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Norwich Union hockey clubs fourth trip to South Africa took us back to Cape Town and Port Elizabeth with participation in the KC March national inter-club tournament hosted by the Eastern Province Hockey Federation in Port Elizabeth. For the first time we tourists fielded a ladies team in addition to the usual men's and it was they who enjoyed the most success, by winning the ladies main event playing under the banner of PE Tech. In fact during the course of their six matches they scored 23 goals and conceded none. The (rather considerable) input by the South African players contingent should not be over looked however. By contrast the men won only one of their four fixtures scoring 5 goals while conceding 12 and were not able to reproduce the previous years finish of fifth place. Their one victory was a 3-1 win against the United team from Kimberley with goals coming from Ben Miles and two from guest tour player Pete Ellis. However the men did not leave empty handed as the tournament organisers very generously awarded each member of the squad a small trophy in appreciation of their continued support of the event. We flew in to Cape Town international airport at 0630 and promptly made our way to our accommodation for the next two nights - the Breakwater Lodge, adjacent the V&A waterfront. With many new to the South African experience the popular tourist activities were taken in and upon our arrival in Cape Town on the Monday morning our first activity was wine tasting at two of Stellenbosch's wine farms - Lanzerac then Spier. The following day half the group went on an organised beach party while the others visited Boulders Bay, the Cape Peninsular National Park and Cape Point. Five members of our party were keen to shark cage dive and departed in the early hours of Wednesday morning for Gansbaai. They would meet us at Knysna, our halfway stop along the Garden Route on our way to Port Elizabeth, later in the day. Prior to beginning our journey to Port Elizabeth those not diving with sharks spent spent the morning in Cape Town. Twelve of us went on an hours inflatable powerboat ride with Atlantic Adventures, taking in Granger Bay, Sea Point, Bantry Bay, the famous Clifton and Camps Bay beaches before returning to the V&A waterfront. That night after completing the best part of 500km we enjoyed a very nice stay at the Wayside Inn in the very popular town of Knysna. Later on Thursday afternoon we completed the roadtrip and arrived in Port Elizabeth where we were to stay for the next six nights in Humewood at the Bantry Executive apartments. That night we enjoyed the first of a number of parties organised by tour member and native Port Elizabethan, Garnett Jones and his family. After three days of the hockey tournament the Monday was spent lounging about on Kings beach. Tuesday involved a guided tour of playing kit manufacturer Fain's factory and premises while the larger part of the day was spent on a game drive at the Bushman Sands reserve , Alicedale. Half the group had decided that following the long Garden Route trip they would rather to fly back to Cape Town than drive, which they did mid morning on Wednesday. Their journey time of 1 hour ten minutes was in stark contrast to the rest of ours at roughly 8 hours! Our final night was spent at the Cape Castle hotel, again ideally sited near the V&A waterfront, before flying home on Thursday morning. The only question now is whether the ladies defend their title next year in Johannesburg? Tour youngsters Rob Whiting and Adam Sayer certainly seemed to enjoy themselves to the full with the latter having a most memorable 18th birthday! Finally many thanks to Eatern Province Hockey Feferation, 3D Gelvan HC, Fain, White Knights, Slazenger, Peoplemovers, Archant and Hockeysport |
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