SDMI NEDBANK CHALLENGE CUP DAY 2 WRAP-UP

The 2025 St David’s Marist Inanda Nedbank Challenge Cup will go to a local team after the last remaining out-of-town sides – Hilton and Brebner – were knocked out by St David’s Marist Inanda and King Edward VII School, respectively, in the quarter finals on Saturday. The title has gone to Bloemfontein for the last two years, to Grey College last year, and to Brebner in 2024.

KES beat Brebner 2-1 and St David’s beat Hilton 3-0. In the other quarters, Jeppe beat St Benedict’s 2-1, while the St John’s vs St Stithians tie was as passionate as clashes between those two usually are. In the end, St John’s won in a penalty shoot-out after the score was 1-1 at the end of the game. Jeppe play St John’s and St David’s face KES in the semifinals at 9am on Sunday.

Day three of the tournament in given over to classification games. The four losing quarterfinalists now go into playoff for positions five to eight: Brebner vs Hilton and St Stithians vs St Benedict’s. The teams that didn’t make the quarterfinals playoff for positions 9 to 16. The final round of matches, including the final and 3rd place playoff, is scheduled for 1.50pm.

The under-15 competition is played as a festival. At the conclusion of the pool stages the teams that finished in the same position in the four pools all play each other in a round-robin format, with the results counting for nothing at all. The results of the 1st place finishers’ first round were: Jeppe 2 St Peter’s 1, Grey College 1 Hilton 1, St Alban’s 1 St Stithians 0, St David’s 1 KES 0. 

The St David’s campus was bursting at the seams on Saturday as over 1 000 players and officials, medical personnel etc plus parents and supporters crowded round the fields. It was a riot of colour. And of sound, with many of the teams singing in unison as they warmed up, or moved from point to point. You don’t get that at many other sporting events. 

The visible support of Nedbank has made a real difference this year. The diversity, the team spirit, and the sense that everyone is having a great time, tell you that the beautiful game is indeed beautiful, and that its future is in safe hands at places like the St David’s Challenge Cup.

BY THEO GARRUN