed contributions of all our coaches: Mary McMichael (U15) and Bruere Venter (U16), along with Daniel Smith.

SQUASH Back Row: Justin Higginson, Anesu Nduru, Nathan Hoatson, Murray Baker Front Row (seated): Noah Bedingham, Mr Matthew Higginson, Joshua Hoatson

Interhouse squash: Founders

KWAZULU-NATAL REPRESENTATIVES U19A: Joshua Hoatson and Nathan Hoatson U16A: Justin Higginson U16B: Anesu Nduru and Benjamin Harper U14: Matt Stanistreet and Henry Love quash is a quick and exciting game played by active gregarious young men. It takes strength, skill, vigour, and fitness to master the skills needed for squash. The boys who represent Michaelhouse at squash are a special breed of boy who put in more hours by themselves than any other sport code at the school. The boys who don’t play squash don’t quite understand the level of dedication that is required in the sport. The first quarter, as always, was another busy one for squash at Michaelhouse, as we had the Super 8 Schools League, as well as the KwaZulu-Natal pre-season tournament and the St Andrews Festival (which the first team and second team attend). A good number of our boys participated in the pre season tournament. S

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