The inaugural Brian Baker 1st Girls Water Polo Tournament took place over the past weekend. Hosted by Kingswood College, Pieter Serfontein, head of sport at the school, said this will be an annual event for the 1st girls water polo sides.
Seven teams took place in the inaugural tournament, which started on Friday and ended on Sunday. In total there were 22 matches played over the weekend with teams playing up to six matches each.
“Brian Baker was instrumental in developing girls water polo at Kingswood and was a very popular teacher and coach here,” said Serfontein. Baker coached water polo at Kingswood until he passed away.
Schools 1st water polo sides which took part in the tournament were: Kingswood, DSG, Hudson Park High School, Stirling High School (East London), Collegiate Girls High School, Pearson High School (Port Elizabeth) and St Annes Diocesan College (Hilton, KwaZulu Natal).
Serfontein said the tournament went off well with an overall good standard of water polo played. He said the Kingswood tournament is one of few in the country where full length games are played. Matches consisted of 4 x 7-minute playing time/stop start chukkas.
A number of teams coaching staff commented on the high quality of reffing at the tournament. Top South African water polo referee and Olympic ref, Ian Melliar was also part of the team of officials at the weekends tournament. The Brian Baker Shield was awarded to Stirling who beat DSG in the final.
