The South Africa men’s and women’s hockey teams produced cohesive performances on day two of the Greenfields Africa Hockey Championships at Randburg Hockey Stadium Saturday.
In the late game, the SA men beat Botswana 30-0 after leading 14-0 at half-time while the SA women beat Nigeria 15-0 after leading 7-0 at half-time.
The SA men’s goals went to Pierre de Voux (6), Julian Hykes (3), Matt Guise-Brown (4), Brandon Panther (6), Jonty Robinson (2), Jethro Eustice (3), Tim Drummond, Daniel Bell, Natius Malgraff, Dan Sibbald, Richard Pautz and Miguel da Graca.
The SA women scored through Bernie Coston (2), Lilian du Plessis (5), Jade Mayne (3), Lisa Deetlefs, Candice Manuel, Toni Marks (2) and Tanya Britz.
Next up, the SA women tackle Namibia at 7pm Monday before meeting Zimbabwe at 4.45pm Tuesday. The SA men’s next match is against Ghana at 7pm Tuesday.
Just 27 seconds into the match against Botswana, De Voux smashed the ball into the back of the net, this after the SA men had probed with clinical precision down the left. In the second minute Robinson set up De Voux for another quality finish (2-0).
The challenge for SA was to follow up Friday night’s 16-0 defeat of Zimbabwe with another convincing performance that was reflected on the scoresheet and in the coaching staff’s assessment.
SA were making good use of width and space, and De Voux completed his hat-trick in the fifth minute with another assured strike (3-0).
A neat Hykes tap-in rounded off another quality move along the left channel for 4-0 in the ninth minute.
There was some joy for Botswana when keeper Thabatse Mogorosi made two good saves either side of South Africa’s third and fourth goals.
Guise-Brown’s back-to-back penalty corner (PC) rockets rattled the backboard for a 6-0 scoreline inside 12 minutes.
Panther rounded off a brace of field goals within seconds of each other in the 15th minute for an 8-0 scoreline.
Although the quality fell off slightly in the second quarter, further goals went to Robinson, Jethro Eustice (two PCs), captain Tim Drummond, Guise-Brown (for a PC hat-trick inside 30 minutes) and De Voux for the 14-0 half-time score.
Other results – Women: Kenya 2 (Teresa Nekesa Juma, Audrey Omaido) Zimbabwe 0; Ghana 1 (Nafisatu Umaru) Namibia 0. Men: Ghana 5 (Johnny Botsio 2, Michael Kofi Baiden, Salya Nsalbini, Elikem Akaba) Namibia 0.
Sunday fixtures – Men: Kenya vs Nigeria (14h30); Egypt vs Tanzania.
