The penultimate tournament gets underway in the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge with Ladysmith High School hosting the uMvoti and oThukela Regional on Saturday 24 May. The tournament that travels to ten regions across KwaZulu Natal will stop at Ladysmith before heading to Newcastle for the final regional, next weekend. The victorious team from each regional will then head to the Grand Finals which takes place at St Mary’s D.S.G. in Kloof in July. One of the smaller tournaments, this year sees it grow to seven teams with the inclusion of Hamilton School. Joining the host, Ladysmith and Hamilton are Domino Servite School; Estcourt High School; Greytown High School; Wartburg Kirchdorf School and Wembley College.The challenge will be formatted into a round robin, with each team meeting each other in a quick fire 20 minute game. The first game tips off with Ladysmith, who are defending champions, taking on the newcomers at 8am. After 21 games, the top two teams will meet again in the regional final, to reveal the 2025 champion.

En route to the regional final, a winning team will log 4 points, while teams that draw with both having netted an equal number of goals will earn themselves 2 points, while a goalless draw notches up only 1 point for both teams. A loss will record zero points on the scorecard. A recent inclusion to the rules at the challenge is a maximum of seven goals being scored by a dominating team. This area has produced five teams that have represented the uMvoti and oThukela Regional at the Grand Finals. Wartburg have travelled to Kloof the most with five appearances, followed by Ladysmith with three, and having won the last two years back-to-back and hoping to make it a hattrick. Wembley College have their name engraved on the trophy twice while Greytown High School and Domino Servite have once.

The successful team from this region will head to the Grand Finals where they will meet the eight teams that already have reserved their berth, St Mary’s D.S.G. (Highway Regional); newcomer Maris Stella (Durban Central Regional); Epworth School (Pietermaritzburg Central Regional); St Anne’s School (Pietermaritzburg North Regional); the second newcomer, Kingsway High School (Durban South Regional); Ashton International College (Durban North Regional); Felixton College (North Coast Regional) and most recently, St Patrick’s College (Southern KZN Regional).Those unable to get to the pitch to watch the action, good news – SuperSport Schools will be streaming the games on their mobile app, or website. For more information on the tournament, you can follow the Challenge on various social media platforms.