2021 Ladies IPT Hockey Tournament Opening Day

791 days ago, before social distancing became a thing, the 2019 IPT got underway in Bloemfontein. In Bloemfontein it was the Northern Blues who emerged victorious winning in the final over the defending champions Southern Gauteng.

The defending champions opened the tournament in the first competitive provincial fixture in over two years. They took on the hosts second side in WP Pens, for whom many players were alongside each other for the first time. It was a fiercely contested match with the hosts being frustrated by their frugality in front of goal late on. Kim Hubach, playing in her 21st IPT incredibly got the champs off to a dream start before the superb Aimee Pote restored parity. It was the spark that would ignite a fire, unfortunately for Pens that fire was for Northern Blues who raced into a dominant 4-1 lead. Margeruite van Wyk, Kiara Fitzhenry and Tegan Fourie (in her Blues debut) put the result into comfort zone. It was a comfort zone that was tested momentarily by a second from Pote before van Wyk made sure it was feet up kind of comfort in terms of score line.

After we were treated to seven goals in a fun attacking fest, you may have expected a slightly more tentative, apprehensive match in the second of the group. SPAR KZN Raiders took on Free State, both looking to start off the tournament with a win like they had in 2019. But in truth Lilian du Plessis stole the plaudits, the headlines, the accolades and more in a display that underlines why she has been backed by a number of national coaches. The goalscoring machine netted four of the six for the KZN side as they romped to a 6-2 victory. Jess Lardant was in particularly pleasing form as Sulette Kotzee, and Tanya Britz scored what were ultimately consolation goals for the Free Staters.

Jess O’Connor, KZN Skipper, was stoked after the game:

“We were finding our connections; we had a great togetherness and the score line showed. We have had some good month of preparation building up to the tournament. You can see the trust in the structure is there. Its just so cool to be playing IPT again!”

Two games and 15 goals had given spectators watching live on the ES Media YouTube page some exciting action and quenched a rather massive thirst for action. But the hockey public are a passionate bunch and having witnessed attacking brilliance would love to have seen a defensive masterclass next. And Southern Gauteng and the SA U21 sides heard the call and combined to produce a riveting and tactical 1-0 game.

The goalscoring moment came from Kristen Paton. The Olympian picked up a poor injection from a penalty corner and as if time stood still, reshaped and shot into the bottom corner. Although both teams looked for the game’s second goal it was not to be as it was as triumph for the defensive patterns on the day.

It was back to goalscoring brilliance in the final game of the day as Ongi Mali was the star of the show netting her own hat-trick in leading Western Province to a 6-1 win over Eastern Province. Rosemary de Bruin had given the visitors a surprise lead in the first quarter but experienced power duo Jade Mayne and Tarryn Glasby overturned the deficit by the end of the first quarter.

Although they had to wait until the 34th minute for the third goal it always felt like a case of when rather than if, despite the resolute display of character from Eastern Province.

Quanita Bobbs, WP Hockey captain, shared afterwards:

“We wanted to send a message to the other teams, and we took a massive step in the right direction. We are very happy with the second half display particularly. Ultimately, we couldn’t have asked for more, it was a good start!”

An opening day that produced 23 goals and truly whet the appetite of all hockey lovers sets up the tournament, played in the classic quarter-final format, the perfect foundation. IPT is back and its great!