Fixtures for Grey Festival
The Eastern Cape’s top rugby schools will square off against a powerful group of opponents from outside its borders in a fascinating mix of fixtures in the Standard Bank Grey High Rugby Festival on 21 and 23 March 2020.
As teams like Selborne, St Andrew’s and Framesby join the hosts in defending Eastern Cape honour, formidable visiting schools such as Glenwood, Westville, Jeppe and Bishops will ensure there is no easy passage to victory.
In particular, Glenwood should provide some of the highlights of the festival as they have perennially been one of KwaZulu-Natal’s top teams and will have blockbuster matches against Dale College and St Andrew’s.
Grey will also have their work cut out for them over the two days. They will finish off the first day’s programme against Cape Town rivals SACS and will bring the curtain down on the festival with Monday’s encounter against the dangerous Jeppe outfit from Johannesburg.
Another extremely interesting match-up will take place when Grahamstown team St Andrew’s take on their Cape Town rivals, Bishops. This long-standing contest began way back in 1896, won by Bishops, and has regularly produced thrilling rugby between teams who both place their emphasis on the running game. Bishops enjoyed a winning streak from 2014 to 2018 before the Andreans won 42-22 last year in a typically exciting encounter. They play the main curtain-raiser on the opening day and it should attract a capacity crowd.
Besides their match against Grey, Jeppe will be preparing themselves for a pair testing fixtures as their first game is against another Eastern Cape powerhouse in Selborne. This will be a repeat of last year’s festival when the Johannesburg boys snatched a 19-15 victory by scoring a try in the last moments of the match.
Framesby, one of PE’s top sides, will also face a challenge of considerable proportions as they play Westville in the second match on day one. This will be followed by a Monday encounter against the Selbornians.
Dale are another team who will have their credentials tested. Capable of playing entertaining rugby, they will need to show their mettle when they conclude their festival with a Monday clash against Bishops after the opening game with Glenwood.
With age-group teams included in the festival, a total of 67 matches at five fields will be played during the course of the two days.
Senior Team Fixtures
21 March 2020
Philip Field
08.00: Parktown Boys’ High vs Kingswood College
09.10: Hoërskool Framesby vs Westville Boys’ High
10.20: Queen’s College vs Muir College
11.40: Selborne College vs Jeppe High School for Boys
12.50: Dale College vs Glenwood
14.00: St Andrew’s College vs Bishops
15.20: Grey High vs SACS
Pollock Oval
11.40: Clifton College vs Hoërskool Nico Malan
12.50: Hudson Park High School vs Graeme College
14.00: Grey Unicorns vs SACS 2nd
15.20: Woodridge College vs Itembelihle Comprehensive School
23 March 2020
Philip Field
08.00: Muir College vs Hudson Park
09.10: Grey Unicorns vs Itembelihle
10.20: St Andrew’s College vs Glenwood
11.40: Queen’s vs Westville
12.50: Dale vs Bishops
14.00: Framesby vs Selborne
15.20: Grey High vs Jeppe
Pollock Oval
12.50: Nico Malan vs Parktown
14.00: Kingswood vs Clifton
15.20: Graeme vs Woodridge
***Home Bases
Port Elizabeth: Framesby, Grey, Itembelihle, Woodridge
East London: Hudson Park, Selborne
Grahamstown: Graeme, Kingswood, St Andrew’s
Humansdorp: Nico Malan
King William’s Town: Dale
Queenstown: Queen’s
Uitenhage: Muir
Durban: Clifton, Glenwood, Westville
Cape Town: Bishops, SACS
Johannesburg: Jeppe, Parktown
Caption: Grey High’s Marco Nortjé goes on the charge in their match against Northwood at the Standard Bank Grey High Rugby Festival in 2019. This year Grey will play against SACS and Jeppe in the festival on March 21 and 23.
Photo: Grey High School
From Neale Emslie
